Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Most Practical Upgrade For $100-200?

Most Practical Upgrade For $100-200?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Most Practical Upgrade For $100-200?

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Ask the community Add a reply
Word :    Username :           
 
Paladuck   04-15-2009 at 07:40:12 PM

Hello all,

My brother built me a new computer and I'm looking to upgrade it for gaming.

I was thinking maybe a video card, but I don't really know much about computers so I thought maybe someone could offer some advice.

My system:

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @ 2.53 GHz
4GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT

EDIT: 1440x900 resolution, 350W PSU


Message edited by Paladuck on 04-15-2009 at 09:34:46 PM
Add a reply
Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.
turboflame   04-15-2009 at 07:58:58 PM
- 1 +

Definitely the video card, everything else looks good.

$90 - HD4830
$130 - HD4850 or GTS250
$170 - HD4870 (depending on your power supply)

Message quoted 1 times
Reply to turboflame
lasoski311   04-15-2009 at 08:00:28 PM
- 0 +

what power supply do u have? and what resolution is ur monitor?


Message edited by lasoski311 on 04-15-2009 at 08:11:29 PM
Reply to lasoski311
Kaldor   04-15-2009 at 08:05:04 PM
- 0 +

turboflame wrote :

Definitely the video card, everything else looks good.

$90 - HD4830
$130 - HD4850 or GTS250
$170 - HD4870 (depending on your power supply)



+1

Depending on your screen res is how I would make my choice.

4850 or 250 for 1680X1050 - requires 400 watt PSU
4870 or 260 for 1920X1200 - requires 500 watt PSU

PSU's need to be decent quality.

Reply to Kaldor
Bronze Graphics badge coozie7   04-15-2009 at 09:01:48 PM
- 0 +

We need to know the make and model of PSU and resoloution of your monitor.

Reply to coozie7
Paladuck   04-15-2009 at 09:30:02 PM
- 0 +

Quote :

We need to know the make and model of PSU and resoloution of your monitor.



My resolution is 1440x900.

I think my PSU is 350W. Should I invest in a better one along with the video card?

Message quoted 1 times
Reply to Paladuck
Euphoria_MK   04-15-2009 at 09:35:11 PM
- 0 +

Paladuck wrote :

Quote :

We need to know the make and model of PSU and resoloution of your monitor.



My resolution is 1440x900.

I think my PSU is 350W. Should I invest in a better one along with the video card?



If you are playing at that resolution, I would rather go with the HD4870 512MB, it would out perform any of the other cards listed on this thread.
At newegg it goes for $159.99 + Free Shipping or $139.99 after $20.00 rebate.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/14-131-140-TS?$S180W$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131140

Reply to Euphoria_MK
Euphoria_MK   04-15-2009 at 09:37:53 PM
- 0 +

Yeah I would also inves in a little better PSU.
I can actually sell you a 650W CoolerMaster PSU if you want for $50.00 plus shipping depending on where you live.

I just purchased a new Corsair 750 PSU so I have this one sitting on side, I used it for 8 months only and the only reason I changed is is because I got a fat discount on the Corsair one and I could not pass a good offer :)

Reply to Euphoria_MK
Bronze Graphics badge coozie7   04-15-2009 at 09:39:14 PM
- 0 +

@ Paladuck: Yes, get a better PSU, look to about 500W from a good maker such as Corsair, Antec, PC Power and Cooling and OCZ.
At that resoloution a HD4850 is going to be plenty and I`ve seen one on the Egg for under $100 with rebates.

Reply to coozie7
PsyKhiqZero   04-15-2009 at 09:45:05 PM
- 0 +

I'd say monitor. you can find a decent 22" @1920x1200 for about 200. You'd enjoy it for everything outside of gaming. An 8500gt is fine for most light wieght gaming like WoW. But if you play more FPS shooters then perhaps a vid card and PSU.

Message quoted 1 times
Reply to PsyKhiqZero
lasoski311   04-15-2009 at 09:58:43 PM
- 0 +

ur going to need to 2 things...a power supply and a video card, what is your total upgrade budget?

Here are some good suggestions without knowing your budget...

power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371015

video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127409

Reply to lasoski311
halcyon   04-15-2009 at 10:04:34 PM
- 0 +

PsyKhiqZero wrote :

I'd say monitor. you can find a decent 22" @1920x1200 for about 200. You'd enjoy it for everything outside of gaming. An 8500gt is fine for most light wieght gaming like WoW. But if you play more FPS shooters then perhaps a vid card and PSU.




+1 Upgrade your monitor, then on your next upgrade go for a new PSU/video card so you can further enjoy the monitor that you got this time around. I think you'd get a lot of enjoyment out computing @ 1920x1200, you can still game at whatever resolution you're 8500GT will give you until your next upgrade.

my .01 cent.

------------------------------ 17" MacBook Pro: 2.66Ghz, 4GB DDR3-1066, 256GB Corsair P256 SSD
 Reply to halcyon
Paladuck   04-16-2009 at 05:25:22 AM
- 0 +

thank you for the help everyone! i think i'm going to settle on a new PSU and video card for now, since a monitor won't directly increase the performance of games on my system.

Reply to Paladuck
Ask the community Add a reply
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Most Practical Upgrade For $100-200?
Go to:

There are 1052 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Forum map
Bestofmedia Forum ©
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group
Page generated in 0.603 seconds
Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel
Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
Related Topics
See all relatives topics
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them
How do I win badges?