Help with a new card??

[Kaine-M95]

Hey, i bought a computer a few months ago for PC gaming, mainly skyrim. Unfortunately i didnt have much (and still dont) knowledge when it came to graphics cards, so i opted for a AMD Radeon™ HD 6450 GPU. This has lead to me not being able to play my games on the high resoulutions which up until now hasnt realy bothered me but now i think its time i upgraded to a better card so i can get to the high or ultra settings on games. my benchmark realy is Skyrim, id like to be able to play with a high FPS on high or ultra settings. My computers specs as it stands are:
AMD FX(tm)- 4100 Quad Core processor
8GB RAM
and as ive said the AMD Radeon™ HD 6450 GPU.

any help would be much appreciated. And one last thing my price range is around the £100-£150 mark not too high i know but im in school so im not exactly rolling in money. thanks

 

[geekapproved]

You can't get much lower than a 6450, it's not even meant to play games.

This should help you out
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

You haven't mentioned what power supply you have or what resolution your monitor is, so nobody could possibly make any recommendations.

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Hi.

What psu do you have ?

 

[Kaine-M95]

oh yeah i forgot, its a 500 watt psu

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

GTX560Ti, GTX560, HD6870.
What brand/model psu is it ? Important is to know how many amps you have on the +12V rail(s).

 

[Kaine-M95]

ill try and check what make the psu is, but would a GTX card fit with an AMD motherboard? and sorry i dont know the screen resolution its just hooked up to a 19 inch HD TV

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Sure they work.

 

[Kaine-M95]

is there a big difference between the GTX560 and GTX560i?

 

[Kaine-M95]

ok cool ill look into those three now

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-560-amp-edition-gtx-560-directcu-ii-top,2944-10.html

 

[Onus]

On your budget, you can probably find a HD7770 or HD6850. If your PSU has a PCIe power connector, it should be sufficient to run either of those, even if it is only capable of providing 400W. If you do NOT have a PCIe power connector, it is probably not safe to use adapters (you risk killing your system if the PSU is too weak), and the strongest card you should consider is a HD7750.

 

[Kaine-M95]

thanks for all the help guys, im gonna look around and see which card will match my price range and needs best, and probably upgrade my PSU in the process

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Yeah, really make sure the psu is good enough.

If you buy a new one ; corsair, antec, seasonic, xfx, ocz, be quit are good.

 

[Kaine-M95]

thanks, im thinking about going with a AMD Radeon HD 6870. do u think it would be a good choice?

 

[Onus]

That card would be nice. A quality 500W PSU will be needed. Look for 80+ certification; not so much for the efficiency, but because it will have been tested at 100% load for long enough that a cheap PSU would have croaked.