A good gaming card for less than $200

[aryancey]

Hello,
I recently got a new computer and the on board card isn't great.
My son can't get assassins creed to play and I'd like to keep up with the new games.
Any suggestions would be great.

Vista Home Premium 64x
AMD Phenom 9150e Quad core
7 g ram
HP w2207 Wide LCD Monitor
Current on board card: NVIDIA 6150SE

 

[snurp85]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102848
assuming your motherboard has PCI-express 2.0, any of the ATI 4890's will work nicely

 

[rodney_ws]

Might want to check the PSU before you go tossing some high powered GPU in your rig.

 

[aryancey]

Is there a way to find out what my psu is with out actually opening the case up?
I opened it. its a liteon 300w

 

[aryancey]

I know it is PCI express but don't know about the 2.0
Expansion slots

* One PCI
* One PCI Express x16 graphics (for a graphics card)
* Two PCI Express x1 (for cards such as network, sound, TV tuner) is

 

[Twoboxer]

The slot is PCIe 1.0 That may slow you a little, but new cards should work fine. They are backwards compatible.

But that 300W psu is going to limit your choices of video cards.

Sounds like you have a brand name PC - what make/model?

An HD 4650 should work within 300W, and would certainly be a step up playing most games "good" at 1680 resolution.

Review showing total system power consumption:
http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-6278-view-Radeon-HD-4670-and-HD-4650-performance-review.html

512 MB XFX 4650 at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150393

If you are running at 1920 resolution, you might want a new psu and vid card:

Review of 4850/4870 (Also shows where the 4650 ranks as a gaming vid card):
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2404-3.html

4850, cheapest 1GB that exhausts hot air from the case - many others cheaper:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150351

4870, cheapest 1GB that exhausts hot air - others available for less:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131148

psu, best 450W to 500W at lowest Newegg price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012

 

[aryancey]

Thank you for the advice. its a HP Pavilion a6763w Desktop PC 64x
I think I'll definitely get a better psu. I guess i need to think about the heat it generates as well.

 

[invisik]

This card might work fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131155

 

[JackNaylorPE]

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/graphics-cards,1.html

 

[photonboy]

I agree, get the HD4770.

You MAY have some issues with your power supply. Considering you won't notice a difference with more than 4GB of RAM you should take some out and leave only a 2x2GB configuration. I don't understand how you could have 7GB anyway as it should be paired.

Taking out the RAM (that you won't utilize) will lessen the load slightly on the PSU too.

Here's the steps:

RAM
1. Turn off the computer but leave the power cord intact (to ground it)
2. read your manual's section on RAM placement
3. Ensure that you have 2x2GB of RAM in the correct slots and remove the rest
3. Turn on the computer and make sure everything works

Video Card:
1. Go to Add/Remove programs and remove your video card drivers
2. Turn off the computer, leave the cord intact
3. Inspect that you have the proper power connector (If not you'll need an adapter like a MOLEX-> 6-pin).
4. Install the video card
5. Turn on the computer and enter the BIOS (usually DEL key)
6. Ensure the graphics card order selects the PCIe first and NOT the onboard graphics
7. Reboot
8. Ignore any popup windows, download and install the latest drivers for your Operating System and install them
9. Reboot and everything should work.

FYI, they have tested extensively and the HD5870 (the newest and fastest single GPU graphics card) ran at only a hit of 1 or 2% when running in a PCIe x8 v2.0 which is equivalent to a PCIe x16 v1.0. In other words, you'd have to get a faster card then it to max out your graphics card slot so the HD4770 will not be bandwidth limited in the slightest.

 

[jaguarskx]

The HD 5770 is supposed to come out towards the end of this month if you can wait that long.

Performance wise, I peg it between the HD 4870 and HD 4890. I assume it will consume about 60w - 70w of power. And it will cost slightly more than the HD 4870, but will still be under $200. I believe I am in the ballpark, but I could be wrong about certain things. That what you get for guessing.

Reviews of the HD 5770 should be popping up relatively soon since one or two review sites said they already physically have one, but cannot release any performance reviews about it due to AMD's NDA.

 

[aryancey]

Thank you all so much for the help and advice. I will up grade the psu and may wait for the HD 5770.
I thought the 7g was strange too.
I have 1 x Qimonda 1024 mb DDR2 (pc2-6400/800)
and 3 x Samsung 2048 mb DDR2 (pc2-6400/800). You get what you get when someone else puts it together. I will look into taking some out.
Thank you all.

 

[invisik]

The full details of AMD's "Juniper" GPU have been released and are as follows:

Radeon HD 5770 - 850MHz Core | 800 SPs | 40 TMUs | 16 ROPs | 128-bit Memory Interface
- 1GB Of 1200MHz (4800MHz Effective) GDDR5 Memory | $159 USD

Radeon HD 5750 - 700MHz Core | 720 SPs | 36 TMUs | 16 ROPs | 128-bit Memory Interface
- 1GB Of 1150MHz (4600MHz Effective) GDDR5 Memory | $129 USD

Radeon HD 5750 - 700MHz Core | 720 SPs | 36 TMUs | 16 ROPs | 128-bit Memory Interface
- 512MB Of 1150MHz (4600MHz Effective) GDDR5 Memory | $109 USD

 

[Jaysin]

The HD 5770 is supposed to come out towards the end of this month if you can wait that long.

Performance wise, I peg it between the HD 4870 and HD 4890. I assume it will consume about 60w - 70w of power. And it will cost slightly more than the HD 4870, but will still be under $200. I believe I am in the ballpark, but I could be wrong about certain things. That what you get for guessing.

Reviews of the HD 5770 should be popping up relatively soon since one or two review sites said they already physically have one, but cannot release any performance reviews about it due to AMD's NDA.

Might not even be the end of the month. I have heard from some OEMs as early as the 12th.