GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

True, but I guess the real question is how much of a hit you’d take if you bought it and then realized it was a dud—plus, what’s the actual condition? Like, I mean, is it actually well-maintained and not just some beat-up piece of junk?

Larry Ortiz5 said:Yeah, but the real question is how many times he'll get screwed if he buys it and it's broken, and what kind of condition it's actually in. I mean, making sure it hasn't been treated like crap...

Whatever, man. Even at getting an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, even if he gets burned ten times and finally hits gold on the eleventh try, he'd still come out ahead 🎉

Adam Moore3 said:Whatever—honestly, at this point, even an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 would be overkill.$67 🤣 Even if he messes up ten times—and let’s face it, there’s a decent chance he will—if he finally nails it on the eleventh attempt, the payoff would still be more than worth the headache. 🎉

If I were absolutely certain that the price difference was truly that negligible—just pennies on the dollar—I wouldn’t even be sitting here typing this. I’d be tossing my rig and monitor into the car right now, driving across town first thing in the morning to meet up with the guy selling the GPU, and we'd head straight to the nearest pub to plug everything in and run some tests over a cold beer. 😁 🤣

Hey everyone, I’m looking to pick up a new graphics card because my current one just... well, the chip fried. It's gone. Total meltdown. Here is what I'm running at the moment:

• ASUS P8Z77 motherboard, IP68, DDR3, audio, S-ATA, RAID, G-LAN, PCI-E, SLI, USB 3.0, ATX, socket 1155
• Intel Core i3 12100 processor, socket 1155, 3.10GHz, 3MB cache, GPU, DualCore
• PC-12800 memory, 4 GB, G-SKILL DDR3 Series, F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ, DDR3 1600 MHz, KIT 2x2 GB
• PCI-e NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card, 1GB DDR5, DualDVI, HDMI, 2x DP
• 500W power supply, MUSHKIN Enhanced Volta, MKNPSVT500-EU, ATX 2.3, 120mm fan

I don't have any other specifics on hand since the rig is currently sitting at the repair shop... waiting on them. I'm really just looking for something comparable to what I had, or even just something that can handle basic gaming—you know, things like PES, Call of Duty, Football Manager... plus just watching movies. I'm open to checking out different online retailers, and my budget is capped at $200. Any recommendations on which card I should go for? Appreciate the help 😉

Honestly, GTX 1050 - it’s just not worth picking up anything weaker than this. You don't save much money, but you lose a massive amount of performance.

Good evening, guys. I could use a little assistance here.

Here is my current setup:
An FX6300 overclocked to 4.5GHz.
Cooler Master Hyper 212
EVGA GTX 970
2x 4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
2x SSDs and 1x HDD
4x 120mm Gentle Typhoon fans
OCZ MoXStream Pro 500W 80+

Anyway, after about two years, it’s finally time to swap out my graphics card. I'm really eyeing the prices on the EVGA GTX 970 and the GTX 1050. My question is, would my current power supply actually handle an EVGA GTX 970, or should I just play it safe and go with the GTX 1050?

I'm running a 20" 1080p monitor, which works fine for me.
As far as demanding titles go, I play Total War: Rome II and Dragon Age: Inquisition, and I'm planning on picking up The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt soon.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Grab the GTX 970. It’ll probably pull about 400W at full load, so that should be fine.

With the GTX 970 running Dragon Age: Inquisition at 1680x1050 on max settings, I guess you can expect around 50 FPS.

It’s a shame not to run at 1080p with a single GTX 970 😬

Charles Bennett5, you should just grab the GTX 970. It would probably pull less than 400W even under a full load...
By the way, what motherboard are you running, and what voltage are you pushing the CPU at to hit 4.5?

Timothy Kim60 said:Charles Bennett5, just go with the 280. Honestly, even at full load, it probably wouldn't pull more than 400w...
By the way, what motherboard are you running, and what voltage are you pushing the CPU to hit 4.5?

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

Timothy Kim60 - if I recall correctly, I've got an MSI GTX 970, 1.35v

That should be fine, just watch out for that motherboard—the VRM seems pretty weak.

Fair enough regarding the power draw, but that voltage is incredibly low for 4.5 GHz—that's impressive. Can it actually hold steady through a Prime95 stress test?

By the way, it’s a shame you didn't grab the ASUS ROG Strix since they're in the same price bracket. On average, users have much better luck with overclocking on that board, whereas the G46 doesn't get much love; honestly, it's pretty much hated by the community.

I let Prime95 run for a solid eight hours while I was catching some Z's, and wouldn't you know it? Not a single error popped up.
As for the hardware, I've been sticking with MSI for basically every build I've put together since back in 2001. Since I was just a kid, I've never dealt with a single failure or malfunction, so I figured I'd grab this board too—especially since I wasn't planning on pushing any overclocks or messing around with the settings anyway.
But man, that damn stock cooler was loud enough to wake the dead. So, I picked up a Hyper 212 instead. I headed over to see that guy at Genie PC, and I think he pushed it up to 4.285 GHz at 1.3V. That got me thinking, though... maybe I should actually read up on overclocking and see how much I can squeeze out of it myself.

Obviously—you have to swap out the stock cooler for those builds; that’s just common knowledge. And once you’ve actually got a decent cooler installed, it would be a crime not to overclock those processors...

Hey, I need to pick up a new GPU. My current one is struggling and it’s driving me crazy having to crank everything down to low settings just to get it to run without constant stuttering. 😁

Here's what I'm running:

• Windows 7 Ultimate 32
• Motherboard: MSI MS-7309 with an NVIDIA GeForce 7025 chipset
• CPU: AMD Athlon ii x2 245 2.90 GH
• RAM: 2 x 2048 MB DDR2
• GPU: AMD Radeon HD 5450 512
• PSU: 400 Watts

Budget is maybe $500$200 max... I've managed to play most things on this card if I keep settings at low, but I've been playing Assassin's Creed for a while now and finally hit Black Flag. It's barely playable. It stutters constantly, and playing on all low settings just looks terrible... it's not fun. 😁

So, looking for some advice... 🙂

If you really have to stick with the ~$200:

But honestly, this one is way more powerful, and maybe just $23 the better value if you want the best pick in this lower tier:

By the way, I think your processor is part of the issue too, not just the GPU. It matters for most newer titles—Assassin's Creed: Black Flag actually kind of needs a quad-core at minimum.

swiftridge29 said:Hey, I need to pick up a new graphics card. My current one is just too weak, and honestly, it’s driving me crazy having to crank everything down to low settings just to stop the stuttering in more demanding games. 😁

Here’s the setup:

• Windows 7 Ultimate 32
• Motherboard: MSI MS-7309 with an NVIDIA GeForce 7025 chipset.
• CPU: AMD Athlon ii x2 245 2.90 GHz
• Memory: 2 x 2048 MB DDR2
• GPU: AMD Radeon HD 5450 512
• 400 Watts power supply.

Budget around $500...$200 What's my maximum budget? I've managed to squeeze through quite a few games on this GPU using low settings, but lately, I've been playing Assassin's Creed, and now that I've hit Black Flag, I'm really struggling. It keeps stuttering, and playing everything on low just isn't fun because the graphics look absolutely terrible... 😁

So, I'm looking for some advice here... 🙂

Any upgrade you consider isn't going to be some miracle fix, because the rest of your rig is pretty weak and your budget is tight. Take Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, for example—you won't be able to run that decently because your processor is just bottlenecking everything. If you do decide to pick up a GPU, your best bet is to stretch yourself as far as you can toward an R7 260. It goes for around $100, maybe even less at certain retailers, and since it's significantly more powerful than any other cheap card out there, it’s the absolute best value in that bracket. Honestly, it's not even worth looking at anything cheaper. Click. I'm guessing that power supply isn't exactly top-tier either, but since the R7 260 pulls so little power, it should probably hold up just fine—assuming the 5450 did its job. Just pop the case open and check the exact model of that PSU.

swiftridge29 said:Hey everyone, I'm looking to pick up a new graphics card. My current one is just too weak, and it’s honestly getting frustrating—I have to crank every modern game down to the lowest settings just to get them to run, and even then, the stuttering is driving me crazy. 😁

Here is my current setup:

• Windows 7 Ultimate 32
• Motherboard: MSI MS-7309 with an NVIDIA GeForce 7025 chipset.
• CPU: AMD Athlon ii x2 245 2.90 GHz
• Memory: 2 x 2048 MB DDR2
• Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 5450 512
• 400 Watts power supply.

Looking for a setup with a budget of around $500?$200 What’s my budget for an upgrade? I've managed to get quite a few games running on this graphics card, even if I have to stick to low settings, but I've hit a wall. I've been playing through the Assassin's Creed series, and now that I've reached Black Flag, the performance is just struggling. It's stuttering constantly, and honestly, playing on low settings is miserable because the visuals look absolutely terrible. 😁

In that case, I’m open to any advice you can offer. 🙂

Look, I'll be blunt—your processor is going to struggle once you start trying to run modern games. 😬

Let’s assume your power supply is failing—which, frankly, seems like a safe bet here.

I can't quite make sense of that last bit—looks like you might have cut off mid-sentence! What were you trying to say? $67 That seems highly suspicious.

EDIT

It isn't exactly true that the R7 260 is some low-power, negligible consumer.

How much power does an AMD Radeon R7-260 actually pull?

My system is pulling 120 Watts just sitting at idle.
Total system power draw hits 220 Watts when the GPU is under full stress.
The power delta comes out to exactly 100 Watts.
Don't forget to factor in an additional ~10 Watts for the average idle power draw.
Based on my own testing, I’m seeing a subjective GPU power draw of roughly 110 Watts.

Damn, you guys are quick with the replies. Didn't expect anyone to get back to me before morning 😁 The power supply is a Platinum MS 400 ATX P4, 230V, 5A, 50/60 HZ, 400 Watts.

I picked this rig up as a bundle about three years ago... if I remember right. It was some big Christmas sale, so I ended up with the whole setup for New Year's—complete PC, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and monitor. Honestly, it doesn't make sense to buy anything new right now, so I figured maybe just a newer graphics card would give me a bit of a boost...

I figured you were running that power supply 🙂
Judging by the GPU, it’s clearly one of those off-the-shelf builds from the 2011 holiday season. My neighbor actually has a nearly identical setup he picked up from Best Buy

If you want the best bang for your buck, I'd suggest dropping about 300-$117 on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 with DDR5. Given the power supply and your current CPU (assuming you aren't planning an upgrade anytime soon), the value proposition just makes sense