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Video card shopping $50-$60?

F

Fishlove

Member
Hey guys, i currently have a decent Galaxy Tech 8400 GS 512 MB card that unfortunately, is crapping the bed. I had to get a slot cooler b/c the GPU fan is going nuts. So, im in the market for a new card, and figured why not upgrade? I am currently running a Gateway with a Intel i3 2.93 ghz with 6 gb of ram windows 7 64 bit and what i believe to be a 600 watt PSU. while i am an avid gamer, I dont need the best resolutions esp being that i have an old Dell 1800 FP monitor, which i believe maxes out at 1024 1280-1024 at 75hz. while i do a little movie editing and watching, i dont currently own a Blu Ray drive, so that isnt a concern. The games im lookin at are Dragon Age, Assassin's Creed 2,, and maybe Splinter Cell Conviction. Would like to get an Nvidia, but if it comes down to price, then i will take an ATI.
 
Honestly i would step up the price to $100 if possible and go with a 768MB GTX 460, thats a hell of alot of card for the money. If going overbudget is not possible a GT240 DDR5 is a good choice in the price range.
 
ok, looks good, but still a lil high...just a quick question...does memsize really figure all that much? i see decent priced cards that arent 1gb in fact some are 512 mb...is that something to consider?
 
it's more important if you play at higher resolutions. in your case, an HD 4850 512MB like the ones that flew off shelves for $30 bucks last week would let you play basically any game at max res.
 
yeah i see now, they're phasing those out...i've religiously looked at Tom's Hardware for my basis. the HD 4650 seems to be near both what i want res wise and price. im guessing i would be steered away from it? for the record, the reason im so desperate to get a new one right now is b/c at highest load (and that means running D&D online at a fairly low res even)
im hitting 229 Farenheit peak, and thats WITH a slot cooler on full blast.😵
 
i think i am close to making a decision here..based on what i've read in comparison to the geforce 210 i think im gonna go with the HD 4550. Thank you for all your help 🙂
 
Fishlove said:
yeah i see now, they're phasing those out...i've religiously looked at Tom's Hardware for my basis. the HD 4650 seems to be near both what i want res wise and price. im guessing i would be steered away from it? for the record, the reason im so desperate to get a new one right now is b/c at highest load (and that means running D&D online at a fairly low res even)
im hitting 229 Farenheit peak, and thats WITH a slot cooler on full blast.😵
Click to expand...

Fishlove said:
i think i am close to making a decision here..based on what i've read in comparison to the geforce 210 i think im gonna go with the HD 4550. Thank you for all your help 🙂
Click to expand...

Don't get a 4650 or 4550, and don't religiously read Tom's. We can give you much more tailored advice. The GT240 that slacker linked to for $80 (+$6 shipping) and a $40 rebate is far, far superior to either of the cards you've chosen. The 5670 for $80 with a $15 rebate is even better.

If you still can't stand to pay much over $60 out of pocket, then please get this 4670 instead of the cards you're looking at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161315. For $65 ($55 after rebate), it's also a much better deal. It looks like you could save ~$10 going with a 4650, but trust me, the $10 is worth the step-up to a 4670.

I don't know which 4550 card you're looking at, but don't be tempted by the $20 cards: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...DeactivatedMark=False&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20. Those will probably not be an upgrade from what you have due to the very slow memory they use. And the $40 cards wouldn't compare to a $55 4670.
 
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Yea the GT240 (With DDR5) that Slacker linked to is the best bang for the buck below $50.
After that its hard to say as prices are in a good state of flux/rebate deals right now due to the new cards that have come out.

I got my GTS450 for $90 AR and many of the 460 cards drop every now and then. AMD is also dropping prices and rebates are starting to come up on the 5XXX series cards.

Here is a GTS450 for $90 with coupon code/Rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130572

So $45 for the GT240 or $90 for the GTS450 seem to be the best bang for the buck for less than $50 or $100 mark.
 
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Fishlove said:
i think i am close to making a decision here..based on what i've read in comparison to the geforce 210 i think im gonna go with the HD 4550. Thank you for all your help
Click to expand...

You can do better than a Geforce 210 and HD 4550 in your price range.

Without rebates on newegg, you can get a Geforce 9500GT, Geforce GT 220, or Radeon HD 4650 under $60. Any of these cards are a lot faster than the GT 210 and HD 4550. They should be at least twice as fast.

If you want to consider rebates as well as pricing, you can step up to faster solutions. HD 4670, HD 5570, HD 5670, GT 240, GT 430.

You'll want the fastest card you can get your hands on, which would be the GT 240 and HD 5670, if you would consider rebates.

Also the Intel HD graphics should be better than the 8400GS, so if the motherboard supports it then you should switch to it in the meantime.
 
Fishlove, PLEASE don't get the 4550. For the love of God, It's slow as crap. I think a better bet is this Radeon 4830 for $59.99 at Newegg.

It is 256-bit (instead of 64-bit) has 640 stream processors (instead of 80) and has DDR3 RAM (instead of DDR2).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131381

Let me know if the link doesn't work. I'm having a problem with links from my office comptuer here.
 
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Yeah I buy low profile 4550's just for people that need dual monitors at work, I don't think I'd do any gaming with them.
 
ok i just filed for a Return Auth from tiger...thanks for the help. I cant say im not a lil miffed, but it's best to get the most bang for your buck. I think I'll go with the 4830...i never even saw it at that low of a price...then again, i was shopping at 3 am for it lol.
 
Fishlove said:
ok i just filed for a Return Auth from tiger...thanks for the help. I cant say im not a lil miffed, but it's best to get the most bang for your buck. I think I'll go with the 4830...i never even saw it at that low of a price...then again, i was shopping at 3 am for it lol.
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Good choice... here is a comparison of the 4830 512 vs a 5550 (lowest card on the chart, still 2x as fast as a 4550). 4830 is at least twice as fast as a 5550... 4550 would be a disaster.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2010-gaming-graphics-charts-high-quality/compare,2487.html?prod[4606]=on&prod[4591]=on
 
Fishlove said:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...3ORDER-_-Deals

im not considering rebates b/c i dont want to be waiting around for money that i might not get for months.
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Fishlove said:
link works fine...and ty for it...i didnt see that before.
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That 4830 for $67 should be about 4x faster than the 4550 for $50. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2935/5

By the way, that 4550 is much cheaper at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-250-_-Product. $45, or $35 after rebate.

Looks like you made the right decision in returning it.
 
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Thankfully, it was still in transit when i decided to change my mind. That's my downfall, I'm an impulse shopper lol...the stores both on and offline, love me 🙂

Yeah my 8400 GS not only is just acting up GPU fan wise, i get lockups in Assassin's Creed 2 during the Tomb missions, but only during those, nowhere else. No, thats not my only reason, but I love the game. I had pretty respectable gameplay on Arkham Asylum. The one thing i dont like about this PC ? ALL PCI E slots...so in order to upgrade to an actual sound card (which i want to do to record through a guitar interface), i HAVE to get a more expensive and less common PCI E sound card, but that's for another post.
 
That HD 4830 does sound like the best deal in that price range. If you are concerned about heat in the case you might want to consider this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161315

It will exhaust most warm air out and the HD 4670 wouldn't produce too much heat to begin with. I stuck one in a PC I built for my sister from leftover parts and she's quite happy with it - plays WoW and LotRO quite nicely at 1280x1024 and she just has an Athlon X2 5200+.
 
ok now that were talking about it, i have a Liteon Power Supply, and from what i see i have no way of knowing what wattage it is:

here's the stats if that helps:

serial # 00197562

model # PS-6301-08A

long model # (??)

PY3000B01594901247P803

if im off topic tell me so, but now you guys are making me wonder if i even have the wattage to run a new(er) card. *yikes*
 
Fishlove said:
ok now that were talking about it, i have a Liteon Power Supply, and from what i see i have no way of knowing what wattage it is:

here's the stats if that helps:

serial # 00197562

model # PS-6301-08A

long model # (??)

PY3000B01594901247P803

if im off topic tell me so, but now you guys are making me wonder if i even have the wattage to run a new(er) card. *yikes*
Click to expand...

That's a low-end 300w power supply.

Go for the 4670 linked above (which I also linked to previously). You won't have power problems with that. Skip the 4830. Too power-hungry for your rig: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/811/10/. You don't want to come anywhere near 300 watts with your PSU. The 4670 offers both good performance and peace of mind.
 
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now that i read your 4670 link, it suggests a 400 watt PSU....

what i dont like about the gateway site is that it says 300 or 500 watt power supply...i wish they would go the way of HP, HP has complete specs of all their models, not just generalized ones...*facepalm*
 
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