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Need video card advice

J

JLCollier2005

Junior Member
So I just bought a cheap gateway..nothing special;

AMD Phenom 9100e Quad-Core
4gig's of ram
ATI Radeon HD 3200
Vista 64 home premium SP1

I was looking for a video card for it, but it's been about 4 or 5 years since I last bought a video card...I currently play mainly WoW, but will be playing some of the newer games coming out. I'm not looking to spend too much and would like some advice for some cards maybe in the under $100 price range and some in the $100-$200 price range....thanks in advance
 
A hundred to two hundred you can't go wrong with the 4850 or 4870. You could have made a case for the GTX 260 right close to 200 but not now, not with the recent ATI price drops. 4830 is probably the place to be just 100 with the slightly slower 9600gt on the other side of the fence.
 
I like the 9600GT and the 9800GT a lot. With ATI's price cuts the 4850 and 4870 are great values, with the 4870 going below $150 now it's the card to get. The 4850 probably is going to be discontinued, unless the 4830 is discontinued to make room for the faster 4850.

There's also a very nice looking passively cooled 9600GT card out there (I think Newegg has it).
 
What they said, or if you can wait until it hits the retailers that GTS 250 1GB looks quite nice - fast for the category, low power usage, fairly cool, reasonably priced.
 
Could you please check your power supply and tell us its manufacturer name, model number, amp ratings (12v, 5v, 3.3v) and whether or not it has a 6 pin PCI-E connector? Your power supply might not be up to the task of driving a powerful video card.
 
Thanks for the info...seems like a good pick is either 4850 or 4870....what's the difference? Also, how much better (and what price) is the GTS 250 1GB gonna be when it comes out? and when does it come out? I can wait because for what I'm currently doing, the integrated video *shiver* is working....good enough. Oh, and the power supply is irrelevant because I have a really good almost brand new power supply I'm gonna be putting into it, it's sitting in an unused computer at the moment. (don't have the specs on me right now of what it is, but I know when I bought it 3 months ago, it was the best you could get for $100.)
 
THe 4870 beats the GTS 250, and they will be about the same price once the GTS finally hits retailers. The GTS is just a rebadged 8xxx, if you have been following the news, so there isn't a whole lot of new tech there.
 
Originally posted by: Creig
Could you please check your power supply and tell us its manufacturer name, model number, amp ratings (12v, 5v, 3.3v) and whether or not it has a 6 pin PCI-E connector? Your power supply might not be up to the task of driving a powerful video card.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.

I would recommend a 4670 at most. The PSU is going to be crap.
 
I ended up getting a 4850 and the PSU that I had was perfect. One question though. The card requires 450 PSU, I have a 500, would getting a more powerful PSU improve the performance?
 
Originally posted by: JLCollier2005
I ended up getting a 4850 and the PSU that I had was perfect. One question though. The card requires 450 PSU, I have a 500, would getting a more powerful PSU improve the performance?
Click to expand...

Unless your card isn't getting enough power, you won't see a change in performance from a new PSU. If your framerates are in line with what you'd expect of a 4850, you'll be fine with your current PSU. What're its 12V rails rated for?
 
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