I need a new video card for Skyrim, any suggestions?

Slim Gatsby

Slim Gatsby

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I have an AMD Athalon X2 5000+ System. 3 gigs of ram. Its an HP pavillion a couple of years old, with a PCIe slot.

Does anyone have suggestions for a good yet inexpensive video card, preferably one I can keep if I build a custom rig in the next few months? Thanks!
 
At what resolution are you planning on running Skyrim? And what's the wattage on your current power supply? Are you planning on running at max settings with the high quality texture pack? Budget limit?
 
I run skyrim on highest settings with HD texture packs+other custom graphics mods on a pair of 5850s

You might want to look into getting a single radeon 5850. Sounds like your not an enthusiast so it would work great for you. They go for 90-150 bucks these days, and if you build a new rig, you can always get another 5850 to put in crossfire.
 
I'm looking to spend as little as possible. I don't really have time to game a whole lot anymore; but I've heard a ton of good things about Skyrim and that the PC version is best - plus the Portal content really sold it for me. I do some occassional video editing and graphic design, but other than that and TF2 and some other Steam games, I really don't do any hardcore gaming on my PC. The game doesn't have to be at the highest settings, but it should look good and run smoothly.

I don't know the wattage, I'm not at home right now unfortunately. My computer is an HP pavillion, n6000-series, a few years old.

I really don't want to spend as much as I would on a console for a video card to play Skyrim and get a minimal increase in performance on Portal 2; I popped a mid-range G-Force into it in 2009 when I dabbled in WoW, but that's showing up as out of date. $50-100 is my price range. If it will still be good to play Diablo III, that's also a plus.

I found what looks like a decent deal on Amazon and placed an order yesterday that hasn't shipped yet - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Z5GRW6/ref=ox_ya_os_product - I should be able to run Skyrim on "medium to high" with this, I believe. Is this one okay? Any disadvantages to this? Worthwhile, for $50 AR, or should I cancel the order?'

Thanks!
 
I think your power supply will limit what you can pick from for video cards. Most likely, you'd have to choose only one that requires power from the PCI-E slot and not supplemental power since I doubt you have much more than a 300W PSU. Any video card that requires a 6-pin PCI-E power connector will require a 400W or 450W PSU at the minimum, which I doubt you have.

The one you picked would work out, though having GDDR3 memory will handicap it a bit, though since you're working with an Athlon X2 system, I don't think the GDDR5 version will make much of a difference.

Best you'd do on the NVidia side of the fence would be a GTX 545 DDR3, which could you similar performance.

CPU limitations would be more of an issue than a GPU limitation, so I think what you spent AR would be the best you're going to manage with the system you have.

I highly recommend thinking about a new system at some time in the future, and learning to build your own would be a great thing to do. A nice article to read about options you can look at for possible systems for building your own:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/22513
 
Thanks! So, sticking with this one for $50 should work out, then? What is so bad about the GDDR3?

I'm definitely thinking about rebuilding one in the future. The system I have now is the first system I've had in a decade that I haven't built myself; I've just fallen a bit behind since I haven't had the time or inclination to follow it in a while.

Would I later be able to get a second one of these for crossfire, if I need it later on?
 
[quote name='Slim Gatsby']Would that suit my purposes and not require any further upgrades to my configuration?[/QUOTE]

250 GTS should work fine for Skyrim. You could even buy another to crossfire in the future. My concern though is that you said your system was an HP Pavillion. That doesn't sound like it would have enough cooling fans inside. Any modern day video card is going to make your system run much hotter.
 
[quote name='Slim Gatsby']Thanks! So, sticking with this one for $50 should work out, then? What is so bad about the GDDR3?

I'm definitely thinking about rebuilding one in the future. The system I have now is the first system I've had in a decade that I haven't built myself; I've just fallen a bit behind since I haven't had the time or inclination to follow it in a while.

Would I later be able to get a second one of these for crossfire, if I need it later on?[/QUOTE]GDDR3 is the third generation of video RAM for video cards, while GDDR5 is the fifth generation video RAM. GDDR5 is going to be faster for a video card than GDDR3, and I think it has a wider memory path as well.

Since you're running on an Athlon X2 5000+, the differences you'd see between the GDDR3 and GDDR5 versions of the card wouldn't be anything you'd see. On a newer system, you might see some of it, yes.

I think that building your own would be something you should look at, as an investment of $600 - $700 will get you a system that will kick the doors of what you currently have.

The current system won't have enough PSU to drive anything that requires supplemental power to the video card, as I stated above, so I think the card you picked out will work just fine for the money you want to throw at it.

Don't even think about a second card for your system, even another card like the one you bought. Your system won't have enough power to drive a second card, and you'll be hitting CPU bounds more than video card bounds from what I'd think. Save that thought for a future system you'd build on your own.
 
To clarify, this is the mobo in my PC right now. Sorry for all the questions!

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01077676&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3436817#N92

This PSU is cheaper, but I don't want to buy garbage:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817170017

This one looks pretty bangin' but I'm unfamiliar with the brand. It's only $10 more than the Rosewill, but has a higher output and a second fan:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148022
 
I recommend getting a Corsair. They are more expensive but are some of the best in terms of quality.

Also, I still need to know how many fans are in your case. Most HPs only have the one small rear exhaust fan. That's not enough to cool modern video cards. Too much heat can cause blue screens of death and damage components in your computer.
 
Thanks for the links. I love Corsair but I used to be into Thermaltake...I could have sworn I had a spare high-end TT PSU or two laying around from my last upgrade/repair but they're either packed away somewhere I can't get to or I gave them away. Those look sweet, though, and stacking the sale, coupon, and rebate, that's pretty damn good for a high-end PSU.

I'm not super worried about cooling; yeah, there's only one case fan and stock systems blow for cooling options. I'm not overclocking or anything, but if I do have any problems I figure there's always the expansion slot or drive bay fan option.
 
Don't assume that the power supply you just ordered would fit into your Pavillion. It's hard to find replacement power supplies for pre-built systems, so unless you know for 100% certain that the new PSU would fit your case, you may not be able to use it. The power supply has to fit into your case as well as connect to your system board connectors, and unless you know it'll fit in there without question, you may have wasted money.

The GTS250 still requires a 6-pin PCI-E supplemental power connector, as well as needing up to 150W of power plus the system having a 450W or better PSU. Again, unless that replacement power supply fits into your existing case, the GTS250 won't work on your system, though the Radeon you looked at previously would work because it doesn't take a 6-pin PCI-E power connector.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']Don't assume that the power supply you just ordered would fit into your Pavillion. It's hard to find replacement power supplies for pre-built systems, so unless you know for 100% certain that the new PSU would fit your case, you may not be able to use it. The power supply has to fit into your case as well as connect to your system board connectors, and unless you know it'll fit in there without question, you may have wasted money.

The GTS250 still requires a 6-pin PCI-E supplemental power connector, as well as needing up to 150W of power plus the system having a 450W or better PSU. Again, unless that replacement power supply fits into your existing case, the GTS250 won't work on your system, though the Radeon you looked at previously would work because it doesn't take a 6-pin PCI-E power connector.[/QUOTE]

FML. Thanks, but FML.

Looks like operation build a new rig may be getting moved up a bit earlier...NewEgg does have an awesome return policy, though.
 
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If you are going to build a new system, I'd highly recommend going Intel instead. Especially if you have a Microcenter nearby, they sell the i5 2500k for $180 that comes with a $50 combo discount on any Intel motherboard.
 
 
[quote name='xRidley']If you are going to build a new system, I'd highly recommend going Intel instead. Especially if you have a Microcenter nearby, they sell the i5 2500k for $180 that comes with a $50 combo discount on any Intel motherboard.[/QUOTE]
As xRidley said, if you have a Microcenter near you, you can get great deals on a CPU + Mobo combo.

Do you really need 16GB of RAM though? 4GB or 8GB is fine if you're building this computer for gaming. Staying under the same budget for your RAM, CPU, mobo, and DVD drive that you have listed, this would be better:

CPU & DVD Drive
RAM
Mobo

If you want to spend more, I would recommend a good Z68 mobo and a i5-2500k, and change the RAM too if you want.
 
I dabble on film making and run premiere and photoshop and such, so I have no problem going overboard on the RAM.

So is the processor I bought bad? Generally, I tend to favor AMD over Intel since it tends l be a much better bang for the buck and everything I picked had really good reviews. Are you guys saying to cancel my orders and reconfigure everything again?
 
I have that same processor (P2 965). It's great. I can do whatever I want with it, and I have it overclocked to 3.89 ghz. but that isn't even necessary (I just did it to see if I could and it was stable so why not?). I love it, and those processors are very affordable these days.
 
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