Which Budget GPU?

[crazedmasta]

Hello all and thanks. I'm a Starcraft 2 player and recently had my old 8800gts die on me. I'm looking for a new card to run Starcraft!! I have looked at 4 options that are around the 40 dollar range. Please let me know what you think is the best buy or any other suggestions you might have. The four are: Geforce 9800 gt ee 1gb, Geforce gt 440, Radeon HD 6450, and Radeon HD 6570 (which is actually $54 dollars on ebay but might buy if its worth it.) The first card is $40, 2nd is $44, and 3rd is $37. I hope this is enough information about the cards I can link all the ebay links if it's not. So yeah, these are all off ebay and I'm looking for cards in the 40 dollar range. Thanks.

 

[maxh22]

Hello all and thanks. I'm a Starcraft 2 player and recently had my old 8800gts die on me. I'm looking for a new card to run Starcraft!! I have looked at 4 options that are around the 40 dollar range. Please let me know what you think is the best buy or any other suggestions you might have. The four are: Geforce 9800 gt ee 1gb, Geforce gt 440, Radeon HD 6450, and Radeon HD 6570 (which is actually $54 dollars on ebay but might buy if its worth it.) The first card is $40, 2nd is $44, and 3rd is $37. I hope this is enough information about the cards I can link all the ebay links if it's not. So yeah, these are all off ebay and I'm looking for cards in the 40 dollar range. Thanks.

Can you list your current specs? And honestly if you want a good investment from your graphics card you should buy one thats atleast $100.

None of those cards are good enough to handle intense games.

Just so you know an 8800gt=9800gt they are the same card just re-branded.

 

[crazedmasta]

I have a i3 2100 cpu, 4gb ram, evga z68 mobo. Honestly the 8800 ran the game perfectly fine. Starcraft 2 does not take a lot, I just want to start playing again and I can't afford $100 for a video card.

 

[crazedmasta]

Maybe can I get a comparison of these cards to the 9800 gt since I've played with this card in the past. I'm looking up all the numbers of Core speed etc but really can't really determine how much better they are compared to each other

 

[4745454b]

ee means Energy Efficient, which means a lower clocked card. On the bright side they don't need the 6pin PCIe plug. The fastest card up there is either the 9800GT EE, or the GT440. It depends on clock speed and if the 440 has DDR5 or if the 9800GT has DDR2.

If you had the good 512MB G92 chip 8800GTS, then both with be slower then your old card.

 

[crazedmasta]

The 9800 gt ee is better than the 6570??

 

[4745454b]

Yes. Even the 6670 is just behind the normal 9800GT. I say similar but its just slower. If its DDR3 and the 9800GT is DDR2 then it might be faster. Really need more info on the cards. I didn't pay much attention to the EE cards so not sure what they have.

 

[crazedmasta]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PNY-GeForce-9800-GT-EE-GDDR3-1GB-PCIe-2-0-Dual-DVI-Video-Card-VCG98GTEE1XPB-/290756903939?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item43b2764403#ht_5112wt_1344
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GALAXY-Technology-NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-440-44GGS8HX3VXZ-/140808276622?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item20c8d3ca8e#ht_1432wt_906
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Elite-H8-1010-Radeon-HD-6450-DVI-HDMI-634478-001-Graphics-Card-512MB-PCI-ex16-/150851055358?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item231f6c6efe#ht_2751wt_1111
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-R6570-MD1G-LP-Radeon-HD-6570-1GB-128-bit-DDR3-PCIe-x16-HDCP-Low-Profile-/330774844090?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item4d03b792ba#ht_1156wt_106

This is what I'm looking at I can check to see what 8800 card I had. Are there any other cards you think I should be looking at?

 

[crazedmasta]

I think the card is totally fried I'm not getting any info from CPU-Z (

 

[dudewitbow]

try going on ebay for a used 4870 or 4850

 

[crazedmasta]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sapphire-HD-4850-512mb-PCI-E-Video-Card-VGA-DVI-HDMI-/110927054513?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item19d3c486b1#ht_2538wt_1344

How does this compare?

 

[4745454b]

Did you know how much video ram you had? 320, 512, or 640?

They all use DDR3. Still thinking either 9800GT EE or GT440. Starting to think GT440 is the better idea. Newer card so won't be driver obsolete, supports DX10 and 11 (9800GT only DX10.), and it should be close enough to the 9800GT ee that even if it is the slower card you shouldn't really notice.

 

[crazedmasta]

I'm pretty sure it was 512mb. The 440 sounds good to me, if it's close to my 8800gtx than I should be fine with it.

 

[dudewitbow]

here are some old benchmarks on teh 4850 and old cards near it from that age

 

[AyuX]

A little more money, you can get a HD 6770 or even a HD 6850, will run all games smoothly! Always future proof it

 

[crazedmasta]

Is the 520 an option?

 

[dudewitbow]

Is the 520 an option?

use the tier list to see what is better in general, then look for specific benchmarks when you find something that is close

 

[crazedmasta]

Useful link thanks, dude.

 

[crazedmasta]

Well, according to the list the 9800gt is the highest on the list, but is the 9800gt ee less powerful?

 

[crazedmasta]

Probably will go with the Geforce gt 440 thanks all!

 

[4745454b]

Yes. Normal 9800GT's have a 6pin PCIe power plug. Look at that newegg link. Yours doesn't have one. This means they had to lower the clock to make it work on the 75W that the PCIe slot can provide. Lower clocks equal less performance. I'm not sure if its lowered enough to get below the performance of the GT440.

If you had a 512MB 8800GTS, then you had the G92 card. This was just a big slower then the 8800GTX/9800GTX. Its faster then the 98/8800GT. All of the cards you listed will be slower then what you had. If you had slow downs while gaming before, you'll have them worse with any of those cards. You'd need the GTS250, GTS450, or 5750, 6750, to get a card with similar performance to what you had.