Best bang for your buck on low-mid range video cards?

[duyale86]

Hi guys... I am fairly new in the computer upgrade world. I've been living through prepackaged PCs and laptops for most of my life and would hope to make a slight change. I recently bought a Dell Vostros (minitower) and hope to complement it with a low-mid range video card that suffice my SC2 needs. My main concern is because it is a minitower, space seems to be very limited. If you eye ball this pic, then half of it would be 8.76. I am hoping to find a video card that fits and play some games on low-mid settings levels. Thank you so much!
http://www.hitechreview.com/uploads/...ni-Tower-3.jpg

My specs are:
i5 - 2400
4 gig ram DDR
23" IPS monitor
PS - 350w

 

[cusideabelincoln]

In the US?

HD 5670

Are there any spare power connectors? If there are they might be SATA, so that would rule out any card that requires an external connection, since you would need adapters. Looks like some 6750 or 6770 will fit, tightly, but the power connector is a concern. The 5670 will handle games on low-mid settings for sure, and it's a good price, so it is the safe option. If you want to take a risk then a 6750/6770 would be the way to go.

 

[edplayer]

^ good advice ^


I suggest you measure exactly how much space you have. Also check spare power connectors although you could get a splitter and adapter to get around that problem. While you are in there see how many Amps the power supply is rated for on the 12V line.


I'm guessing your monitor is 1920x1080

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Hi guys... I am fairly new in the computer upgrade world. I've been living through prepackaged PCs and laptops for most of my life and would hope to make a slight change. I recently bought a Dell Vostros (minitower) and hope to complement it with a low-mid range video card that suffice my SC2 needs. My main concern is because it is a minitower, space seems to be very limited. If you eye ball this pic, then half of it would be 8.76. I am hoping to find a video card that fits and play some games on low-mid settings levels. Thank you so much!
http://www.hitechreview.com/uploads/...ni-Tower-3.jpg

My specs are:
i5 - 2400
4 gig ram DDR
23" IPS monitor
PS - 350w

If you're looking for something between entry level and mainstream the best choice seems to be the Radeon HD 5670. It only costs $70, is way faster than integrated graphics or low-end (think HD 5450) graphics cards, doesn't require an additional PCI-E connector, and should fit in your case fine considering it's a small (~7") card. It should play Starcraft II at Medium settings at 1680x1050.

 

[Leyawiin]

If your going to keep your current power supply get an HD 6670. Its a good bit faster than an HD 5670 and uses the same (maybe slightly less) power. I would think it would be worth the extra $25 if you don't plan on upgrading the PS or buying another card for a while.


http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_6670/22.html

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

If your going to keep your current power supply get an HD 6670. Its a good bit faster than an HD 5670 and uses the same (maybe slightly less) power. I would think it would be worth the extra $25 if you don't plan on upgrading the PS or buying another card for a while.


http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_6670/22.html

The 6670 is a waste of money. If you're spending $95 you may as well just get a GTS 250, which will be 25% more powerful and his PSU should still have no problems coping (as long as it has one PCIe connector).

The 5670 is the best choice for what he wants. It'll play his games at Medium settings for only $70.

 

[OCNewbie]

There "was" a deal on Newegg recently for a Zotac GTX 460 1GB for $105 after a $40 mail-in-rebate I believe. Actually, it's still on sale, just $5 more at $110 after $40 rebate, and $10 new customer coupon (just use an e-mail address that you haven't used before). It would depend on your power supply whether or not is was sufficient to power this card, though. This card is 8.25" in length, so would be a tight fit, too.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500202

$10 off code is NEWCUSTOMER10. When you make a new account, you must check the box that says "Sign me up for exclusive newsletter deals, sweepstakes, and 24-hour sales only available to subscribers" to enable the $10 off.

 

[hdfxst]

some good deals here http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?switch=20 B-stock with less warranty

 

[cusideabelincoln]

There "was" a deal on Newegg recently for a Zotac GTX 460 1GB for $105 after a $40 mail-in-rebate I believe. Actually, it's still on sale, just $5 more at $110 after $40 rebate, and $10 new customer coupon (just use an e-mail address that you haven't used before). It would depend on your power supply whether or not is was sufficient to power this card, though. This card is 8.25" in length, so would be a tight fit, too.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500202

$10 off code is NEWCUSTOMER10. When you make a new account, you must check the box that says "Sign me up for exclusive newsletter deals, sweepstakes, and 24-hour sales only available to subscribers" to enable the $10 off.

I think the 460 would push his power supply too much and he may not even have enough spare connectors available. Also the card is pretty big for that cramped case.

 

[duyale86]

Thank you so much for all of the technical advice! I think the 5670 makes the most sense for all of the reasons mentioned above. And plus I found a gpu benchmark that displays price performance for for video cards and apparently the 5670 scored extremely high.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html

 

[duyale86]

If I can bother you guys again, do you guys know what's the difference between these two?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102871

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102930

The overall price difference is about $10. The two have different memory type (512 mb DDR5 as opposed to 1gig DDR3). What do you thing it would be best for my PC? Thanks again! =)

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The DDR5 will be faster. The DDR3 has half the memory bandwidth and that takes a pretty big blow to performance moreso than the loss of 512MB RAM.

It's damn tricky of them to do it. I even made the mistake and linked to the DDR3 version.

 

[rockyjohn]

And plus I found a gpu benchmark that displays price performance for for video cards and apparently the 5670 scored extremely high.

The HD 5670 is a good, and efficient, card. But just be aware the the price performance as a matter of course generally goes down as absolute performance increases. Its simply a matter of decreasing marginal returns as one strives for more power - and probably also increasing profit margins rates as manufacturers strive for more profit.

Just first check out a good review of the HD 5670 to make sure it does what you want it to.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2917

However you do need to bear in mind that the test systems used in the reviews are designed to be powerful enough that no other components will constrain or hamper the performance of the card - so they get a true read on the cards ability. Your system likely will not be as strong and so your performance might not equal the level in the review.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I'm pretty sure OP can slot a 5770 in.

Not sure about availability in the US but I won't consider anything less than a 5770 myself. Performance/price drops sharply when going lower that that.