GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

brightwolf63 said:I need: a PCI-e graphics card

.
.
.

My old card was an ATI x1650 with 512 MB—last night, a lightning strike took it out 😢 ; it handled CoD 2 & 4, PES 2008, Medieval 2, and the original F.E.A.R plus expansions without any issues...

What should I get? I don't mind used or refurbished.

Recommendations, please.
Thnx.

Hmm... now I am beginning to doubt if the graphics card was actually the culprit.

I pulled the card out of the case today to try and boot the PC, but even the integrated graphics failed to produce an image.

I attempted to reseat the RAM modules, but that didn't resolve anything either...

So, I am somewhat at a loss here... could it be the motherboard?

Ugh... this is certainly not what I needed right now.

brightlynx3 said:Hey there.
I'm looking for some advice on which GPU I should grab for about $250.

Motherboard - ASROCK 890 FX Deluxe3, AMD 890 FX/850, DDR3, sound, S-ATA, RAID, G-LAN, PCI-E, CrossfireX, USB 3.0, ATX, s. AM3

Processor - AMD Athlon ii x4 640 box, s. AM3, 3.0GHz, 2MB c.

Power Supply - 500W, LC POWER Office Series, ATX v2.2, 120mm vent., PFC

RAM - 4GB

Thanks in advance! 😉

P.S. Looking for something that isn't too loud.🙂

If anyone can recommend a card within this budget quickly, that would be great. I'll be buying from Links.

Walter Gomez33 said:I really need some advice on a new graphics card I'm planning to pick up.
Here’s my current setup:
Gigabyte GA-G6M1S-2 motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+, 2.1GHz
Sapphire HD3650 512MB DDR2
4GB DDR2 RAM @ 667MHz
Corsair 400CX power supply
I usually run at 1680*1050 resolution
playing World of Warcraft and PES 2008
Basically, I just want to be able to play WoW at 30+ FPS during raids (up to 25 people)!
Or, if it makes more sense, maybe I should just upgrade my current rig differently (like buying a whole new PC or several parts at once)?
My budget is roughly $333

Alright, so since it looks like the processor is definitely going to be the main bottleneck here, I was wondering—would it actually be smarter to go this route instead?
ASRock M3A770DE Motherboard Price: $137 (including tax)
AMD Athlon ii X2 245 Price: $151 (including tax)
Kingston 2GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory Price: $92 (including tax)
I'd try to hang onto my other components for now and eventually swap in a better graphics card down the road.

Quick question for you all. I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but this seems like the most logical spot for it. Which of these two graphics cards is actually better:

1. ATI HD 3500
2. ATI X800 GTO

So, I’m looking for some solid recommendations for a GTX 460 with a standard "blow out" style cooler—you know, the kind that actually stays quiet when things get heavy... I’m not really planning on doing any crazy overclocking since I’ll mostly just be running Folding@home 24/7, though maybe I'll mess around with the CUDA cores a tiny bit if I feel like it. 🙂
From what I've been digging through in reviews, it looks like EVGA makes exactly what I'm hunting for, but unfortunately, they're impossible to find around here at my local retailers.
Then you've got Gigabyte and MSI making those custom coolers that perform pretty well, but they don't actually vent the air out of the case...
Does anyone happen to know of a "best of both worlds" model out there?
Thanks.

Sapphire uses that kind of design, but they don't carry it at Micro Center anymore. I've got no clue what else is out there... maybe check Zotac?

So, I’ve got a question about this MSI N430GT card that just hit the shelves here in the States. I'm currently running an xfx8800gts 320 mb, and I’m starting to think it might finally be time for an upgrade. I guess I'm wondering if this is actually a worthwhile move, and honestly, just how much of a jump in power am I looking at going from my 8800 to a 430?

It isn't actually stronger—it's actually a bit weaker than what you're looking at.
If you take a moment to look through some reviews, like this one, you'll see it's really just a low-end card. It’s performing below a Radeon 5670, and honestly, it even falls behind something like a 240 GT...

Casey Long2 said:It's actually weaker, not stronger.
Take a look at some reviews, like this one. It's a low-end card, weaker than a Radeon 5670, even weaker than a 240 GT...

guy saw the amount of RAM and got his hopes up...

just like whoever is in this link..

Honestly, memory capacity stopped making much sense a long time ago. But I think Nvidia just made their biggest blunder yet: GT440 cards equipped with 3 GB of VRAM... Of course, these will end up being stuffed into budget office desktops—machines that'll eventually have more video memory than actual system RAM...

If we actually started listing everyone who bought this junk just because of the amount of cheap RAM... 😁

I'm not even looking for anything crazy; I just want something affordable that's at least 50% faster than what I've got, since this thing has been sitting in my rig for three or four years now anyway.

It really comes down to choosing between the Radeon HD 5770 or the EVGA GTX 470. Honestly, everything else in that lineup seems way overpriced when you consider how little extra performance you actually get for the jump in cost.

I'm looking at picking up a new GPU, and I'm currently torn between

6870 - $700

and

the GTX 460 2GB - $700

Which one is actually going to give me more bang for my buck here? Or—better yet—does anyone have a third option they'd recommend that stays right around the $667 mark?

Thanks

shadowsurfer8 said:I'm picking up a new GPU and I'm torn between

6870 - $700

and

the GTX 460 2GB - $700

Which one is actually worth the cash? Or maybe you guys have a third option in mind? Just looking to stay around $667
.

Thanks!

So, walk me through it—why on earth do you even need 2GB of VRAM?
And what kind of CPU are we talking about here?
Seriously, just list out the whole rig you're running.

If I were spending that much, I'd grab this instead:
http://www.newegg.com/p/graphics-cards/details/gr...od1280mb/33839

I’d probably just go with the GTX 460 with 1 GB of VRAM. If you absolutely have to get up to $667, I guess I'd just wait a bit longer. I wouldn't touch the NVIDIA GF100, though, mostly because of that damn heat it puts off and how much power it pulls.
The Aleutian Islands are starting to feel imminent, and honestly, so is some price stabilization.

If you ask me, there are really only 3 cards worth looking at right now $667 because they hit that sweet spot for me:

EVGA GTX 470 - $633 - I've got this one arriving in just 3 days... it’s definitely the heavy hitter here, with absolutely killer cooling and some seriously impressive overclocking potential if you're feeling adventurous.
ASUS GTX 470 - $600. This one should be hitting my doorstep in about 2 days.
PowerColor HD 5850 Vapor-X - $533. It’s possible AMD might have dropped the ball on this one, but then again, I see Newegg has the HD5850 listed for around $240, so at that price point, it's kind of a no-brainer...

James Morris4 said:I’d go with the NVIDIA GTX 460 with 1 GB. If I absolutely had to wait for $667, I’d just hold off. I wouldn't touch that NVIDIA Fermi GF100—the heat it puts off is insane, and the power draw? Forget about it.
Northern Islands are right around the corner, not to mention prices finally leveling out.

And look... if you consider what he picked for 2100... that Fermi architecture is going to absolutely eat both of them alive... 🙂
meaning they aren't even in the same league, and the gap is $33..

Personally, I'd grab the NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB for $467, then save that extra $700 for New Year's, a trip to Florida, or whatever else.
Either wait for the 69xx series or just pick up something from the 58xx line...

But I definitely wouldn't drop $700 on a GTX 460, and I wouldn't touch the 6870 either. They just aren't worth that kind of cash, especially at Best Buy.🙂

Signing off on Gilbert's suggestions...

Greetings. I have an aging machine here that’s been running for seven years now, and having recently picked up a 23-inch Samsung LED LCD monitor, I find the visual quality to be rather underwhelming; I am left wondering if a brand-new graphics card is the necessary remedy to actually improve the image quality, or if I am simply chasing ghosts.

steelstag13 said:Hey, so I've got this 7-year-old PC. Just picked up a 23-inch Samsung LED LCD monitor, but the picture quality is pretty underwhelming. Do I actually need to grab a new graphics card to fix the image, or what?

Well, you didn't exactly mention which graphics card you're running... maybe if you did, we could actually tell you if you need an upgrade or not.
Probably do, though..

List your full specs. We aren't psychics here, we can't just guess.😬