Good GPU

henrylin22

henrylin22

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I recently purchased a HP desktop pc with:
AMD athlon X4 2.6 ghz
6 gb ram
600 GB hard drive
Nvidia 9100

The Nvidia 9100 card sucks, and I want to replace it with a different a different graphics card. Does anyone has a recommendation for a good cheap GPU that can play GTA4, Fear 2, Dragon age, Mass effect etc? Also can I remove the nvidia 9100 and install a ATI card?
 
I think the 9100 is onboard video, so check to see if you have a PCI express slot on the inside. From the specs you gave I would assume it may have that slot.
 
The current sweet spot is a GTX 460 for around $200 but depending on your resolution, an ATI 4850 or 4870 or nVidia GTX 260 would probably suit your needs.
 
You have a video card slot:

Expansion Slots 1 (1 free) PCI-E x16 Graphic Interface Slot; 3 (3 free) PCI-E x1 Interface Slots

Like jchoi said above that is the new good 'budget' card. I myself have an older nVidia GTX260 and love it.

EDIT: also you will need to beef up your PSU. Also make sure your case has the space required for the new LARGER video cards.
 
Take something like this, remove your own (unhook all the plugs and remember where they go since you haven't done this before, it's easy), put the new one in and plug in all the wires.

Also what ever video card you choose make a note of how many power connectors it has (usually 6pin connection) and buy a power supply accordingly.

I'm sure there are a tone of installation videos on youtube that can help also.
 
If you don't want to buy and install another psu, you can still find a decent video card for your rig. Either a GT240 (GDDR5 version), HD5670 or 9800GT (low power or "green" version) will run just fine on a 300W psu. And those cards will play the games you mentioned on fairly high settings (maybe not GTA4, it isn't optimized very well).
 
[quote name='SEH']Grab a quality (Corsair, Antec, etc...) 450-500W PSU and slam a 5770 into your PC and you'll be golden.[/QUOTE]

+1 on the 5770, a 260 is a little out dated to be buying when this card is just a small step away in price.
 
Grab this Corsair 400W supply for $50 (use Bing Cashback to get 15% back, ~$7.50), then send in the rebate to get $20 back.

Even though it's rated at 400W, it should power anything you need short of the most power hungry video cards.
 
Damn that powersupply is going to bite you in the ass when you're talking about a gpu upgrade.

Personally, I'll up +1 the ATI 5670HD, since you get DirectX11 and eyefinity support (but dont use the latter... your card might implode from the stress). The 9800GT is a very good card from Nvidia, but isn't there a better, newer low-wattage card out by them?
 
[quote name='rumarudrathas']

The 9800GT is a very good card from Nvidia, but isn't there a better, newer low-wattage card out by them?[/QUOTE]

The GTS250 is the 200 series equivalent of the 9800GT. But there aren't any that are rated as low power as the "green" version of the 9800GT. I threw in a GT240 (1gb GDDR5 version) in a Gateway that has an i3-530 cpu and 6 gig of ddr3 ram (my wife's pc). It works surprisingly well.
 
I'm getting a ATI Radeon HD 4350 for $18 new. Is this going to run games? It was so cheap so I thought why not? My laptop isn't the best, but it can run mass effect 2 and dragon age on medium, so I'm not really in a hurry to get a super awesome card, just wanted to play games on a bigger screen.

http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-446.shtml
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's not a gaming card. HD 4350s are mostly used for desktop workstations and hoe theatre PCs.

It will play the games but on low settings.
 
I canceled the HD 4350, and bought the 8600 GT for $20 new. I love ebay. IF that doesn't work good enough i will have to upgrade my power supply and get a 9800.
 
The 8600GT was a decent card a few years ago. Not really sure if it's held up though. You'll probably be running most modern games on low settings.

Quick question though. Why did you bother asking for advice when you've seemingly ignored everything everyone's said?
 
[quote name='SEH']The 8600GT was a decent card a few years ago. Not really sure if it's held up though. You'll probably be running most modern games on low settings.

Quick question though. Why did you bother asking for advice when you've seemingly ignored everything everyone's said?[/QUOTE]

nah im not ignoring, i was completely ignorant of video cards before this. I don't want to spend a too much on graphics cards since they get outdated easily and with $300 i would rather get a xbox. my laptop can run modern games on medium but I just wanted to play games on my desktop since the screen is bigger and my laptop is running out of harddrive space. seriously, thanks to everyone who replied to this thread. :D
 
I'm mildly surprised no one asked how big his monitor is. For me, the size of my monitor was a factor in what card I bought, due to the fact that I wanted high settings in games, but I also wanted to make sure I could play at 1920x1080, and some of the lower cards allow you to do one or the other.
 
Yeah. Anything 1680x1050 or higher you'll definitely be much better off with a card that has a gig of memory. If your monitor is smaller, a 512MB card is fine.
 
In regards to the 8600GT you mentioned, you should be alright with it. Before I upgraded to my 5850 I had one of those (what a jump that was!) and I was able to play most things on medium or so, at 1920x1080. This included things like Fallout 3, Half-Life 2 and the episodes, and even Crysis.
 
[quote name='Lawyers Guns N Money']If you buy this card, be wary. BFG is going under and you likely will have issues getting warranty support.[/QUOTE]

BFG going under is still speculation. They moved their facilities, stepped out of the video card business and rebranding power supplies. That's all. There really isn't any further new on their "impending demise" that I've seen.
 
[quote name='bigpimpin24']Ever think about outputting the video from your laptop to your monitor? Then you could run the games as well as play on your desktop. :p[/QUOTE]

wow, now i feel dumb,:drool: but I already bought the card and my laptop's 160 GB HD can't hold many games. $25 for a 8600GT is pretty good though.
 
I installed the card easily and it runs Gothic 3 at 40fps high, Airborne 70fps high, Assassin's creed 65 fps high, Clone wars 35 fps high, Fallout 3 45fps high, etc, this card is amazing for $25. Thanks for all the advice! :applause:
 
I love the 8600gt, since that was my old card before upgrading to my current ATI 4850 HD. For the price you paid, you got a fairly okay deal, imho.

I'll say this, if you're currently happy with your purchase, then good for you and live on with the CAG lifestyle.

That being said, I forgot to refer you to my favorite video card article, updated every month. At the end of the article, it lists cards via 'levels of awesomeness', which might be a helpful guide for the future.
 
In all honesty, getting a gtx 460 1gb edition and a 500W Antec Earthwatts for around 300 dollars (if you play your cards right) is the best bang for buck when concerned with future investment of future proofing the system. If you go for a lesser card now, and wanting to play semi to new games now and the future, you will be kicking yourself in the butt since you will need to do another major upgrade just to play the games decently.
 
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