Radeon 6670 Help

[Stagnant Sloth]

Hello,

I am looking to upgrade my graphics card for the first time. I've never dealt with changing a graphics card, so I thought I'd come for some help!

My budget is about $75.00, so I'm not looking for top of the line hardware. I'd be interested in playing games such as Battlefield 3, Skyrim, Starcraft II, and Arma 2, on at least medium settings on a mid range screen resolution.

After looking around this site a bit, I've come across the Radeon 6670 that I am interested in.

I found this one on Newegg:

GIGABYTE GV-R667D3-1GI Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-125-403&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=5&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29#scrollFullInfo

So my three questions are:

1) Is this graphics card able to be installed on my computer?
2) Is it capable of playing the mentioned games when considering the card+my current hardware?
3) Is there any other graphics card you'd recommend in this price range?

Thank you for any assistance!

The following are my computer specs from the manufacture website:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/ho/WF06b/12132708-12133156-12133158-12133158-12133158-80631744-81049107.html?dnr=1



Operating system installed
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium

Processor
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q6600
• 2.40 GHz, 2x4MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz Front Side Bus

Platform:
Intel® ViivTM Processor Technology

Chipset
Intel® G33 Express Chipset

Standard memory
3072MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM memory (2x1024MB 2x512MB) (Expandable to 8GB)

Memory type
DDR2-SDRAM

Memory slots
4 DIMM (240-pin, DDR2) (occupied)

Internal hard disk drive
640 GB (2 x 320 GB)

Hard disk controller
Serial ATA

Hard disk drive speed
(7200 rpm)

Optical drive type
SuperMulti DVD burner with LightScribe Technology

Optical drive speed
LightScribe Technology: 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL, 8x DVD-R DL, 12x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD-ROM, 40x CDR, 32x CDRW, 40x CD-ROM

Memory card device
15in1 memory card reader

Modem
56k modem

Network interface
Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps network interface

Video capture interface
2 FireWire® (IEEE 1394) port(s) (1 Front, 1 Back)

Video adapter
NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS graphics card

Video RAM
Up to 1535MB Total Available Graphics Memory as allocated by Windows Vista®

Internal audio
High Definition Audio, 8 speaker configurable

Audio connectors
Headphone; Microphone; Audio Inputs; Digital Audio In/Out; Microphone/Line-in/Line-out; Rear speaker-out; Side speaker-out; Center(subwoofer);

Keyboard
HP wireless keyboard with extended range (up to 30 feet)

Handheld remote control
HP Media Center remote control with IR (infrared) receiver

External drive bays
2 external optical drive bays, 2 internal HDD bays, 1 Pocket Media Drive bay, 1 Personal media Drive bay ; Landing pad for USB & 1394 devices
External I/O ports
6 USB 2.0 ports (2 in front); 2 FireWire®-IEEE-1394 ports (1 in front)

Expansion slots
1 PCI Slot (occupied) 2 PCI Express x1 slots (one available) 1 PCI Express x16 slot (occupied)

 

[greghome]

the 6670 is good enough to run BF3 at high @ 720p
and it shouldn't be any problem running it as it has a very low TDP

 

[clutchc]

That will make a great improvement over your 8400 GS: http://www.hwcompare.com/10949/geforce-8400-gs-512mb-vs-radeon-hd-6670-oem-1gb/

The card doesn't require a large PSU, getting all its power form the PCIe slot itself. It should be great up to 1440x900 resolution.

 

[blazorthon]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102958

This is a GDDR5 6670 rather than a DDR3 6670 and with free shipping and the MIR, it is $74.99. It would be faster than the 6670 that you have listed.

 

[greghome]

^ Get that....

 

[clutchc]

This is probably a bit over budget, but it is about the max avaialble today without requireing a large PSU w/separate PCIe power cables.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102969