GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Yeah, I’ve been digging through some benchmarks. While it might not hit a rock-solid 60fps across the board, there’s absolutely no reason it should be stuttering—especially if you’re running at 720p with the settings dialed down. It should be smooth sailing at that resolution.

It occurs to me that you might be talking about online matchmaking issues. If that's the case, it isn't your hardware's fault; apparently, their servers are a total mess right now (laggy shooting, endless queue times). Your best bet is probably just waiting for them to drop a patch.

Honestly, I’m really not feeling that 280 right now because none of them come with a warranty, and if I’m being real, $267 it probably makes more sense to just suck it up and save my cash for a 1050ti. When I drop the settings on the FIFA 18 demo, the lag pretty much disappears, but with PES 18? Man, no matter what I tweak, I can still feel that stuttering. It might just be the way PES is coded, honestly. I already went through the whole hassle of reinstalling Windows and nuking everything I could find to clean things up, but the issue is still there. My next move is to completely wipe the graphics drivers and try a fresh install. That 7870 seems like a decent deal though, so I think I'll hit up the guy and see if he'll let me test it out first. Just so you know, I play PES 18 offline—it's the original game.

I just watched that video, and it's tripping me out because if that 750ti is anything like mine, I’m stuck playing at 720p on medium settings and still getting a choppy 30 fps. The only way this works for me is if I can talk that guy down on the price for the 280 and maybe see if he'll let me pay in installments.😁

There shouldn't be any lag whatsoever during single-player gameplay. Are you absolutely certain those are the exact components you're running?

The only thing I’m absolutely positive about is that I don't have a clue what's actually going on here😁

What kind of lag are we even talking about? I wonder if it’s just your TV acting up. Have you actually checked your FPS with some software? Maybe try switching that TV over to "gaming" mode.

fadedorca66👍 That annoying little stutter finally died out once I toggled on Game Mode—before that, I’d also messed with some "deep color" settings, and honestly, after tweaking those, everything feels smooth again. It is pretty wild, though, how when I run it in windowed mode, the counter just sits stubbornly at 30 fps regardless of whether I'm at 720p, 1080p, or even 2K, or if my settings are on low, medium, or high, even though I explicitly tell it I want 60 fps. The second I switched over to full screen at 720p, the frame rate jumped up to 50 fps. Right now, running at 1080p on high settings while stuck at 30 fps is actually playable enough, so I think I'll just roll with that until I can snag a GTX 1050 Ti. That’s really my ceiling for what I want to spend on a GPU. If I get a chance to test out an old Radeon 7870 or an R9 280, I might grab one of those if there's a massive jump in performance, but this current card definitely has to go. Anyway, sorry for rambling on and taking up all your time👍 I was using Fraps to track the fps.

Nice, glad you got something sorted out. $267 I agree, that's a bit much for a used card, so maybe just save up for a 1050Ti instead...

Motherboard - msi k9n6pgm2-v2
CPU - Seagate BarraCuda
HDD - 320 GB
RAM - 4 GB (can go up to 8 GB)
GPU - EVGA GeForce GT 9500
PSU - Akyga 430w Basic

Basically, my rig is lagging like crazy just while browsing. We aren't even gaming here. Just surfing, watching movies, torrenting, and managing some websites.

In the next month, I'm swapping in a different CPU—either an AMD Phenom II x4 955 or a 960 T (still deciding which one). This board can actually handle a Phenom II x6 1055 95W, but that’s $55, and
the Phenom II x4 955 or 960 T are more like $35-$38.

Gonna bump the RAM up to 8 GB too.

And I'm planning on throwing in an Nvidia GTX 260.

Definitely gotta swap out the PSU because this current one is absolute garbage!

Looking for some advice regarding the GPU and power supply.

Thinking about grabbing a used 260 gtx for $220-$83 on eBay. Is there anything better than that in the same price range?

As for the PSU, I know I need something beefier and higher quality. Any recs for a new, stronger unit? Since the 260 gtx needs those 2 x 6 pin connectors.

Just a heads up, we don't play games at all. Just browsing and standard home PC stuff.

Linda Richardson22 said:Motherboard - MSI K9N6PGM2-V2
CPU - AMD Phenom Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition
HDD - 320 GB
RAM - 4 GB (can go up to 8 GB)
GPU - EVGA GeForce GT 9500
PSU - Generic 430W Basic

Basically, my issue is that the PC has started lagging while browsing. We don't play any games. Just surfing the web, watching movies, torrenting, and managing websites.

Within the next month, I'll swap in a different CPU, either a Phenom II X4 955 or a 960T 95W (I still need to decide between those two). This motherboard can actually handle a Phenom II X6 1055 95W too, but that's $55, whereas
the Phenom II X4 955 or 960T are about $35-$38.

I'm also going to bump the RAM up to 8 GB.

And I'm planning on installing an Nvidia GTX 260 graphics card.

I definitely have to replace the power supply because the current one is absolute garbage!

I'm looking for your advice regarding the GPU and the PSU.

I'm planning to pick up a used 260 GTX for around $220-$83 on eBay. Is there a better card out there for the same price?

As for the power supply, I know I need to get something more powerful and higher quality. Any recommendations for a new, beefier PSU? Since the 260 GTX requires dual 6-pin connectors.

Just to reiterate, we don't play games at all—just browsing and standard home computer use.

If you aren't gaming, upgrading the graphics card won't make any difference at all, especially not with something old and used like a 260.
So, your priorities should be the power supply, then the CPU, then the RAM.

For the PSU, get THIS.

The Phenom will serve you pretty well, but you should really think about adding an SSD; that’ll give you the biggest performance boost for everyday tasks like you mentioned. It's a shame your motherboard doesn't have SATA3, so you won't fully utilize the SSD—it'll be bottlenecked by SATA2—but even so, it's going to be a massive improvement over the HDD.

Regarding those browsing lags—you should check if your system is thermal throttling, which means the clock speeds are dropping below nominal levels due to overheating. You can monitor the clock speeds using HWMonitor, or run a stress test via the clock tab in AIDA64 to see how it holds up under pressure. If you find it is indeed throttling, a fresh application of thermal paste should fix it.

Also, make sure to verify the health of your Seagate BarraCuda by running a diagnostic tool like HD Tune to check the drive's health status and perform an error scan.

fadedorca66 said:Well, hey, at least you got something sorted out. $267 I mean, yeah, for a used card, that's a pretty steep price, so I’d honestly say just save up a little longer and grab a 1050Ti instead...

Man, thanks a ton, because now everything is actually playable and I'm having a blast in the sand👍 I even tried cranking it up to 4K just to see if my eyes would melt, and I gotta admit, it looks killer. Fingers crossed that once I snag that 1050Ti, I can push all those settings even higher. For most other games, I don't really care that much about the bells and whistles. Cheers!👍

Timothy Kim60 thanks for the tips, I'll give that a shot. 🙂

Actually, I'm currently downloading PES 2018 too—grabbing the CPY version—and I'm honestly pretty curious to see how it'll hold up on an i5 4670k paired with a GTX 1070.

Larry Ortiz5 said:Yeah, I'm actually grabbing PES 2018 right now too—the CPY version—and I'm dying to see how it handles on my setup with an i5 4670k and a GTX 1070.

So? How’s it running? You hitting 4K yet?😁

steelfox36 said:Hey, how’s everything going? Are we looking at 4K?😁

I haven't even had a chance to sit down and play yet—and honestly, who's thinking about 4K right now? I'm just sticking to 1080p. 😁

Larry Ortiz5 said:I haven't even had a chance to jump in and play yet, let alone try anything in 4K—forget about it, I'm nowhere near 1080p 😁

Honestly, I'm currently scraping my pennies together for a 1050 Ti, and if I pair that with a G4560 and 16 GB of RAM, it should handle 4K just fine. At least, that’s what I’ve gathered from watching some clips on >. I'm talking specifically about stuff like PES and FIFA. Anyway, once you finally get around to playing, please hit me up with your thoughts on how the PES 18 themes look! Right now, I'm stuck grinding away at 1080p and a measly 30 fps, which honestly sucks because I’d love to see how the game performs on a rig like yours. If I can just save up enough for an i5 and a 1070, PES 2021 will probably be out by then anyway.😁

I just knocked out about 5 or 6 matches. To be clear, the game doesn't actually require 8GB of RAM—my total system usage plus the game itself peaks at around 2.7GB—but it definitely demands more CPU power. My AMD Phenom just isn't cutting it if I want a steady 60 FPS; even at 3.1GHz, the load sits above 90%. I'm averaging roughly 45 FPS on max settings, though it frequently dips below 30. With my HD7850 2GB, the GPU load stays around 60%. If I drop everything to Low, I can hit 50-60 FPS. Once I finally upgrade to a Ryzen, I think I'll be set—hopefully, that'll lock me right at 60 FPS.

Everything is running smoothly for me—it’s just a little funny seeing it posted under this category:



Basically, everything shows up as "good" except for the RAM, which says "OK"—even though the recommended specs call for 8GB 😵😵🙏🤦

As for the game itself, it's alright... nothing really blew me away, to be honest.

With 4GB of RAM, I get this red warning right at launch saying there isn't enough memory. I just hit "ignore," and then once the game and my entire system—including Afterburner and everything else—are running, the total usage peaks at about 2.7GB. 🤣

My CPU shows up as yellow, likely indicating it's a bit weak, but it should be able to manage.

I wonder if it’s finally time to pull the trigger on a new GPU. Maybe the crypto miners have finally backed off?