Graphic card upgrade. Again.

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Barry Mcwhorter

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Aug 11, 2013
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Hi guys, I bought a saffire hd 5450 a year ago and put it in my hp p6510f.
It worked fine for what I was playing.

Well now im wanting to play skyrim on ultra so I need to buy a psu and a newer card.

Im thinking corsair cx 500
and pny gtx 650 2gb gddr5 card.
Will this give me the best bang for my buck for under or around 200$.
Iv also read that it may be better if I get a amd card because the hp is based on amd.
What do you guys think?

Specs:::
Processor AMD Athlon II X4 630 / 2.8 GHz .
Memory 4.0 GB / 16.0 GB (max) .
Hard Drive 750.0 GB - 7200.0 rpm .
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition .
Graphics - Saffire hd 5450
 
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MC_K7
No I don't think AMD cards run better with AMD CPU.

That being said, the GTX-650 is a little weak, I doubt it will be able to run Skyrim on Ultra. You might have to bust your budget a little bit and step up for the 650-Ti or 650-Ti "Boost" (huge difference in performance compared to "vanilla" 650s).

The Radeon 7850 would be a good choice too, but will also bust your budget by a little bit.

And yes, the Corsair CX series are excellent budget PSUs and enough to run all these cards.
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MC_K7

MC_K7

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No I don't think AMD cards run better with AMD CPU.

That being said, the GTX-650 is a little weak, I doubt it will be able to run Skyrim on Ultra. You might have to bust your budget a little bit and step up for the 650-Ti or 650-Ti "Boost" (huge difference in performance compared to "vanilla" 650s).

The Radeon 7850 would be a good choice too, but will also bust your budget by a little bit.

And yes, the Corsair CX series are excellent budget PSUs and enough to run all these cards.
 
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Barry Mcwhorter

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Aug 11, 2013
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Well I guess I can pump rhe budget to about 250-300 shipped from tigerdirect
Or newegg what would u get?
Can u get me like 3 or 5 you'd chose between? List them and ill check them out.
Thanks for the reply!!
 
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MC_K7

MC_K7

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Usually Newegg have better prices than TigerDirect, but it's always good to compare. So I'd go with either one of these cards:

Sapphire 7850 2GB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102999

OR

Asus 650-Ti "Boost" 2GB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121728

Note that the "650-Ti Boost" performs right on par with the "Radeon 7850", so it really comes down to a matter if you prefer AMD or nVidia, but both are solid cards.

AND the PSU of course:

CX500:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027

CX600:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

I've put the CX600 too because it's only an extra 10$ so in case you change GPU again in the future you won't have to replace PSU again if the new card requires more power.

All in all, this should cost roughly 250$ with taxes and shipping, busts your initial budget a little bit but it will certainly give you a much smoother gaming experience.

P.S. Since you already have a 64-bit OS, it might be tempting to upgrade to 8GB of RAM in a near future too.
 
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MC_K7

MC_K7

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Since you're looking at a budget PSU, definitely avoid Thermaltake and CoolerMaster, they make aweful PSUs. Only their high-end models are good but they cost over 100$.

Stick with the Corsair CX family, they are very good entry-level PSUs. Or if you want something better you could get the TX family (mid range) or the HX family (high end). But as far as I know, all Corsair PSUs are very good at their specific price range, so you can't really go wrong with them.
 
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MC_K7

MC_K7

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Oh, and just a last thing to check or consider. That HP case seems to be a small tower, so I recommend you take measurements inside to make sure the new video card will fit.

Also, this case seems to have just basic airflow (just one exhaust fan). It should be ok, but your card might run a little hotter than in a mid or full tower with larger intake + exhaust fans. But I don't expect major issues here, just maybe an extra 5 or 10 degrees. On that matter I think the Radeon 7850 tends to run a little hotter than the 650-Ti "Boost" if this makes you reconsider.
 
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