TPWW Forums  

Go Back   TPWW Forums > o t h e r > computer help forum
Reload this Page How muchshould I expect to pay for a decent graphics card?
Register Members List

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 08-03-2011, 09:01 AM   #1
Kane Knight
Ron Paul 4 EVA
 
Kane Knight's Avatar
 
Posts: 152,467
Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)
How muchshould I expect to pay for a decent graphics card?
It's been a Looooooong time since I had to buy one, but the integrated Radeon HD3000 on my new PC is kinda...Shitty. The only game I seem to be able to run off my Steam account without issue is Plants vs Zombies.

I don't need bleeding edge and I don't really want to pay for it either.

So basically:

What's good?

Considering it's been over six years since I bought one, is there anything specific I should be looking for technology wise? New features/tech/caveats?

Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret.

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”

--John Rogers
Kane Knight is offline  
Old 08-03-2011, 09:48 AM   #2
El Fangel
ELF ANGEL
 
El Fangel's Avatar
 
Posts: 39,476
El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)El Fangel makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)
For a mid-range one, you are looking at 200$ or so. I bought a new Radeon 2400 a year ago for 89.99 as The most graphic intensive game I play on my PC is Sins 3/ WoW and occasionally Doom 3.

I think The Source or Circuit City had GForce 8800 on sale this week.
El Fangel is offline  
Old 08-03-2011, 11:04 AM   #3
#BROKEN Hasney
BAY BAY
 
#BROKEN Hasney's Avatar
 
Posts: 36,524
#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)#BROKEN Hasney makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)
Exclamation
These are probably your best bang for buck options which should set you up for a good few years.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814261100

That's what I've got and it every game I have, including some brand spanking new ones, it maxes with some speed. Even though it's combined with a shitty Athlon 2 quad-core. Your benefits of going NVidia are PhysX (example video at the bottom) and the availability to upgrade to stereoscopic 3D if you ever fancy it (ATi don't really have a good solution for this yet)



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...G-_-14-102-948

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...s-_-14-102-948

The comparable ATi card. With this, you'll get similar performance with less power drain, runs cooler and slightly cheaper, but you do miss out on the bells and whistle from NVidia (although you do get eyefinity, which is an awesome multi-monitor set-up). not sure on the differences between the two above, apart from one's cheaper and one comes with 2 games.
#BROKEN Hasney is offline  
Old 08-03-2011, 12:10 PM   #4
Kane Knight
Ron Paul 4 EVA
 
Kane Knight's Avatar
 
Posts: 152,467
Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Kane Knight makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)
That reminds me. I need to go find some online documentation or open this fucker up and see how powerful its power supply is.
Kane Knight is offline  
Old 08-03-2011, 02:57 PM   #5
Vietnamese Crippler
Unnecessarily awesome
 
Vietnamese Crippler's Avatar
 
Posts: 8,323
Vietnamese Crippler puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Vietnamese Crippler puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Vietnamese Crippler puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Vietnamese Crippler puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Vietnamese Crippler puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Vietnamese Crippler puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Vietnamese Crippler puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Vietnamese Crippler puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Vietnamese Crippler puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)
I always turn to this when looking for a new card: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...card,2964.html
Vietnamese Crippler is offline  
Old 08-03-2011, 06:25 PM   #6
G
Selectively Social
 
G's Avatar
 
Posts: 16,336
G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)G has 75,000 or more rep points (75,000+)
I used tomshardware when I got my new card 2 months ago. Got a pretty good one for $70. Already had an upgraded power supply, so I didn't have to worry with that. You will probably need to upgrade yours if you get a decent card, since most factory ones are crap and can't handle anything outside what it was prebuilt with.

Probably
G is offline  
Old 08-03-2011, 06:27 PM   #7
Jura
▬▬ஜ۩۞۩ஜ▬▬
 
Jura's Avatar
 
Posts: 16,011
Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)
Last year the Radeon HD 5000 series were king but lately it's the HD 6000 series. Same goes with Nvidia's GT(X) 400s and GT(X) 500s. The GT240 and HD 5670 are low power cards and do not require the extra 6-pin thing. I don't know about their current counterparts but I think they use a small amount of extra watts.

Sounds like you'd be okay with the HD 5670 which is DirectX 11 capable, has very low power consumption at idle and around 70w at full usage. I have the Nvidia counterpart, the GT240, but it was hard-locking my pc and I think the HD 5670 is better choice in hindsight. I only got it because it had Cuda and I love messing with video encoding but since it gave me problems I didn't actually get a chance to use it. I think I will try to install it again and see if the newer drivers fix my problem.
Jura is offline  
Old 08-03-2011, 09:59 PM   #8
Purgatory
You're Welcome.
 
Purgatory's Avatar
 
Posts: 7,242
Purgatory puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Purgatory puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Purgatory puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Purgatory puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Purgatory puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Purgatory puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Purgatory puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Purgatory puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)Purgatory puts the "bang" in Bangladesh (30,000+)
The ATI Radeon HD series would be the way I'd go.

Yeah, gonna upgrade mine around Christmas or so. I have to drop in a new powersupply, though. I just bought my PC last summer and haven't done anything beyond the factory install. I think the one in it is a 200W and the upgrade will take it to 350 or 400W. I need at least 300W to power the ATI RAdeon HD card I was looking at.

Being that it's a few months off yet, I'm almost positive something else will catch my eye and I'll have to upgrade something else.
Purgatory is offline  
Old 08-05-2011, 02:55 PM   #9
Jura
▬▬ஜ۩۞۩ஜ▬▬
 
Jura's Avatar
 
Posts: 16,011
Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Jura makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)
Since AMD processors that contain the CPU and GPU on the same chip have just started coming out I think I will upgrade to that in the future. It's $120 for these new CPUs compared to like $70-179 for just a processor and then an extra $80+ for a video card. Seems like a good deal since the GPU on the chip is better than the integrated GPU on current motherboards.
Jura is offline  
 

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:01 AM.

Forums Home - TPWW - Archive - Top

Powered by vBulletin®