Not sure about my purchase

[Gorrath]

Hi

I have a crappy Dell XPS 600.

My video card was overheating so I needed a new one and didn't want to buy a new PC or upgrade any other parts in my current PC.

I was going to buy a GF 9600GT but they were out of stock at my local store so the guy sold me an ASUS ENGT240.

I just read a couple of threads on this forum and it seems like it's a really bad choice for the price, am I right?

I know there is a lot of better cards but with my hold Pentium D CPU, I thought it wasn't worth it to buy something better because it would be bottlenecked by the CPU but is there anything else with a better value for performance/price?

The good thing with this card from what I've read is that it doesn't make much noise and doesn't need a lot of energy...so if I can't have a good video card...might as well have a silent one lol

Thanks

 

[rolli59]

It is close (if GDDR5) to the 9600GT in performance and well suited for the Pentium D. You probably could have gotten a 9800GT for the same or less money and some boost in performance.

 

[Gorrath]

Yeah that's what i saw while surfing on the net after my purchase.
So I just went back to the store to get my money back.

Seems like I could get something a lot better for the same price on Newegg.

I paid 115$ =tx for the GT240.

 

[Gorrath]

So, what would be the best card for my PC?

Should I just buy the same card on Newegg for less money or should I buy something a little better?

I heard ATI is better these days.

 

[Gorrath]

I don't mind paying a bit more if it can get me something a lot better.

With like 150$, what's the best card I can get?

 

[rolli59]

I say HD4850 or GTS250 would be max for your pentium D like ct1615 suggests. If you plan to upgrade CPU soon the HD5770 is a good buy.

 

[Gorrath]

Cool Thanks

One of those cards with a slight edge over the other?

 

[rolli59]

You can use this as a reference http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_5830_Twin_Frozr_II/29.html

 

[Gorrath]

And one last question.

Any chance one of those cards won't be compatible with my motherboard?

I tried the GT240 I bought earlier today and it seemed like it was working well so I'm guessing the GTS250 will be fine but I don't know anything about the ATI cards.

 

[rolli59]

They should all work fine.

 

[Gorrath]

I just saw some GT240 with a really nice special:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130537&cm_re=gt_240-_-14-130-537-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130533&cm_re=gt_240-_-14-130-533-_-Product


What's better between DDR3 but 512MB
and DDR5 with 1GB

??

There is way too many different cards!!
Grrrrr

 

[rolli59]

DDR5 is going to be faster and those prices are nice after MIR.

 

[rolli59]

1) the GT240 is too slow to use 1GB of RAM, the 4850 and GTS250 can barely take full advantage of 1GB.
2) you would get a slight increase with DDR5 on the GT240 but not enough to come to the level of either card above.
3) why are you still looking at the GT240? Its not a very good card for the price.

$50-60 is not a bad price.

 

[Gorrath]

Well, I was looking at the GTS250 and 4850 and saw that the GT240 after the MIR is like half the price of those cards.

Maybe I might see better specials on the other cards if I wait a bit.

 

[Gorrath]

Well, this one seems like a good price:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121334&cm_re=gts250-_-14-121-334-_-Product

It's like 36.00$ more for the 1GB one.

 

[Gorrath]

Heatsink huh?
LoL
Never even thought about asking for this.

This one seems like the best choice:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102824&Tpk=4850

It's one of the ones you linked.
I'm using newegg.ca so some of the prices are not the same.
All the 250 seems more expensive than the ones in your links

How's the heatsink in this one?

 

[jyjjy]

What is your monitor's native resolution?

 

[builderbobftw]

its has a horrible heatsink, I owned it (also read the reviews). Sounds like you stuffed a vacuum into your PC with the fan running at 30%.

I even flashed the BIOS as ASUS suggested to fix it, didn't work. The only thing that worked was setting the fan to 10% and it still made noise. Check out the two GTS250 I linked.

I forgot where I saw it, but someone upgraded from that to a GTX 480, and it was louder than the GTX 480 at 100% fan speed.

Possible he had a defective fan like you......

( A hig percentagae of those cards have fualty fans, something about the ball bearings in the fan or soemthing_

 

[Gorrath]

What is your monitor's native resolution?

I got a crappy monitor.

I don't think I can put it at more than 1280 x 1024

It's a 19"

Well, just took a look and this is my monitor:
http://www.teachmefinance.com/Energy_Efficiency/Monitors/Dell%201907FPc.html

 

[jyjjy]

For that resolution the HD4850 should be great and it's probably the best choice for the money.

 

[builderbobftw]

^ Yep that or a GTS 250,.

 

[Gorrath]

Best answer selected by gorrath.

 

[Gorrath]

Damn, there is a lot of bad comments about the Sapphire 4850.

Well, in fact, it seems like all the cards have a lot of bad comments lol

 

[jyjjy]

Damn, there is a lot of bad comments about the Sapphire 4850.

Well, in fact, it seems like all the cards have a lot of bad comments lol

It's selection bias. If you get a dead card or have a problem you are 100x more likely to leave a review in order to bitch about it.