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Trying to upgrade a bit, help
Hey there I need to upgrade my gfx card. What GFX card can I get for under 100$ and that I dont need to buy anything else to make it work. I am trying to run high end games.
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/hp-pavilion-elite-e9160f/4507-3118_7-33698583.html?tag=mncol;subnav
That is the computer I have. Also not sure why it says nvidia gfx card, its a Intel 4 Express Chipset Family
Comments
high settings is not needed. Has to be atleast min and medium is a plus. So a PCI Express x16 is what I need I guess, but I dont know a damn thing about computers.
Man, you have the same gfx card as I have in my travel laptop. Yeah, you need an upgrade.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127606
It is actually 5 dollars over your budget, but for anything less it ain't worth to bother.
My real recommendation is however that you cough up $150 instead and get this one, it will make your computer feel like new again, a lot better deal. Think about it.
Those are Nvidia cards, since you already have one, they are more beginner friendly, but mainly because I am better on them than ATI cards, ask Quizz or someone for ATI tips.
Thanks I will try to get the 150$ one. Would I need to buy anything else for my computer to run these?
I would pass on the GTX460 and buy a 6850 for about $120. They are about the same and the 6850 is way less.
for the best performance/price you should get this card
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+6870
here is the link for the newegg one ... its 145 after rebate ( the nvidia gtx 460 scores about 2370 vs the radeon 6850 and the 6870 scoring at about 2720 and 2820 and the the gtx 460 costs more than both)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681410294
this card is by far the best price for performance along with the 6850. the 6870 is only $25 more, either one is what i would recommend for a budget card. if you are really limited on $ go with the 6850, here is a link for the cheapest one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161384
I can't find what power suply your computer uses.. but that would be the only issue with these graphic cards.
you need atleast a 500w power suply.
its a 350-watt power supply
I hate to say it but you need to upgrade your PS too. 500 watt minimum (better to have a 650 really). Then think about GFX cards
eh with a 350w psu you can't really get any graphic card... you would need to upgrade it...
here is a psu thats only $50 and 600w... its not the best psu but for that price you won't get much better.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028
There are a number of issues here. First, that power supply isn't meant to handle a gaming video card. Companies like HP tend to use the cheapest power supply that they figure won't be bad enough for you to figure out that the power supply is causing problems. Note that this is not at all the same thing as a power supply that won't cause any problems. And that's only with the hardware that the computer ships with. If you want to upgrade something to use a lot more power, then the power supply will be insufficient. If you want to get a gaming card, you need a new power supply.
I don't see any great deals on decent budget power supplies at the moment. This one would be more or less adequate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371033
If you want a power supply that is actually pretty good, you'll have to spend more. You could try this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182066
The next problem is your case. Some video cards won't physically fit in it, though those will tend to be higher end cards than what you're after. The more immediate issue for you is airflow, as the case isn't designed to dissipate that much heat. The new video card will put out a lot more heat than the old one. The ideal solution to that is an external exhaust video card, which will send the bulk of the card's heat right out the back of the card, and hence out of the case entirely.
Now, most cards aren't external exhaust, because most gamers get a case that can handle quite a bit of heat. Internal exhaust cards make more sense for those cases, and they're cheaper to build, too. Fortunately, there's an external exhaust card available right now at a price that is practically a steal:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103197
Note the promo code. That's $90 before a $20 rebate. A Radeon HD 6770 is essentially the same thing as a Radeon HD 5770. The Nvidia equivalent is a GeForce GTX 550 Ti. It's much faster than a GeForce GTS 450.
As for Nvidia versus AMD, basically, you should get an AMD card, as Nvidia doesn't have anything reasonable to offer you. Nvidia's basic problem right now is that they can build a video card, and AMD can build something equivalent for a lot cheaper. At the higher end, profit margins are large enough that Nvidia can be competitive on price and simply make a smaller profit per card than AMD does. But that's only for cards in the $200-$400 range (basically a GeForce GTX 560 Ti or GeForce GTX 570), which isn't where you're shopping. Below that, Nvidia has basically decided that they'll overprice their cards enough to cede the entire sub-$200 price/performance market to AMD, in order to at least make some profit off of their fanboys who won't even consider an AMD card.
The other problem with an Nvidia card right now is that they're way behind AMD in performance per watt. You can get a given level of performance from an AMD card, or the same level of performance from an Nvidia card, but the Nvidia card will take maybe 20% more power to do it. When you're significantly limited on both power (drawn from the power supply) and heat (released into the case), that's a pretty strong reason to go with AMD over Nvidia even if it was the same price for the same performance.
That's $72 before rebate, which is a long way away from $50. It's also only 480 W on the +12 V rail. It's not a bad power supply, really. You just have to accept that it's a somewhat decent 500-550 W power supply with an inflated wattage rating.
why are you giving him links to 380 and 450w psu? the card needs a MINIMUM of 500w... and with psu you are better off going 50-100w over that
I am kind of a Nivida fanboy, but AMD rules the price/performance realm. Nivida cards always have given my less problems in compatiblity and the drivers are updated faster i believe, thats about it.
i understand its not the best psu... but after mail-in its only $50 if hes on a very low budget its going to be hard to get a graphics card + psu for under $200
He might beable to run a ATI 6770 on what hes got its not a power hog, the cards cheap 100-130$ and it can run most games on high settings. All it needs is a 6pin power connection.
The processor has a TDP of 95 W and the video card I linked (which is definitely the one he should get) has a TDP of 108 W. It's pretty unlikely that the system will ever pull 250 W from the power supply. A decent quality 380 W power supply is adequate for that. Only adequate, really, but he seems to be on a pretty tight budget.
As for the 450 W power supply I linked, check the +12 V rails. It's only 36 W less than the "600 W" power supply that you linked. A larger number on the sticker as determined by the company's marketing division doesn't magically make a power supply work better. It has plenty of power for what the original poster needs, and Super Flower's gold platform is quite good. I'm glad that Rosewill decided to offer a non-modular version of it (unlike Kingwin, NZXT, Sentey, etc.) so that you can get it without paying an arm and a leg.
AMD has monthly driver updates, as well as some hotfixes released between the normal updates as necessary. Both AMD and Nvidia have pretty good drivers.