Crossfire performance 4250

[ogre44444]

I have a motherboard with a built in ATI Radeon HD 4250, and I was wondering what a could card to crossfire with it would be, and what sort of performance boost I'd get. I've read a lot of stuff about what cards NOT to crossfire with it, but nothing positive. Is it just a lost cause?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

forget it, its not worth the hassle and you wont get much performance from it. an $60 video card will provide more performance than anything you can crossfire with a 4250.

 

[ogre44444]

Okay, yeah that's kinda the answer I was expecting . What's a good $60-$80 dollar card you'd recommend?

Mainly it's to play Age of Empires 3 and Empire Total War, which I don't think should be toooo demanding. I've got 4 gb memory and quad 3.2 ghz processor, so I figure a good GPU is the only part I need.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

Okay, yeah that's kinda the answer I was expecting . What's a good $60-$80 dollar card you'd recommend?

Mainly it's to play Age of Empires 3 and Empire Total War, which I don't think should be toooo demanding. I've got 4 gb memory and quad 3.2 ghz processor, so I figure a good GPU is the only part I need.

A 5670 would be a good match for you and for a little more a 5770 would be even better; for the price its a great performer. The only question would be what kind of power supply do you have?

 

[ps3hacker12]

at taht price range theres this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150535

but i would reccommend going with atleast this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131434

 

[ogre44444]

I have a 500W power supply...that should probably be enough, right?

 

[ogre44444]

Also, my mobo is a: GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-USB3 AM3+ AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard. Thank you so much for your advice, I really appreciate it!

 

[ps3hacker12]

Also, my mobo is a: GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-USB3 AM3+ AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard. Thank you so much for your advice, I really appreciate it!

you can crossfire a 5450 with that mobo but its seriously not worth it, its not worth the hassle, its not worth the instability (windows 7 don't officially support it but AMD drivers do (not very well tho)).

i would highly reccommend this card if you can afford it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500193

but a gts450 will give max fps on ultra settings on most games too (at 1080p):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130679

the 6770 is a little better and the 5670 is a little worse (but i like nvidia PhysX).

 

[FlintIronStagg]

I have a 500W power supply...that should probably be enough, right?

500w is just fine for a 5670, 5770 or 6770.

 

[ps3hacker12]

I have a 500W power supply...that should probably be enough, right?

what is the make/model of that PSU?

 

[ogre44444]

The PSU is a: COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS500-PCARD3-US 500W ATX12V v2.3 Power Supply

Does the make and model really matter though? I had been under the impression that a 500w PSU was a 500w PSU.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

The PSU is a: COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS500-PCARD3-US 500W ATX12V v2.3 Power Supply

Does the make and model really matter though? I had been under the impression that a 500w PSU was a 500w PSU.

The cheaper psu's sometimes wont handle a consistent 500 watt output but rather a max rating. The cooler master psu is just fine though, silent pro being a good line

 

[ps3hacker12]

The cheaper psu's sometimes wont handle a consistent 500 watt output but rather a max rating. The cooler master psu is just fine though, silent pro being a good line

its the power plus line, the 600W version can only output 450W so i wonder what the 500W can output : / :
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-eXtreme-Power-Plus-600-W-Power-Supply-Review/1034/9

 

[ogre44444]

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-eXtreme-Power-Plus-500-W-Power-Supply-Review/728/10

According to this article, it DOES get to 500W, but it's "noisy" and inefficient. Does that mean that, if I hook up a higher end graphics card to it (say a 6770) my computer will hum more loudly than usual and my electric bill will go up more than it should? Those are things I think I could live with.