Upgrading current graphics card - Budget is $50 to $80 - Need Help

[chrisbek]

Hi everyone on Tom's hardware.

I'm coming to everyone here today because I have a particular problem that I am hoping a few people can help me resolve. A friend my mine recently has decided he wants to upgrade his system and has asked me for some help. He wants to get a new graphics card and wishes to keep under a budget.

He mentioned to me he wants to spend $50 to $80 for a new graphics card.

I am hoping someone can help him. Below I have taken a template and sat down with to discuss what he wants this new card to do. I am hoping someone can help us review the information below to help us make an informed decision. Any help would be most appreciated in advance.



APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: 1 to 3 weeks to conduct research to help decide what card will suit my needs before purchasing.

BUDGET RANGE: $50.00 to $80.00 Canadian Price (Before Rebates)

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT:

I want to upgrade my current graphics card for the following reasons:

1) Play World Of Warcraft Between Medium to High Setting That provides best resolution with no lag
2) Interet viewing capabilities: webpages, flash animation, youtube, etc
3) Not planning to play high graphic games anytime soon but would like maybe card that has decent suppport if possible for these games


CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY:

Power Supply Is: Enermax Power Supply 350 W Top power output
Sapphire HD 2600 Pro ATI Radeon Graphics

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:

Following was taken from Belarc Advisor Program:

Processor
1.80 gigahertz Intel Pentium Dual
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded


Main Circuit Board
Board: Biostar Group GF7050V-M7
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 02/20/2008


Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)


System Model
BIOSTAR Group GF7050V-M7
Enclosure Type:



(e.g., make/model of CPU, MoBo, memory - this can help us determine whether or not a given card is compatible with and makes sense for your system. For high-end cards, knowing your case/cooling setup may also be helpful)

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Looking to purchase all parts from www.canadacomputers.com or www.bestbuy.ca or www.futureshop.ca

PARTS PREFERENCES: (e.g., if you will only use ATI cards, want PhysX card, prefer XFX cards over Sapphire cards, etc., tell us)

OVERCLOCKING: Overclocking nice but not needed. SLI/Crossfire would be nice but not needed

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1280x1024

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

I just want a better card to simply play World Of Warcraft with better performance.


LIST OF CARDS FOR CONSIDERATION:


Following is a list of cards on CanadaComputers Website. I have been told from looking at the review page on tomshardware that lists price points from $50.00 cards and up. I read that the following cards might be good upgrades but I am not sure:

Asus EAH4670/DI/1GD3/V2 ATI Radeon HD 4670 Chipset (750MHz ) 1GB (1600Mhz) DDR3 Dual Display DVI/HDMI/VGA PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_558&item_id=026465


PowerColor (AX4650 512MD2-LHV2)(Low Profile) ATI Radeon HD 4650 Chipset (600Mhz) 512MB (800Mhz) DDR2 Dual Display DVI/HDMI PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card


http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_558&item_id=027329


Here is the main site sorted for PCI Express ATI cards by price on canadacomputers website:


http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=43_557_558&page=1&sort=3a

Express NVIDIA cards:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=43_557_559&page=1&sort=3a

 

[jryan388]

I would recommend a gt 430, radeon 5570, radeon 5670, or similar product.
Here's another website you could check out: http://www.newegg.ca

 

[stillerfan15]

I would recommend a gt 430, radeon 5570, radeon 5670, or similar product.
Here's another website you could check out: http://www.newegg.ca

Agreed with the 5570 - I'm running one on a 400 watt coolermaster psu no problem. A 5670 would probably work also if you can get it at that price.
Dave

 

[chrisbek]

I would recommend a gt 430, radeon 5570, radeon 5670, or similar product.
Here's another website you could check out: http://www.newegg.ca

Thanks for the help. Most appreciated.

Yeah I have checked newegg out with my friend. I really want to help him and he just would rather buy local from canadacomputers.

I just don't know cards to select from the site and I see alot of ATI 5570 and 5670's on canada computers


Probably the simplest question I could ask is if you had to purchase a graphics card from the canada computers and you had to recommend 3 good ATI cards for the price range listed which of the cards listed here in price order would you get? I talked it over with my friend he said he may spend a maximum $100.00 before taxes and rebates kicked in.

ATI card sorted by price:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=43_557_558&page=1&sort=3a

Can someone give me a quick look and perhaps list 3 cards that they would consider from that list?

 

[lakshitharxx]

I think GT240, radeon 5570, 5670. I do not recommend GT430. I am currently using a GT430. it supports directx 11. but GT240 is 5% or 10% better than that. Both are same price.

 

[megamanx00]

have you tried downloading more recent drivers. The flash acceleration works just fine on my older 3850, but I'm not sure if AMD bothered to enable it in the older HD 2000 series. Anyway for your price range I say go with a 5670 like this one

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102871

Just make sure you get a GDDR5 5670. Some boards are listed as having GDDR3, but that essentially just makes them slower 5570 boards -_-. Flash acceleration will work just fine and smooth things out (when it works anyway as only the most recent drivers are trouble free for me). Just know that for warcraft the limiting factor is going to be that CPU of yours. Overclocking it could certainly help ^_^

 

[Marrowwind]

Newegg.ca is Canada btw, you can see the maple leaf right next to "Newegg"

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150513&cm_re=gts_250-_-14-150-513-_-Product

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102870&cm_re=Radeon_HD_5670-_-14-102-870-_-Product

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150528&cm_re=Radeon_HD_5750-_-14-150-528-_-Product

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162062&cm_re=GTS_450-_-14-162-062-_-Product

I think the best deal is the 450 due to the $30 mail in rebate, it will equal around 90 bucks if you can stretch a little.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

gt240. his psu cant handle more than that or 5670 and dx11 cards are pointless with xp.

 

[chrisbek]

Thanks for the help everyone. Everything mentioned is most appreciated.

The power supply has been an issue and I realised that from the start but wasn't sure as maybe these cards would support a 350 watt supply.

Since the supply is an issue my friend is going to get an appropriate power supply. He has decided on getting a 650 antec power supply to accomodate for the graphics card.

To merrow I checked out those links at newegg thinking they were direct links to some of the cards you might have but nothing came up. Either the links are broken I don't know.


As to all the suggestion my friend states he would rather just buy from www.canadacomputers.com as it is a local store.

Can anyone tell me which of the cards listed on this page would be good choices:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=43_557_558&page=1&sort=3a

If you can simply link me to which cards on the site I have listed above that would be good for suggestions under 100 dollars it would be most appreciated.

would like just 3 suggestions from www.canadacomputers.com

Thanks in advance again