Cheap graphics card for starcraft 2

[cony246]

Hey I just got Starcraft 2 for my bday and was wondering which graphics card would be best for my computer, although i can play the game and it seems a tab bit slow, but it works fine besides that. but everything is on low so i wanted to see if i can get it up to medium or maybe even high for a good price. any1 recommend any graphics cards this is my PC
8GB ram
Windows 7 Pro-64bit
AMD Phenom (tm) 9550 Quad-core processor 2.20 ghz
current graphics card- NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

 

[birdman_2000]

Hey I just got Starcraft 2 for my bday and was wondering which graphics card would be best for my computer, although i can play the game and it seems a tab bit slow, but it works fine besides that. but everything is on low so i wanted to see if i can get it up to medium or maybe even high for a good price. any1 recommend any graphics cards this is my PC
8GB ram
Windows 7 Pro-64bit
AMD Phenom (tm) 9550 Quad-core processor 2.20 ghz
current graphics card- NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

I am running it on high settings with a 8800gt 512mb. I bought mine used for 50 bucks. I think anything like this would work.

Recommended settings are "512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better"

Depending on how much you want to spend really sets what you should get. Below are 2 cards that should run it on high settings no problem.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127495 - this is 70 bucks after rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125288 - this is around 60

Just make sure your case has room for the card and your power supply will handle it.

 

[benski]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/297226-33-5770-free-tango-game

Someone posted this earlier today, 5770 for 113 bucks. It will play SC2 with everything on Ultra, it's not that demanding of a game. If you want something cheaper than that try and find a used 4870 or 4850 and you can probably still play with everything maxed out. Many will suggest you overclock your processor too, but I have no experience with phenom's so I won't. You also want to make sure your PSU can handle whatever card you get, but I'm guessing almost any system with a quad core and 8gb of ram has enough of a PSU for a 5770.

 

[infernox_01]

if your power supply has a low rating you could always try the HD5670.

 

[cony246]

thanks for all the answers ill check them out and let you know if i need help again

 

[cony246]

I am running it on high settings with a 8800gt 512mb. I bought mine used for 50 bucks. I think anything like this would work.

Recommended settings are "512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better"

Depending on how much you want to spend really sets what you should get. Below are 2 cards that should run it on high settings no problem.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127495 - this is 70 bucks after rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125288 - this is around 60

Just make sure your case has room for the card and your power supply will handle it.

How do i know if my power supply can handle it?

 

[lucuis]

Keep in mind that processor is gonna bottleneck just about any half decent gpu in sc2 since it only uses 2 cores. Just keep that in mind, don't expect a huge perf boost.

 

[jyjjy]

Keep in mind that processor is gonna bottleneck just about any half decent gpu in sc2 since it only uses 2 cores. Just keep that in mind, don't expect a huge perf boost.

The processor is far from ideal but considering he lists his current card as "NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430" there will certainly be a very large increase in performance.

 

[jyjjy]

How do i know if my power supply can handle it?

Tell us what power supply you are using.

 

[Kari]

. Just keep that in mind, don't expect a huge perf boost.

lol are u insane? he's using an integrated gpu!! no matter what card he gets there will be a massive improvement.

 

[lucuis]

lmao, yeah i guess in this case he will. Just won't be maxed out performance i don't think.

 

[crooz1]

cheap ?

ATI HD 4770 maybe ? (GDDR5)

or maybe HD 4670 512 MB

 

[birdman_2000]

cheap? not enough of an answer on the psu. Pop the side of the case off and read the label. Should have rated wattage on the psu. Your system can really run really flaky when you put to much load on your psu. Really need to now this before you order a card.

 

[cony246]

$74.99 1.GeForce 8800GTX BFG 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express Video Card

$99.99 2.MSI N250GTS Twin Frozr GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

$89.99 3.GIGABYTE GV-N98TGR-512I GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

$169.99 4.SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

$67.99 5.Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

$89.99 6.GIGABYTE GV-R567OC-1GI Rev2.0 Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

$64.99 7.XFX Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card-


which one of these should i get?my power supply is a 300W

 

[Tamz_msc]

The most powerful card that you can run safely on that PSU is a 5670.

 

[wh3resmycar]

$64.99 7.XFX Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card-

exclude this from your list.

$67.99 5.Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

^ this one looks like a winner. although there could be cheaper variations with 512mb ddr3 ram which are more cost effective.

 

[benski]

ATI recomends a 400W PSU for all of the 4600 series cards and NVIDIA recomends 450 for the GTS 250, I think 400 for the 8800 and 9800. You might get away with less but you might also damage something else by overloading your PSU.

 

[infernox_01]

depends on the quality on your power supply. i can run a 5570 on a 250w power supply.

 

[xaero1ne]

with my old 5770 i was playing on medium setting nicely during the beta days

 

[jyjjy]

Considering your PSU you'll want to stick with the HD5670 or HD4670. Perhaps look at an HD5570 as well maybe.

 

[cony246]

thanks a lot guys learned a lot from what you wrote, i just ordered the HD5670 so i hope it t does the trick ill comment back on monday and let you know how it worked.

 

[jyjjy]

It should make a large difference but that processor is still going to limit things on a CPU intensive game like SC2. What motherboard is in there exactly? There is a chance you can upgrade to current AMD processors.

 

[cony246]

ok so i got the HD5670 1gb gddr5 and it works beautifully for the campaign, online too but its limited when theres a lot of units on the map it can start to get laggy, how can i get this to never ever lag on me, my motherboard is a Asus M2N68-LA from hp
heres a link to the specs of the motherboard, any recommendations on which processor would best work out?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01237548&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=2093&product=3692715#N1076

 

[cony246]

It should make a large difference but that processor is still going to limit things on a CPU intensive game like SC2. What motherboard is in there exactly? There is a chance you can upgrade to current AMD processors.

ok so i got the HD5670 1gb gddr5 and it works beautifully for the campaign, online too but its limited when theres a lot of units on the map it can start to get laggy, how can i get this to never ever lag on me, my motherboard is a Asus M2N68-LA from hp
heres a link to the specs of the motherboard, any recommendations on which processor would best work out?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01237548&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=2093&product=3692715#N1076

 

[Tamz_msc]

When there are lots of stuff in the map, it gets laggy, you cannot do anything about it.
If you want you can try the highest end Phenoms, though it think that they will not be easy to find.