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Video card recommendation $100 or less?

R

rbk123

Senior member
I am not a gamer so I know zip about video card value. I'd like to get a card for low end gaming for my daughter (Minecraft) for Xmas and was looking for recommendations on potential Black Friday deals in the $100 range. Any recommendations on the best bang for the buck?
 
Minecraft doesn't really take much of a video card to run. It is far more cpu intensive. The choices that p_monks33 listed are great options though at those prices. If you could find an AMD 7790 for around $85 on BF that would be a decent deal also.
 
7770 and 7790 are your best bet in the $100 range.

What CPU does the system have? Also what board?
 
Seba said:
Maybe, but compared to this 7850 2GB:



the Radeon HD 7770 1GB is a bad purchase.

According to this, even a Intel GMA 950 ancient integrated graphics is enough for Minecraft.
Click to expand...

it will run, it a very low resolution and with draw distance set to very close.

I can actually get minecraft to load down my 7950. So the stronger GPU he can get, the better.

A 7790 is probably the most he can get for his price range. And should be fine for his daughter provided she is not into heavy modding (And I am thinking she most likely isnt).
 
Thanks for the help. It's a Gigabyte M68M-S2P AM3 board running an old 3800+ X2. I used to OC it but nothing they did ran needed any horse-power so I dialed it back to stock.
Board is matx but it's in a mid-tower case so I have plenty of room.
Power supply is some generic 450W unit.

She's not a power user or a modder at all. I recently gave her a 23" IPS monitor and now it's pretty laggy in full screen mode, so she switches back to another computer with a 17" monitor for Minecraft.
 
Last edited:
rbk123 said:
Thanks for the help. It's a Gigabyte M68M-S2P AM3 board running an old 3800+ X2. I used to OC it but nothing they did ran needed any horse-power so I dialed it back to stock. I recently gave her a 23" monitor and now it's pretty laggy in full screen mode.
Board is matx but it's in a mid-tower case so I have plenty of room.
Power supply is some generic 450W unit.
Click to expand...

What GPU do you have in it now? Running a higher resolution will put a bit more load on the CPU as well. You can monitor CPU usage to see if you are running above 80% CPU. If thats the case, don't bother spending much on a GPU. Even a 7750 is more GPU than that CPU can handle in most cases.
 
Get a cheap 7770 for that system and overclock the CPU again.

Get the 7790 if you plan on doing a major upgrade in the next 6months.
 
So Christmas came and went and the 7790 is installed and made a big difference. Went from around 16FPS to 60FPS in full screen mode on the 23" monitor. She's a very happy camper.

Now I have a different question: since it came with a free Radeon bronze award game, which game should she get? Neither of us know anything about the 4 games choices:
- Sleeping Dogs
- Deus Ex Human Revolution
- Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
- Dirt 3

Recommendations?
 
rbk123 said:
So Christmas came and went and the 7790 is installed and made a big difference. Went from around 16FPS to 60FPS in full screen mode on the 23" monitor. She's a very happy camper.

Now I have a different question: since it came with a free Radeon bronze award game, which game should she get? Neither of us know anything about the 4 games choices:
- Sleeping Dogs
- Deus Ex Human Revolution
- Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
- Dirt 3

Recommendations?
Click to expand...

Deus Ex, if she's a fan of Minecraft.
 
I believe those are all M rated games excepting Dirt 3 if that makes a difference.

Alternatively, install Steam tonight while their big sale is going on and you can find a wider range of titles in the $3-$10 range.
 
rbk123 said:
Ugh. Didn't even notice that; thanks for pointing it out. Looks like I'll download one and save it for a few years from now...
Click to expand...

I was gonna say you can wait (they change games out), but I just checked and the codes expire on the 31st this month. BOOO!
 
rbk123 said:
So Christmas came and went and the 7790 is installed and made a big difference. Went from around 16FPS to 60FPS in full screen mode on the 23" monitor. She's a very happy camper.

Now I have a different question: since it came with a free Radeon bronze award game, which game should she get? Neither of us know anything about the 4 games choices:
- Sleeping Dogs
- Deus Ex Human Revolution
- Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
- Dirt 3

Recommendations?
Click to expand...

Of these four, I'd pick Blood Dragon. The game is quite funny, it pokes fun at action movies and games.
 
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