GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Personally, I wouldn't touch a used Radeon with a ten-foot pole. Who knows where that thing has been or how much life it has left in it? You might as well check if the card was trashed in some massive crypto mining rig before you hand over your cash...

How much juice am I actually gonna need here? Should I just listen to those guys and drop the cash on an 850W unit, or should I trust the online calculators and just stick with something around 500W? please halp.

rustymarlin20 said:How much power am I actually looking at here? Should I listen to them and just grab an 850W unit, or trust the online calculators and stick to something around 500W? please halp.

850W? Good grief, no way. Unless you're planning on running triple CF setups, that's overkill. It really depends on what else is in your rig, but assuming the rest isn't totally extreme, you can easily pull off a 500W Fortron Hypera without any issues.

Adam Moore3 said:Man, an 850W? Good grief, don't even go there... unless you're planning on running three graphics cards at once or something crazy. Honestly, it just depends on what else is in your rig, but I'm guessing it's not some absolute monster setup, so you could probably just rock a 500W Fortron Hypera and be totally fine.

thanks :* (not gay)

Just to be sure, what are the rest of the specs?

Word on the street is that AMD is ditching the rebrand strategy entirely and going all-in on completely new graphics cards instead. No more recycled hardware this time!

http://www.techpowerup.com/210453/am...utex-2015.html
http://wccftech.com/amd-r9-300-serie...#ixzz3TmOwvgRS

Timothy Kim60 said:Word on the street is AMD is going all-in on completely new GPUs. They've apparently changed course and there won't be any rebrands at all. *facepalm*

http://www.techpowerup.com/210453/am...utex-2015.html
http://wccftech.com/amd-r9-300-serie...#ixzz3TmOwvgRS

Whoa. Is that even possible? They've been teasing a rebrand of the 2XX series forever, and now suddenly it's all brand new architecture instead of a rebrand? There is going to be 100% delays then.

AMD has never officially confirmed any plans for a rebrand (including this one); those were just rumors floating around tech sites, which, let's be honest, usually end up being right. It seemed logical that they’d just reuse some high-end cards from the previous generation, but it looks like they changed their minds. Word on the street is June might be the window

Timothy Kim60 said:Word is AMD is going all-in on brand new GPUs. They supposedly changed their minds and won't be doing any rebranding at all.

http://www.techpowerup.com/210453/am...utex-2015.html
http://wccftech.com/amd-r9-300-serie...#ixzz3TmOwvgRS

Old news... just like you mentioned in the post below, AMD never even brought up rebranding a new series. It was a fair guess to assume they’d build something fresh from scratch.

Given how much NVIDIA messed up with those 970s... it makes sense. If AMD actually pulls it off with this new lineup, NVIDIA is going to take a massive hit in sales.

It’s hardly "old news" when it was just published three days ago 😬

Of course it isn't. Previously, the rumor mill suggested the entire series would undergo a rebranding—specifically that the R9 380/380X would essentially become the R9 290/290X, while the R9 370 would be positioned as the R9 285.

Timothy Kim60 said:It’s not "old news" when it just dropped three days ago. 😬

Before, the rumor was just a partial rebrand—like saying the R9 380/380X would become the R9 290/290X, while the R9 370 stays an R9 285.

In the tech world, three days is an eternity.😁

A quick question for anyone who might have tried this, since I haven't yet.

Is it actually feasible to run Dota 2 on an Intel Core i3-2100 setup with 4GB of DDR3 and integrated Intel HD Graphics?

Specifically looking at a 720p resolution.

mellowtiger83 said:Quick question for anyone who's actually tried this, since I haven't!!

Can I run Dota 2 on an Intel Core i3-2100, 4GB of DDR3, and Intel HD Graphics?

Specifically at 720p.

Maybe on low settings.

Man, I’m running an Intel Celeron with just the integrated Intel HD Graphics, and I’m actually hitting 60fps on very high settings—just without any shadows, haha.

Saying 60fps on very high might be a bit of a stretch, but you can definitely play it.

Over here, there are plenty of much more demanding titles that struggle to even hit 20fps at 768p.

Thanks. I agree, it’s a pretty budget setup, but we managed to scrape some cash together at the office to help a kid out. He’s really itching to play Dota 2, so thanks for the info.

You might want to consider going with an A4 series chip—like the 5300 or 6300. Even though the Celeron technically has more raw processing power, if you aren't planning on adding a dedicated graphics card, this one offers significantly better integrated graphics performance.

Timothy Kim60 said:You could probably opt for an A4 series build—like a 5300 or 6300—even though that Celeron actually has more raw processing power. If he isn't going to use a dedicated card, then this one definitely offers much stronger integrated graphics.

We had that Celeron sitting in the warehouse for a bit🙂. We'll likely pair it with something better, maybe a used 7750 or 7770, since that LC-Power 420W unit can handle it.

Essentially, we sourced parts from all over the place—picked up a second-hand ECS motherboard from Micro Center, a used PSU, and so on. The main thing is that the kid is happy. Honestly, it’s a bit of a charity case; half the community stepped up for this project. We pulled together whatever we could for him—just a kid and his single dad who’s currently out of work and struggling with everything else.

👍

I'm telling you, he should be able to play perfectly fine using just the integrated graphics on an Intel Core i3-2100.

Buy an Nvidia GPU, get ' The Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt ' for Free
🙏

Can someone help me figure out where I'm messing this up? I've got an Acer Aspire 5750G running original Windows 7 Home Premium. Specs are an Intel Core i5-2450, 6GB of 1333MHz RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 630M. That's where things go sideways. I installed the drivers for the graphics card, but then it kept prompting me to install the Intel HD Graphics too. Even though everything seems installed, I'm starting to think the Nvidia isn't actually kicking in, or maybe I just botched the setup somewhere.😵