Best bang for the buck video card

Hello BrentMc,

I do not recommend spending money on second hand PC components, no matter low the cost is.

So consider this quality low profile card:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 5450 512MB Video Card ($19.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $19.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-24 13:25 EDT-0400

- At max uses only 19W.
- Comes with 2 year warranty.
- Would fit nicely into the Dell Optiplex 780MT.
- This card requires a 300W PSU that can deliver 22Amps on its +12V rail.
- The Dell Optiplex 780MT comes with 305W PSU with 88% efficacy that can deliver 22.3Amps on its +12V rail.
- Costs $19.99, after deducting the $10 "In-mail-rebates"

Overall, a pretty good deal that meets or even surpasses your expectations.

Update:

You never heard of "Micro Center". May be because you're used to buying readily available PCs like Dell. It's popular among people who buy individual parts and build PCs on their own.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Center

Update #2:

This card is good enough to play 1080p videos/movies.

If you're looking for a good monitor that's gentle on your eyes. Consider this amazing 27 Inch, VA Panel, Full HD, 1080p, Flicker Free (ideal for longer movie watching/gaming, with reduced eye fatigue), pretty good color reproduction:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Monitor: BenQ GW2760HS 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($239.99 @ B&H)
Total: $239.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-26 05:50 EDT-0400


Flicker-free Backlight for Visual Pleasure:

The Flicker-free technology eliminates flickering at all brightness levels and effectively reducing eye fatigue. Conventional LCD screens flicks 200 times per second. Your eyes may not see flickers, but can certainly feel them. Free your eyes from flickers by switching to Flicker-free Monitors and let your eyes do less work.

Reading Mode for an Optimized Reading Experience:

For a more comfortable reading experience, BenQ has adjusted the monitor’s color temperature, brightness, contrast ratio and sharpness to create the all new Reading Mode which simulates the look of printed paper to help reduce the eye discomfort typically caused by prolonged and focused use of eyes on computer monitors.

Super Narrow Bezel for more Visual Pleasure

Improved Eco Mode for Higher Energy Efficiency
Power Consumption (On mode) - 27W (Base on Energy Star)
Power Consumption (Power saving mode) - <0.3W

3000: 1 Native Contrast Ratio and 20M:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio for Depth and Definition

Perfecting Your Audiovisual Enjoyment with Speakers [Yes, has built-in speakers]

HDMI Multimedia Interface

Color Shift-free Technology

Full features here: http://www.benq.com/product/monitor/GW2760HS/features/

Input Connector - D-Sub/ DVI/ HDMI/ Headphone jack/ Line-in

Full Tech Specs here: http://www.benq.com/product/monitor/GW2760HS/specifications/


BenQ GW2760HS Flicker Free Testing:

BenQ GW2760HS vs. BenQ GW2760HM 1080p display SHOOTOUT - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CNOIbmUws0

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@MakoRuu - People like you're only good at taking childish digs at others opinions and passing laughable comments like "That guy Yeskay is probably paid to Advertise for Microcenter", rather providing any useful solutions :lol:.

The performance difference between GT440 1GB Vs HD 5450 is highly negligible or non-existent!.

GT440 has a TDP of 65W, needs a 400W PSU that can deliver 27Amps on its +12V rail.

HD 5450 has a TDP of 19W, needs only a 300W PSU that can deliver 22Amps on its +12V rail.

Your recommendation is a totally useless, as the "BrentMC" only has a 305W PSU with 88% efficacy that can deliver 22.3Amps on its +12V rail. So the HD 5450 naturally fits with his existing configuration, meets his requirements.

And here is the news to your ignorant mind, I'm from a different country.

Try to focus your energy on learning something useful and provide proper solution to others, rather than taking blind stupid unnecessary digs at fellow peers. For this is a tech forum, if you had forgotten.

=============

Update #3:

The reason why manufacturers suggest higher wattage (400W) than actual required wattage (300W) is because they assume that the consumer may use additional hard disk, add on cards, optical drives etc. apart for the already basic components like the usual 1 hdd/optical drive. Also there is a possibility of some using crap PSU. So they take all these things in to consideration and come up with 400W figure. I think your Dell Optiplex 780MT comes with usual basic components. So 305W should be enough to power up the entire rig along with the XFX 5450.

Full list of PSU requirement for all NVIDIA/AMD graphics cards by MSI:
https://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/printer/power-requirements-for-graphics-cards

Update #4:

I suggested you XFX 5450 because you were strictly sticking to $20 mark. I would have easily suggested you the ASUS GeForce 210 1GB 64-bit for $30, which you've selected right now.

The GT 210 only needs a 300W PSU that can deliver 18Amps on its +12V, which is well within the capabilities of your present 305W PSU. GT 210 consumes at max 31W.

Yes, you can very well get that card.

Cheers!

That guy Yeskay is probably paid to Advertise for Microcenter.

That HD 5450 is very old. Yes, it is power efficient and very inexpensive. But that's because it's so old.

Frankly I'd go with the GT 440. You can find them for $20 on eBay. I used to have one, and it was a beast.

They'll play 1080p video and even some newer video games if you ever decide you want to try a little casual gaming.

Mako Ruu answered your question. a GT 440 is good for your purposes. You could get an extremely old AMD card like the HD 2400, but if you buy something that old off ebay you're running a lot of risks.

Also you really can't expect a lot of options if you want to pay $20 for a video card.

The GT 440 has a TDP of 64 watts and a recommended power supply of 300w.

This is to cover other parts of the PC such as the CPU, the hard drives, the optical drive, et cetera.

I merely suggested it to allow you some head room for future use.

Thankfully Newegg uses a lot of third party retailers and offers many older low profile cards.

Here is a list of them sorted from lowest to highest.

http://www.newegg.com/Desktop-Graphics-Cards/SubCategory/ID-48?Order=PRICE

The Radeon HD 3450 coming in at $12 and offering a roomy 256 MBs of memory sounds like what you need.

The PCIe lane only uses a maximum of 75 watts.

The Radeon HD 3450 has a tdp of 25 watts.

For the same price the GeForce 9300 GE offers DVI-I.

Or for $18 the ATI Rage XL offers a VGA port, though it has less video memory.

Should have bought that $16 quadro for all this hassle. lol

It's a decent card and it has a lot of room for other things. Like I said, in case you stumble onto a facebook game you like. Or all the sudden pick up Runescape. lol