Nvidia 8600GT, 9400GT or radeon 4650

Hi guys,

I am from Mumbai, India and i am a casual gamer.

My current system is:

Intel Pentium D 3 Ghz
Gigabyte 945gzm s2 chipset
1 GB DDR2 RAM
128 MB Integrated Intel Graphics Accelerator
400W PSU

I am upgraging my graphics card.

I have a budget of INR 4500.

I was thinking of the following cards:
1 - nvidia 8600 GT DDR2 1 GB
2 - nivdia 9400 GT DDR2 1 GB
3 - ati radeon 4650 1 GB PCI-E

Please suggest which of these will be best for me.

Also, will increasing my RAM to 2 GB be benificial?

Thanks in advance.

Hey thanks saint19 !!

But i saw gpureview.com

and compared these three..... and it indicated that 4650 in better.

Also in some forums claim that 9400 is a piece of crap

though the 8600 is better..

I'm really confused, i want to buy in 2-3 weeks.

Sorry men, i'm wrong. The 4650 is better that the 8600GT and the 9400GT....I don't read very well in the original post, I thought that you refer to the 8800GTX....get the 4650, is a very good election.

Thanks guys,..

I think i'll go for the 4650 !!

but i'm not sure if it'll work with my system, mean will DDR3 be supported with my system or shuld i go for DDR2?

my motherboard has 1 PCI-E x16 slot,
is that the only requirement, or is there something else i'm missing out?

Also, how much more is 4670 cost?

it will work. your motherboard need DDR2 RAM to work but its nothing to do with graphic card VRAM.

about 4670, as i stated before it will be more expensive than 4650. by how much i can't say though because it depends on where you live

I have a Zebronics 400W PSU. I'm pretty sure that it will be sufficient, but i'll make sure to consult my dealer before purchasing the GPU.

I'm not sure abt the series of my PSU.

One more thing,
I saw on ati radeon official site that an HD capable monitor is required for Radeon 4000 series :
http://www.amd.com/US/PRODUCTS/DES [...] eries.aspx

I have a 17' CRT Monitor, so will it work?

I'm planning on titles like Prince of Persia 4, GTA 4, Prototype and similar games with medium to high graphic settings at 1024*768 with decent frame rates.

ok..

but i'm going for 4670 or 4650
not 4850

Read it carefully.. its written as, for playing Blue-ray movies, HD capable monitor and Blue-ray player is required... Also ATi HD series cards and nVidia 8,9 and other new series all support HD playing.. Only the Ati cards could output sound through HDMI port.. thats not much significant if using SPDIF port..

You could play with HD4650 in high settings on 1024x768 .... HD4650 DDR3 is a good option.. GTA4 is a CPU/core intensive game.. it likes Quadra cores.. Also don't think of playing Crysis and games like that with Ultra high settings.. ..Game discretion required...he....he..

Definitely get the HD4650 out of those options. I don't know what saint19 was talking about but it's much better than the other 2 cards.
You say the HD4650 is 1 gig and that almost always means it is DDR2 which you want to avoid. Look for a DDR3 version or better yet see if you can afford an HD4670. They are both low power so your PSU should be fine with either. The HD4650 would do well at that resolution but an HD4670 would be great. Some games might not do well with your processor however.
Also, yes, you should add another gig of ram to your computer. In this case DDR2 as you can't use DDR3.

i m also a fan of nfs series.

so will nfs undercover and the upcoming nfs shift run decently on my machine?

Yeah... Try GRID and Burnout Paradise...

nVidia 9500GT 1GB version available in INDIA for 3000INR & 9600GT 512MB for 4200INR.
9500GT=8600GT
Or else get HD4650 for that price range.

The resolution problem may be due to faulty display driver.

xfx 8400gs with 128bit memory interface OR xfx hd 4650, which one is better?

I'm getting the ASUS HD4650 1GB for 3800 INR, where did you get the 4650 for 2400 INR? I can't seem to find teh DDR3 versions, as nobody seems to have it . Should i go with this card, basically for GTA4 low/med settings?