Budget card for average gamer

Forum Graphics & Displays : Graphics Cards Budget card for average gamer

hi all. iam getting an i3 2100 and want to get a good budget card to go with it.

i will be gaming on a 19" 720p lcd screen with native resolution of 1366x768. i want to be able to play current and upcoming games (like the witcher 2, bf3, starcraft2, crysis2, ect).

i dont mind lowering the resolution (to 1024×768) or the graphics as long as i can play and it still looks good.

so what would u recommend? thanks

upgrading from a geforce 8600gt 512mb

Message edited by gogoman123 on 08-10-2011 at 03:00:26 AM

Reply to gogoman123

The 5670 is a nice budget card that will play new games at 720p with console level graphics or above, which may mean the lowest settings in some cases, but it will still look good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150535

Reply to benski

ok i think that gts450(£80) < 5770(£80)=6770 < gtx460(£110) < 6870 < gtx560 ti
but do u think that gts450/5770 is enough for my needs and will be ok for the nxt 2-3yrs (at my resolution) or do u think its worth the extra £30 and go for the gtx460 for a better performance/future proofing, again for my needs.

Message edited by gogoman123 on 08-11-2011 at 09:02:03 AM

Reply to gogoman123

What is your budget?

What are your full system specs?(RAM,CPU,etc.)

What is the make/model of your Power Supply?

Even for an average gamer you would want a 6850 or a 6770.The 6850 is faster but I reccomend,with budget permiting,getting the 6870 if you want it to last for the next 3 years.

At that resolution it is more CPU dependant than GPU.I'm guessing your on a budget which is why you went with the i3 2100.I would urge you to get a i5 isntead if you haven't already gotten it but you can always upgrade to it in the future since it is the same socket.

Reply to purple stank

my budget is about £100, ny specs i3-2100, 4gb ddr3, i will get a good psu after i decided on the card. according to toms gaming cpus, the i3-2100 is good enough for my needs. i can always upgrade to an i5 later.

back to the card, which of the following do u recommend:
gts450(£90), gtx460(£120), 550ti(£100), 6770(£100), 6870(£130)

Message edited by gogoman123 on 08-11-2011 at 09:24:16 AM

Reply to gogoman123

The GTX460(1gb) is very respectable....; however, the 6870 is a tad faster, and would be my choice.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts [...] ,2667.html

Reply to mdd1963

If you can afford the 6870 I would reccomend getting that as it's the fastest card.It has imporoved tesselation and crossfire scaling which makes the win over the GTX460 more than just specs.

Reply to purple stank

gtx460/amd 6850 are the two best mid range cards.

------------------------------ INTEL CORE 2 Q6600 @ 3.49GHz, CM Hyper TX3, ASUS P5N-D, 8GB DDR800 RAM, Powercolour HD6850, 650w Antec Trupower New PSU
Reply to iam2thecrowe

for that money my vote is the HD 6870
but a GTX 460 1gb is a good option also
both are excellent choices

Reply to king smp

I recommend the 6870 if you have the money but the GTX460/6850 is also a very good choice.I wouldn't recommend anything lower than those or it won't last for the time you intend it to.

Reply to purple stank

ok i looked at gtx460/6850/6870 and from a performance point of view the 6870 is the winner. they all start from £130 and if thats how much i will have to pay then i might as well go for the 6870.
unfortunately, i dont want to spend over a £100 for the card so all of them are out of budget. the gts450 is very tempting starting at £80ish. do u guys think its not good enough, for my needs, and not worth the price? also the 550ti for £100ish is tempting, is this one ok?
otherwise i will have to wait for the prices to drop a bit.

Message edited by gogoman123 on 08-12-2011 at 05:05:37 PM

Reply to gogoman123

if you want to get a card now
then may I suggest the HD 5770 if the price is okay
which I think earlier you said was the same as the 450

if you look at Toms GPU chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 997-7.html
the HD 5770 is stronger than the GT 450
and at your screen resolution 1366x768
would play any game at high settings for at least a year or two

------------------------------ "I yam what I yam and thats all that I yam"-Popeye-greatest 20th century philosopher
[

http://valid.canardpc.com/cache/banner/2375043.png

Reply to king smp

also as you can see here
Toms recommends it highly at its price point
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 997-3.html

------------------------------ "I yam what I yam and thats all that I yam"-Popeye-greatest 20th century philosopher
[

Reply to king smp

^+1.

The 6770/5770 is much better than the GTS450 all while consuming less power.I'm surprised you can't find any 6850's for cheap.They are a lot lower in price than they used to be and i've seen some for $120 after MIR.Have you triedd looking on amazon.uk?

Reply to purple stank

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