GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

So, if anyone out there in the greater Seattle area has something like an ATI Radeon HD 3850, 3870, or 4670 looking for a new home at a fair price...

Hey everyone, I'm running Windows 7 32-bit
AMD Phenom II X3 710 Processor, 2.0GB DDR2, ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series
I've got a Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 FA motherboard and some random 420W power supply... I'm thinking about picking up an AMD Radeon HD 5750 1GB and a Corsair CX430 power supply. Is my current setup decent enough for that card, or should I look for something better? Also, will that Corsair power supply handle the GPU just fine?😉

Don't even think about picking up a Corsair unit; that CX series is absolute garbage. You’d be much better off grabbing a Seasonic 430W instead. As for the GPU, what kind of budget are you actually looking to drop on it?

Well, it really depends on how much you're willing to drop on a GPU, but generally speaking, you shouldn't run into any major issues with the processor. It's a newer chip with three cores—and since most games don't really know how to make use of more than three cores yet anyway—it should be fine. It might act as a bit of a bottleneck if you pair it with some extremely high-end hardware, but for a reasonable setup, it shouldn't be an issue.
I wouldn't recommend the Corsair CX430. You might want to look into getting a Seasonic instead. Also, adding another 2GB of RAM would probably be a good move. You might not notice much difference while actually playing, but it would definitely help with load times.

This power supply costs $3.25 more than the Corsair CX430, so I guess you might as well just grab a beefier one now. That way, you probably won't have to go out and buy something much more powerful later on. 😁

Hey everyone.
I was wondering if anyone could point me toward a decent graphics card for under $300, though my main requirement is that it has a 256bit bus and at least 1GB of VRAM.
My old 😢 XFX GeForce 8800 GT just kicked the bucket, and honestly, I was absolutely loving that thing...

I stumbled upon this Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT featuring Silent Cell cooling, so if anyone here actually owns one or knows anything about how it performs, please let me know...
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=3104#ov
looking at the price for $283

My Rig:
Gigabyte P35-D34 motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Chieftec 550W power supply
1TB Seagate HDD
6GB DDR2
Samsung SM 2032 BW
and R.I.P. to my 8800GT...

That's way too much money to be dropping on an outdated graphics card.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 would absolutely eat it for breakfast—even if it doesn't have a 256-bit bus (which isn't really a dealbreaker anyway, since the GDDR5 memory provides significantly higher bandwidth than what you'd get from GDDR3)...

Selling this for $167..
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX SSC http://img163.imageshack.us/i/img4873j.jpg/

Casey Long2 said:That's way too much cash for such an ancient card.
GTS450 would absolutely wreck it before breakfast, even if it lacks a 256-bit bus—which doesn't even matter since the GDDR5 bandwidth completely blows that GDDR3 setup out of the water anyway...

How loud does it actually get? And what do you mean it "wrecks it"...???

Is it actually worth grabbing a card with 256MB of VRAM or should I just stick with GDDR5?

Because it’s newer, better, and faster. Simple as that.
http://www.google.com/images?q=gts+45...=2048&bih=1027

With GDDR5, you usually see a 128-bit bus because they don't even need more. Only the high-end cards bother with 256-bit these days...
Back when we were dealing with GDDR3, you had to compensate with a wider bus, but with GDDR5? Not necessary anymore.

p.s. You've been on this forum for four years now—maybe learn how to use the edit button on the right?🙂

So, Corsair is out. Looks like that power supply has a 24-pin connector while my motherboard only takes a 20-pin... so I'll probably settle for about $267 for the GPU. I was thinking about picking up another 1GB of RAM, but since Windows 7 32-bit caps out at 3GB, having 4GB would mean switching over to 64-bit Windows. Honestly, I'm just not feeling up to that right now.

Fine 🙂 I guess I'll just use the editor.

I finally narrowed it down to these three options, so if you were in my shoes, which one would you actually pick...

1. VTX 3D PCI-E ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB

2.Palit PCI-E nVidia GeForce GTS450 SONIC/1GB

3.Gigabyte PCI-E ATI Radeon HD5750 silent, 1GB DDR5,2xDV

Radeon HD 5770..

My thoughts on this

http://www.newegg.com/p/products/7582

Honestly, stay away from DDR2 memory—it's just too slow to be worth your time.
GTS 220 actually holds an edge here, mostly just because of the memory bandwidth...

If you’re really set on gaming, though, I’d suggest avoiding anything weaker than a 5670. At the very least, look for something decent on the used market—maybe a 4850 or a GTS 250—but don't go any lower than that.

Is this setup any good? I'm looking at a 600 W power supply, Scythe Gouriki3, plug in, ATX2, fully modular version.

Also, can someone suggest a reliable unit that includes a 20+4 pin connector for the motherboard? My current board only takes 20 pins, but I'll probably upgrade my motherboard down the road and don't want to waste money on a PSU I can't reuse.

It’s fine, but you need to tell me what kind of build we're actually talking about. I have a feeling you could get everything you need for half the price if you played it smarter.

stormywolf39 said:That sounds alright, but you should probably tell us what specs you're actually looking at. I have a feeling you could get something similar for about half the price.

+1

I'm thinking this would definitely be enough, too. 😉

http://www.bestbuy.com/product/...kl=052.740.031

So, I ended up passing on both the 5670 and the GTS 450. My bad, I actually made a mistake in my last post—it’s an X3, not an X4 🤦 for me 🤦

Some unexpected bills popped up out of nowhere, so right now I'm just rocking a 9600GT 512 MB.