Hi-ya CAGs, I have a nephew who just bought a new PC and I've been out of the gaming PC realm for far too long to help him, but I understand the need for a GPU for even budget gaming rigs. Anyway's he just bought a HP Pavilion P7-1446S PC which seems good but doesn't come with an actual GPU, only interegrated. Does anyone have any suggestions on a GPU that would maximize what he currently has?

I don't know what his spending limit is but I assume a good performance-versus-cost is wanted.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...view,3107.html

That ought to help once you find his price range. Keep in mind, better deals can be found and they are just going by average street price (eg: I got my 7950 for about $60-70 cheaper than it was listed at the time).

It may be out of your price range or overkill but I have a HD7870 I have been nothing but pleased with since building in September. A friend of mine recently bought a GTX560ti and it very pleased with it so far as well and it was like $100 cheaper than the 7870. In addition to the Tom's Hardware link that Nosferatu51 mentioned this gpu hierarchy chart is good as well to see where things stand and then look for good prices from there.

if you are using an HP computer you are going to need to upgrade the PSU as well as it will not be sufficient for any decent card.

Here are his specs

As far as recs go, Id replace his power supply with this and grab this graphic card

Considering both have rebates and the GPU is a very solid card that comes with Bioshock Infinite and the newest Tomb Raider game that he can either play or resell thats a really solid deal.

The PSU linked to above tends to go on sale quite a bit. Personally I would spend a few extra bucks and get a better card and a higher rated psu.

7870 LE
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=783...ure=PowerColor

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...mark,3401.html

edit: With that said, make sure whatever card you get will fit in the case. GPU length could come into play and minimize your ability to upgrade that computer.

Loyal EVGA guy here.

I recommend:

GTX 670. Shop around. Can be had at a decent price. If you don't need top of the line, go GTX 570 for a previous gen.

Personally I would recommend a GTX 650. If you are playing at 720p it has no problem maxing out almost all games, for 1080p you may need to turn down some setting but low/medium is okay. I own one and for $100, the price to performance ratio is fantastic.

I really appreciate the replies guys.

I just texted him and he said he doesn't have a spending limit.

Advertisement

Register for free to remove this ad

No limit! GTX 690, there problem solved....

Honestly though I'd say go with Radeon HD 7850 prices have come down in the past few months on them and he gets 2 free games right now. If he playns on gaming at say 1080p at very high or better settings (like you'd use if gaming on a big TV or high res monitor) then he would probably be best with a GTX 660 or Radeon 7870. Anything more and I'd say the processor will bottle neck the GPU's power.

Speaking of processors, depending on the types of games he's playing he may consider trying the PC first without dedicated graphics. You'd be surprised at what the embedded graphics (7660D) of that A10-series processor can do. He won't be gaming with much of anything at 1080p or maxing out Crysis, but most folks agree the new Trinity A-series can play games that are not super intensive (like Diablo 3 for example) at acceptable framerates with the pretty good settings.

Note that if he gets a good dedicated GPU, like someone else said above, he will absolutely have to set aside at least $50+ to upgrade to a decent PSU. He will probably want something with at least 450-500 watts...

Originally Posted by Duo_Maxwell No limit! GTX 690, there problem solved.... Honestly though I'd say go with Radeon HD 7850 prices have come down in the past few months on them and he gets 2 free games right now. If he playns on gaming at say 1080p at very high or better settings (like you'd use if gaming on a big TV or high res monitor) then he would probably be best with a GTX 660 or Radeon 7870. Anything more and I'd say the processor will bottle neck the GPU's power. Speaking of processors, depending on the types of games he's playing he may consider trying the PC first without dedicated graphics. You'd be surprised at what the embedded graphics (7660D) of that A10-series processor can do. He won't be gaming with much of anything at 1080p or maxing out Crysis, but most folks agree the new Trinity A-series can play games that are not super intensive (like Diablo 3 for example) at acceptable framerates with the pretty good settings. Note that if he gets a good dedicated GPU, like someone else said above, he will absolutely have to set aside at least $50+ to upgrade to a decent PSU. He will probably want something with at least 450-500 watts...

He has been playing around with games like WoW, so he is okay for the moment. But he surely will be playing heavy graphical games. So far, from you and others here I was thinking that the Raedeon HD 7870 would be nice, since it's comparable to 7900 series from the reviews. So what version of that should I look into. There's a Myst Edition, but only has one fan compared to others.

Originally Posted by Shifty Effect He has been playing around with games like WoW, so he is okay for the moment. But he surely will be playing heavy graphical games. So far, from you and others here I was thinking that the Raedeon HD 7870 would be nice, since it's comparable to 7900 series from the reviews. So what version of that should I look into. There's a Myst Edition, but only has one fan compared to others.

Myst Edition is good. It may run a bit hot at a full load, but so do some cards with 2 fans. If you are trying to get as close to the 7900 series as possible try something with a Tahiti LE core like the MYST edition or the Boost XT. However, I think that will only give you an extra 5-10 FPS on average. If you want something to run most anything fast but cool try the HiS 7870 IceQ Turbo X (which has one large fan but cools very well supposedly).

I cannot find that HiS anywhere for sale, H787QNX2G2M.

Originally Posted by Shifty Effect I cannot find that HiS anywhere for sale, H787QNX2G2M.

What's wrong with the H787Q2G2M? The little bit of difference in clock speed should be fairly minimal and you can probably overclock it a bit anyway.

Newegg and Amazon have it for $220 w/ free shipping and there's a $10 rebate on top of that.

Of course you also get the free Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider 2013.

I'm running two GTX 560 Ti's. I personally recommend that card