Best sub-$100 CAD Nvidia card

[HorizonXP]

Hey guys,

I recently upgraded from my EVGA 9600GT 512MB to a Zotac 440GT 1GB. I picked it up for $85+HST.

It seems to work better than my previous card, as Team Fortress 2 runs smoother. I haven't benchmarked it. My reason for sticking with Nvidia is that I do GPU programming, and CUDA is still the best toolkit to use for my work. As such, I'd like to go with a Fermi-based GPU.

Is this the best bang for my buck? So far, I've been happy with the upgrade, just wondering if I can do better. It's definitely cooler running than my previous card, and uses less power since it doesn't need an extra power connector. Moreover, it's smaller than the outgoing card.

 

[Leyawiin]

If you're looking for a new card probably this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125391

Its not Fermi, but I'm sure its CUDA score will beat anything else sub-$100. Its also not going to use less power or be smaller than your 9600 GT though.

 

[notty22]

The gts 450 has double the cuda cores as the gt 440. It requires more power. Your psu needs 1 6-pin pci-e power connector.
It's got a 40.00 dollar rebate off it's 100.00 dollar price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162062
It's usually helpful, almost necessary to know your computer specs, to correctly recommend a card.
cpu
psu
Is it a oem, computer, Dell or HP or a custom.

 

[Cerb]

Newegg.ca doesn't seem show much better than $120 AMIR, with this guy having the best bang/buck. They do have that GTX 260 (for $112), but you'd best have a good PSU, and be prepared for the noise, for that one.

Under $100, you did alright.

 

[happy medium]

gts450 for 110$ - 25$ rebate is a good price. 85$AR its a good deal faster than a gt440. How fast is your processor?
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814134119

 

[Cerb]

More like ~$97 AR. I passed over it due to anti-ECS bias, though .

 

[HorizonXP]

The gts 450 has double the cuda cores as the gt 440. It requires more power. Your psu needs 1 6-pin pci-e power connector.
It's got a 40.00 dollar rebate off it's 100.00 dollar price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162062
It's usually helpful, almost necessary to know your computer specs, to correctly recommend a card.
cpu
psu
Is it a oem, computer, Dell or HP or a custom.

Apologies for not listing my specs

Intel Xeon X3350 @ 2.66 GHz (I think similar to the Core 2 Quad Q9300?)
Gigabyte EP45-UD3L board
8 GB of DDR2 RAM
120 GB Corsair Force GT SSD
1 TB & 640 GB WD Blue Drives
Antec 300 Case
PC Power & Cooling 500W PSU

My previous card use a PCI-E connector, so supporting a different card that requires it wouldn't be an issue. The PSU is apparently ready for SLI, as I saw 2 PCI-E connectors, and the Nvidia SLI sticker on it.

The 450 GTS ones you guys listed look appealing, but they are a bit above the $100 range. Is the difference between the 440 and 450 significant enough to justify spending nearly $50 more?

How about something like this Asus GTS450 for $120? http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=033603

How about this EVGA card? http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=033349

Or this Asus 550? http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=037784

Are the 500 series GPUs the same as the 400 series, but mostly just a die shrink?

 

[toyota]

"It seems to work better than my previous card, as Team Fortress 2 runs smoother."

I do not see how any game would be smoother as overall the gt440 is actually slower than a 9600gt for gaming.

 

[-Slacker-]

^I think there are 2 versions of the gt 440 ... one is slow as hell while the other is ... well, the other is slow as hell too, but much faster by comparison

 

[Cerb]

Are the 500 series GPUs the same as the 400 series, but mostly just a die shrink?

Not even a die shrink. Just nVidia arbitrarily deciding the new models aught to be numbered higher. A GTX 550 will be a bit faster (~10-20&#37 than a GTS 450. Slightly above $100, it looks like none of thought to include that in card searches. Counting prices with MIR, they're about the same as the GTS 450. Example of one such value (factory OC, $115 after MIR).

 

[toyota]

^I think there are 2 versions of the gt 440 ... one is slow as hell while the other is ... well, the other is slow as hell too, but much faster by comparison

the retail gt440 is just a gt430 with faster clocks and optional gddr5. even the model with gddr5 is slightly slower overall than the 9600gt.

 

[HorizonXP]

So I ended up going with the Asus GTX550 Ti for $145 CAD, with another $20 mail-in rebate. I went above my $100 budget because a) I wanted better performance than my 9600GT b) apparently the Corsair SSD I bought dropped in price, so I saved $20 up front, with another $30 in mail-in.

So far, I guess I'm happy with it. Team Fortress 2 does seem smoother on the highest settings, with some jittering when the action gets a little heavier. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 60-70 FPS, and dipping below that to 30-40 during action.

I don't know, maybe I was expecting more. I figured that since my card is nearly 3 years old, that a new video card should be a lot better. It doesn't feel like it's a huge leap.

On the plus side, my Windows Experience graphics score went from 6.7 to 7.4 from the GTS440 to the GTX550.

Anyway, the upgrades I've made to my PC (the RAM, and SSD) along with the video card have breathed new life into my PC. Definitely a lot smoother, a joy to use. The limitation is definitely the CPU at this point, but I figure I can wait until Haswell to upgrade that part. The rest of these components should transfer over nicely, so all I will need is a new CPU, motherboard, and RAM.