Finally adding a Video Card to my computer

rawr4dj

Honorable
Mar 29, 2012
17
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10,510
I finished my Gaming Rig not to long ago I have a ASUS mother board that costed somewhere in the upper $200's(meaning it is a capable Mother Board. And I am using a late model Sandy Bridge i5 thats is unlocked. I am finally ready to purchase my video card mainly because Video Game season will be starting shortly and this Integrated Intel Video Card is dismal at best. I have done research in the past on a Video Card. But I am actually ready to purchase now.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: In the next two weeks.
BUDGET RANGE: no more than $200 unless it is a great value for a little more.(the less the better)

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Mainly for Gaming I plan on playing Guild Wars 2 on this beast and I want it to run GREAT!!! Maybe a lil WoW(I doubt it but I'd still want it to run amazingly). Eventually maybe other games but as long as WoW, SWTOR, and GW2 run great thats all I need.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: I have no GPU I just have a i5 with integrated graphics.

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: Intel i5 the top of the line Sandy Bridge one i think its like 55K or something, one of the better ASUS MoBo's it costed about $250 or $300 when I got it about 4 months ago, 6 gigs of ram.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Best Buy(i get employee discount) or wherever else I can get it for a great price.
PARTS PREFERENCES: (e.g., if you will only use ATI cards, want PhysX card, prefer XFX cards over Sapphire cards, etc., tell us)

OVERCLOCKING:Maybe
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: (e.g.: 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Simply needs to run any MMO like a champ WoW, SWTOR, and especially GW2
 

mace200200

Honorable
Wow doesn't take a very powerful system to max out at all, I think that a 7770 would be a good card for you, they're very cheap ($105 I got mine for), and they run extremely cool. If you want to run closer to that $200 budget and plan on playing other games, I really like the 6870, they cost around $160, but if you can find a 560 ti for cheap that would be the way to go, normally they run about $220 for a decent one but they go on sale a lot.
 

rawr4dj

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Mar 29, 2012
17
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10,510
My discount from Best Buy isnt that great on Video Cards to be honest so id be better off getting from Tiger Direct or New Egg. Also does the brand matter much for the Video CarD?
 
That's a lot of links :eek:

XFX and Sapphire are very decent brands. Good quality and good service. So are Evga, Asus, Msi, His.

If you wanna go for the 6870 ( though the 7850 would be much better "futureproof" because of the 2G ) i wouldn't pay as much as for the Asus on tigerdirect, for around 200 you can have that 7850.

So one of the cheaper ones then.

The Asus on Newegg is out of stock and an open box.



http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/356879-15-radeon-6870-7850
 

mace200200

Honorable
EVGA doesn't make AMD cards, but anyway the 7850 would be better for longer, but you'll need to scrap up like $75, the thing is 6870's aren't very power hunger so overheating usually isn't an issue and you can get away with the cheaper cards. On the other hand, the 7850 will take much more power (partly because it's a more powerful card) and for a 7850 I would spend the extra money on top of what your already paying for it over a 6870 to get one with better cooling.

Another thing is, you can (and people will tell you) to spend "just an extra $20" to go a step up, but then you can go $20 over that, basically it's up to you and how much money you want to spend on a GPU to decide when to stop.