Nvidia best graphics card

[wgenglan]

Hello,
I am wondering which is the best nVidia card performance wise and less than $100 for an eMachines ET1161-03 stock system.

It has Amd Athlon64 X2 Dual-core 4400+ 2.3ghz and 3 GB ram. Not sure about power supply, but will upgrade if necessary.

Thanks

 

[fb39ca4]

Does it have to be Nvidia? The best option from them would be a GT 440. Alternatively, you could get an HD 5770 from AMD, which can be had for $10 more and has way better performance. Then, there is the GTS 450 which is also $110 but still doesn't beat the 5770. With the latter two, you may have to upgrade the PSU.

 

[Supernova1138]

I would agree, does it absolutely have to be nvidia? Below the $120 price bracket nvidia's offerings are rather poor with AMD cards of similar cost outperforming their nvidia counterparts. Nvidia's cards also draw more power than their AMD counterparts, so you are more likely to need a PSU upgrade if you go that route. For around $100, the 5770/6770 is the best card you can get. I wouldn't recommend going higher than that, as anything more powerful will be bottlenecked by your CPU.

As said above, you probably will have to upgrade the power supply, odds are the stock PSU is a 250 Watt or 300 Watt unit which won't power a 5770 or a GTS 450. A 300 Watt PSU would be enough for a 5670 or 6670, or a GT 440, a 250 Watt would only be able to power up to a 5570 or 6570, or maybe a GT 430.

 

[wgenglan]

Thanks, fb39ca4 and Supernova1138,

While it doesn't have to be an nVidia card, I have been comparing other aspects of which card to get, and in the past, I found the drivers and setup options of the nVidia-based cards were less trouble free, for me.

I've always had good luck installing and finding the drivers when I needed to. I also like the fact that the nVidia custom profiles usually give so many ways to tailor for specific games and applications, which does provide a way to smoothe out meshing work and play on my system.

I haven't used any systems with AMD graphic cards. That said, I am not an expert in this area, but I tend to stick with what I am familiar with. I have both a GT-240 based card, and a 430 GT card for comparisons in more than one pc. I most likely won't be using the 430 GT in my eMachines, but it will probably do nicely in another pc I have. The 240 card will most likely be in the eMachines, as it was recommended for mixed use at least twice to me elsewhere.

So thanks much guys. One of the things I noticed about some of the recommended cards were their low power requirements. Maybe I will check out some AMD cards. Either way, I am now much better informed. Just why I asked for help here in the first place!

 

[wgenglan]

Best answer selected by wgenglan.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey