Good Graphics Card for Under $100?

NuklearMau5 · Jul 18, 2014

Hi there! I'm going to be upgrading my power supply unit soon and was looking for a good replacement for my current GPU. My current computer specs are as following:
CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 1035T
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB
RAM: 8GB DDR3 Memory
PSU: 300W
I will be upgrading my PSU to either 500W or 600W and the Power Supply Unit manufacturer will be EVGA. I want a decent graphics card that can play games such as Assassin's Creed or Battlefield on medium-high settings with over 30 frames per second. And as the title says, I'd prefer it to be in the price range of under $100. However I can go up to $150. I'm perfectly okay with AMD Radeon or Nvidia GPU's. Thank you for all your recommendations! I really appreciate it

clutchc · Jul 18, 2014

If you don't mind the price, this is one of the better cards for that price range: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%204017%20600007852%20600286742%20600007855%20600473899%20600451269&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20
The R7-260X or GTX 750 Ti. And, if you can find it, the R7-265.
What resolution is your monitor?

zoog18 · Jul 18, 2014

Agreed, I would lean on the side of the 265 if your after more performance.

NuklearMau5 · Jul 18, 2014

My monitor's resolution is 1365x768. And I'll check those cards out, thanks! How many watts would you recommend for the PSU, 500w or 600w?

ingtar33 · Jul 18, 2014

GTX 650 < R7-250 < GTX 750 < R7-250x < R7-260 < GTX 650ti < R7-260x < GTX 750ti < R7-265 < GTX 660 < r9-270

those are the cards that you'll plausibly find in your price range (depending on timing and where you look); ranked in order of strength, weakest to strongest.

I would suggest you not go any lower then the r7-260; and do your damnest to find a r7-265, GTX 660, or r9-270 in your price range... as all three are very nice cards that should do what you're asking.

as for your 1366x768 resolution monitor... you'll find your cpu will bottleneck you more at that resolution then your gpu will... the r7-250x will be enough card at that resolution for most purposes.

clutchc · Jul 18, 2014

At 720p resolution, you can easily get by with the R7-260X/265 or the GTX 750 Ti and play at max/near max settings in most games. The GTX 750 Ti will only require a 300W PSU (for the cards that do not require a 6 pin PCIe cable*). The R7-260x/265 will require a bit more to be safe. Maybe go 400W for those. All good quality PSUs, of course... no junk.

* the GTX 750 Ti comes in various versions. Some require a 6 pin power cable, some do not. The fastest GTX 750 Ti that requires no PCIe 6 pin connection is this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487024
I have used that card in one of my 300W builds and it performed... beyond of my expectations. So, your existing PSU would be enough unless it is of poor quality.

NuklearMau5 · Jul 18, 2014

Alright thanks clutchc and ingtar33! I appreciate your help. I've decided that I'll first invest into a new CPU as a friend of mine told me that it's quite underpowered as well. After I've upgraded my CPU I will look into a new graphics card from the list both of you have suggested. Thanks once again! I really appreciate it!

clutchc · Jul 18, 2014

Your current CPU will be fine with either of the cards I mentioned.

ingtar33 · Jul 18, 2014

NuklearMau5 :

listen... you can get "enough" out of that old thuban cpu... you just have to overclock it a bit. bring the clock speed up to 4ghz... or atleast 3.8ghz and you'll be fine for a while. i was speaking mostly along the lines of your old cpu being a bottleneck at STOCK settings.

clutchc · Jul 18, 2014

@ ingtar33
Kinda hard to get that kind of OC out of a processor with a locked multiplier, isn't it? He'll only few-megahertz bump in BCLK frequency.

ingtar33 · Jul 18, 2014

clutchc :

haha... no... this isn't an intel Core I.

those old thubans had a front side bus/cpu frequency that overclocked quite extraordinarily. getting them up to 250~ or so is certainly possible... that chip has a locked multiplier of x13... 13x250=3.3ghz... which would be nice... if he has a real wild overclocker he might be able to get more out of the fsb. you never know till you try. personally i had a lot of fun back in the day overclocking locked thubans. most of them prior to the 1100T sorta capped out around 3.6-4.0ghz... so it might be unreasonable to expect him to get much more then 250 out of that fsb... but a few rare ones could push it further.

NuklearMau5 · Jul 19, 2014

I forgot to add the motherboard I have. All my parts are stock ever since I bought the PC and my motherboard is the AMD 880G. My PC is the Gateway DX4320-19. I posted another thread about a new CPU and some did not recommend overclocking with my current motherboard. My PC also gets temperatures of 65C to 80C when gaming or using resource-intense software such as Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and Cinema 4D. If I overclock I may need to buy a new cooler system for my PC just because of the temperatures but I'd just rather upgrade my CPU instead. What are your thoughts?

clutchc · Jul 19, 2014

The AMD 880G isn't the motherboard, it is the motherboard chipset. What is the make/model of the board? Usually it is predominately displayed near the center of the board.
If the board has an AM3 socket, you are going to be limited to what few Phenom II X4s and X6s are still out there used (Ebay). If the board has the AM3+ socket, your options are much greater.

...and yes, you don't want to OC with the stock cooler. Your CPU temps are too high already. Changed the thermal paste lately?

NuklearMau5 · Jul 19, 2014

Well, it seems like I got quite a bit of work to do lol. Nope, I haven't changed the thermal paste yet but I will do that when I get my upgrades done. I've stopped using my PC soon after I realized the high temperatures and I've unplugged it. I've been using my laptop.

I'm not sure about the model of the motherboard but I will open it up and check, however I am sure that the socket is an AM3, not AM3+.

clutchc · Jul 19, 2014

NuklearMau5 :

If it's an AM3 socket, then keep your eye out for a good quality Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition or faster processor for an upgrade to what you have now... for gaming: 955BE, 965BE, 970BE, 975BE, 980BE.

ingtar33 · Jul 19, 2014

the PhII x6 1100T was sorta the king of the AM3 chipset and in a lot of ways, when properly overclocked is close to the fastest chip amd ever made... depends on the bench... but in single threaded performance a 4.4ghz 1100T will challenge a 5.0+ghz FX cpu in many benches. Again it depends a bit on what bench you run.

You won't get 4.2ghz out of that PhIIx6 1035T, but if you can get it close to 3.8ghz it will do what you need it to do.

the 880 chipset was the best motherboard chipset made for the AM3 platform... it wasn't until intel's z77 chipset intel had anything that would match it really. that said it does matter what motherboard you have. some of them won't be able to handle a significant overclock on that Thuban. Furthermore your temps are far too high... so high i actually doubt those are your temps. PhenomII cpus simply stop working around 65C... frankly 62C was hot enough to crash most of them. That said PhII temp reporting could be off by as much as 20C plus or minus. so if we assume your's is reporting 20C too hot your temps fall a lot more in line with what i'd expect from a PhIIx6 thuban cpu using the stock cooler.

So yes... even if you have a solid overclocking motherboard you'll need a solid cpu heatsink.

NuklearMau5 · Jul 20, 2014

I got those temperature readings from the AMD Control Center that came installed with my PC, and I'm not sure how accurate that would be. I did some reading and people recommended trying a different software called Everest to measure the CPU temperatures so I'll do that when I get home tonight (at my uncle's house for the weekend). I'll see what Everest measures and I'll let you guys know.

Thank you guys for all the help you've been giving me! I really appreciate it because I'm kinda new to how PC hardware works lol.

NuklearMau5 · Jul 20, 2014

Hey guys! So I got home and I opened up my PC and I checked the motherboard, it didn't have a model/manufacturer on it. I can confirm that the socket was an AM3 however. Also, when I went to remove my CPU heatsink, I noticed that some of the pins underneath the heatsink that attach to the CPU (not sure if I'm saying this properly) were bent. Could this be why I'm seeing some high temperatures?

About 4 months ago my dad opened up my PC to install a new Blu-Ray drive, in the process he decided to clean up all the parts as well. I'm going to assume that perhaps he may have placed the CPU heatsink improperly and have messed up the pins.

clutchc · Jul 20, 2014

Heat sinks don't have 'pins'. Are you talking about the metal radiator fins?

NuklearMau5 · Jul 20, 2014

Yup, I think that's it. It's under the heatsink and it's supposed to lock in place on top of the CPU, but they are bent and aren't locking in.

clutchc · Jul 20, 2014

NuklearMau5 :

I'm thinking you're not talking about the radiator fins from that description. They are above the heat sink base. Are you talking about the mtg. clamp?
Look at this pic and tell me what is bent:

NuklearMau5 · Jul 20, 2014

It's this, except they are bent:

ingtar33 · Jul 20, 2014

bent pins on your cpu? no... that won't make it run hot... but it will break something permanently. on the bright side you can straighten them if you're careful. i've used knives, pens, even mechanical pencils to straighten those pins. they don't have to be perfectly straight but they do need to fit back into their holes in the socket.

NuklearMau5 · Jul 20, 2014

I'm really sorry but I just realized that I meant the pins on my CPU, not heatsink! It was attached to the heatsink so I thought it was part of it, I'm really sorry.

Alright thanks ingtar! I'll try straightening up the pins then.

clutchc · Jul 20, 2014

Yikes! Do it carefully or you will have a tiny doorstop.

Good Graphics Card for Under $100?

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