I'm looking to buy a new video card for between $150-$250

Pikkoro · Feb 23, 2014

Any help would be greatly appreciated below are my PCs specs:

Processor AMD A8-6500 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics
Manufacturer AMD
Speed 3.5 GHz
Number of Cores 4
Video Card AMD Radeon HD 8570D
Manufacturer ATI
Chipset AMD Radeon HD 8570D
Dedicated Memory 768 MB
Total Memory 4.0 GB
Memory 7.4 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit
Service Pack 0
Size 64 Bit
Edition Basic
Display Maximum Resolution 1600 x 900

This is the computer I have:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavilion-desktop-8gb-memory-2tb-hard-drive/1682356.p?id=1219060353967#tab=specifications

Let me know if there's any other information I need to provide.

brarboy · Feb 24, 2014

here are 2 best options available to you:
Asus R9 270x: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r9270xdc2t2gd5
Asus GTX 760 DCIIOC: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx760dc2oc2gd5

You haven't specified the power supply. Any of the above card, you will be good with 500watts PSU. If you don't have quality psu get one.
Corsair CX500: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx500
XFX P1-550S-XXB9: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550sxxb9

EasyLover · Feb 24, 2014

Check these options dear,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121775
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814550001

[strike]Don't buy CX Series PSU because they are in fourth tier hence not recommended[/strike]

brarboy · Feb 24, 2014

EasyLover :

if i may, CX-series are 3rd tier bro according to EggExpert. Sorry for inconvenience.

EasyLover · Feb 24, 2014

brarboy :

Yes, you are right, it is in 3rd tier. I forgot tier 2b in my counting. Bad Maths at work

. Thanks for correction.

brarboy · Feb 24, 2014

EasyLover :

brarboy :

Yes, you are right, it is in 3rd tier. I forgot tier 2b in my counting. Bad Maths at work

. Thanks for correction.

yeah, mistakes happen. Even i have been corrected sometimes by other users

No worries, keep helping out.

Pikkoro · Feb 24, 2014

Well those cards look legit but I just opened up my PC and it turns out I only have a 300 watt PSU. This is my first time upgrading a PC and its a little intimidating so I have a couple more questions, Are there any plugs that a power supply would require that my PC may not have? Just generally what I would need to look for to make sure a power supply would work with my PC or if they all are the same.

Also how do I know if my motherboard has PCI Express 2.0 or 3.0 on it or does that even matter? I can see that it has the long x16 slot but I don't see anything about what version it is. My motherboard also has an integrated AMD card on it so would that make it incompatible with the Nvidia cards you linked?

Thanks again for your help guys! I will save up and hopefully get the new power supply along with one of those cards you linked if everything's compatible.

EasyLover · Feb 24, 2014

Pikkoro :

300W will not be enough. Better get 500-525w PSU.

Graphics Card will work PCIe 2 and 3, though the card has PCIe 3.0 but it will work with PCIe 2.0 as well.

No there won't be any incompatibility of built-in card with discreet card (nVIDIA card)

Pikkoro · Feb 25, 2014

Thank you both for your help 1 last question! would the http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx760dc2oc2gd5 be bottle necking on my PC for any reason and if so would it be better to get one of the lesser versions of it?

mamasan2000 · Feb 25, 2014

Pikkoro :

Most (not all) graphics cards require a separate powercord, its a 6-pin PCI-E connector, coming from PSU. If your PSU is really old it might not have that. 300 W PSU sounds like the Pentium 4 era, 10 years ago.

brarboy · Feb 25, 2014

Pikkoro :

there won't be any bottleneck with your cpu, you are good to go with gtx 760 gpu

Enjoy!!!

mamasan2000 · Feb 25, 2014

That APU seems really weak, worse than an Intel i3. APUs are basicly for surfing and maybe watching movies.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-a10-a8-a6_7.html#sect0

That test is with GTX 680 which I think is comparable to GTX 760 (don't know Nvidia-cards that well). So I would say hell yeah the CPU is bottlenecking it.

brarboy · Feb 25, 2014

mamasan2000 :

cpu with 4 cores(+4 threads) and 4.1Ghz turbo speed? Why would you think, it would bottleneck mid-gaming level gpu? Pls elaborate.

mamasan2000 · Feb 26, 2014

Look at the 3dmark benchmark scores. i3 beats the APU. i5 is almost 1000 points more (all CPUs, APU 6500, i3 and i5 are 4-cores right?). 3dmark is heavy on the GPU-side. Hence, APU is limiting the GPU.

The physics test where CPU gets tested is separate.
Overclocking CPU in 3dmark yields almost no increase but OC'ing GPU gives a lot of points for small increments. And of course better FPS.
Only time I've seen ANY improvement to FPS by OC'ing CPU is in the physics/combined test.

EasyLover · Feb 26, 2014

mamasan2000 :

Good point.
Generally, AMD CPUs have more cores but they are weaker cores while the Intel has less cores but they are stronger cores. That is why the bottleneck issue arises when using AMD CPUs/APUs. But simply comparing cores is not the baseline.

brarboy · Feb 26, 2014

mamasan2000 :

i can see it would be limiting gtx 680. Coming back, gtx 760 isn't as efficient as gtx 680 and already said that 760 mid-gaming level gpu. AMD A8-6500 will be bit better than i3-3210 in overall performance but little lower in single core performance. And i haven't read any review or comments where any one cpu from both had bottlenecked the gtx 760.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-3210-vs-AMD-A8-6500
And i don't see any reason behind your explanation, why 6500 will bottleneck a mid level gaming card.

mamasan2000 · Feb 27, 2014

As I said, I don't know Nvidia cards. Or their performance levels. Last Nvidia I owned was a Geforce 1.

brarboy · Feb 27, 2014

mamasan2000 :

it's fine bro. I am glad we could share some reviews with each other.

Pikkoro · Feb 27, 2014

Hmm weird that the 680 is more powerful than the 760 I'd expect the 760 to be like the next generation, thanks for the info guys. I'll probably still be getting the gtx 760 you seem knowledgeable on the subject

brarboy · Feb 27, 2014

Pikkoro :

yeah, gtx 760 will be the best for you. Good luck

EasyLover · Feb 27, 2014

Pikkoro :

This should not come as a surprise. nVIDIA 700 series is tweaked version of their 600 series. Even their, 690 is basically two 680 GPU chips on one PCB. Still, 760 is a way to go. Nice choice

Good Luck,

I'm looking to buy a new video card for between $150-$250

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