Looking for a low budget graphics card at least as good as a Radeon HD 6450

Phillip Crank

Reputable
Dec 18, 2014
6
0
4,510
Like the title says, I'm looking for a decent graphics card that I can get on a very low budget. Less than $100 would be nice, but I'd be willing to go up to $150 MAX. As stated in my other post I've been having a problem where my graphics go all scrambled. No one has answered that one yet, but I worried the card might be fried so I figured theres no harm in shopping around for a new one.
My PSU is rated for 450 watts. This particular setup was built by a friend of mine and ran flawlessly for about 4 or 5 years, so I know thats enough for a Radeon Hd 6450. I'd like a card thats as good or better than my current one, which as I said I used for several years and it ran my games all fine; I dont play things like Crysis, but I do play Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas, and they were able to run at just shy of max settings, with the HD addon in Skyrim's case. I'd rather not replace the PSU and graphics card at the same time.
My processor is an Intel Core i7 if that makes a difference, and I'm currently running the win10 tech preview (though everything seems to run in comp mode for 8.1).
 
I would guess for AMD 260x ?? thing is the 6450 is a oem card that put on prebuilts and the thing about a prebuilt is it may not accept a after market card .. due to there bios may be fix to only accept the hardware it came with

so what are you planning to upgrade ?? hp, dell ??
 

Java1000

Reputable
Dec 19, 2014
10
0
4,510
I prefer the ''Radeon R7 240 1GB GDDR5 version'' It has PCI express 3.0 x16, it is GDDR5 type of memory, so it is a lot faster than GDDR3. it has 1gb of memory, 128 bit, basically if you don't understand, then it is really fast for gaming, it may be a little bit higher than 150$, depending on your country and city, but again - it is a good, fast low budget graphics card.
 

Phillip Crank

Reputable
Dec 18, 2014
6
0
4,510


Its a Dell.
 

Phillip Crank

Reputable
Dec 18, 2014
6
0
4,510


Problem is my motherboard only has PCIe 2.1 slots. At least thats what my old card used.
 
its a dell? then uyou need to look and be sure it will accept any card you choose to use somem models are not upgrade friendly and its not hard to see

just something for you to conceder

some models of store bought computers [dell.hp,acer,ect..] may come with a ''locked or fixed'' bios and may not allow you to change certain hardware as a video card.. this is done to protect them from undue warranty claims and refunds .this is not done to hurt you but to protect them. you really need to see if that upgrade has been proven to work in your model first before you invest money in it .. there are a lot of these threads here at toms to look at some models will allow upgrades and some dont.. and a lot of guys here say ya ya ya when is really no no no...it would be sad you spent $200 on a card that wount post after you installed it as most find out. then get told its your psu and you spend more and end up right back where you are now, but its up to you good luck..


you got to know the the boards in these computers are not like the ones we use to do custom builds witch are open to upgrading with in the boards compatibly . the bios is custom made for there design and just for the parts they authorize to be used on there computers there only guaranteed to work as is out of the box as you bought it ,..

good luck
 

Phillip Crank

Reputable
Dec 18, 2014
6
0
4,510


Well, like I said, a friend of mine built it part by part from scratch and swapped out various components several times before selling it to me, so I don't know if that would be an issue. I actually plugged in a new card myself, another Radeon 6450 of slightly different design, to replace my old one which had failed.
So how do I FIND my mother board model? I actually looked when I had the case open, but didn't see a stamp or anything of the sort. Then again she has an after-market cooling system installed that may have been covering it up, I'm not sure.
 
cant say my point is that if its dell hp who ever anything you do over what it was sold with out of the box from them is all at own risk ..

there only guaranteed to work as speced, and sold to you .. they sell complete computers and if it needs upgrading they got there newer better ready to go model to sell you ... you buy a part you try it out if it works as expected that's all good , if not the better luck next time ...