I need help choosing a graphics card

[Phawniks]

I've recently decided to get into pc gaming rather than get a xbone or ps4. Unfortunately I have no idea how to choose a graphics card.

I have:
250 watt power supply
3ghz proccesor
4 gigs of ram

I would really appreciate some guidance on what I should get and it's important to note that I don't need or want to play the newest games on the highest settings. If i can play tf2 on high settings I would be content w/ that.

Thank you in advance,

Phawniks

 

[SnakeGTX]

Well, from what you told me, I can't figure out what card that would work well with that system.

First, if you could, just give me the exact specs of the system. Like your processor could be AMD which isn't as good as intel. And is it a single core or dual core? And like the exact name. Like "Intel Core i5-650".

Your power supply is extremely low. Your not going to be able to get a good card. And I don't need the model numbers on that.

4 gigs of ram is fine, I don't need the model number on that.

I will need to know your motherboard. It would be good to have the model number, but I "don't" need it. What I need to know is what connectors the motherboard has. Either you could tell me the model number, or you will need to look inside the machine for me, so that I can suggest graphics cards.

So what you need to do is open the computer case up with a screw driver. Then look inside and look at the motherboard. Tell me what connectors you see. Here is a pic of what the connectors look like.

PCI Express ×4
PCI Express ×16
PCI Express ×1
PCI Express ×16
Legacy PCI (32-bit)

So tell me which one you have.

And it would be nice if I could have your budget.

 

[Phawniks]

Thank you for replying:

I have a AMD Athlon(tm) II X3 435 processor


and my mother board has 1 PCI-express 16

I have a budget of about 150-200 dollars and I would be willing to get another power supply if you think it is a good idea

 

[SnakeGTX]

Thank you for replying:

I have a AMD Athlon(tm) II X3 435 processor


and my mother board has 1 PCI-express 16

I have a budget of about 150-200 dollars and I would be willing to get another power supply if you think it is a good idea

Ok, good. You have the right connector for modern graphics cards. And your CPU will do fine with a low-medium end card. But your PSU will limit you to the low of the low end graphics cards. Like a Radeon HD 5450. It could probably play BF4 with 8 fps on low. So yes, getting a power supply would be very smart.

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So here are some options.

Power Supply:

EVGA 500W PSU 80+ bronze certified
Model number: EVGA 100-B1-0500-KR
Pros: Not as much money, and still has decent power and quality.
$45

Cooler Master i500 500W PSU 80+ bronze certified
Model number: RS500-ACAAB1-US
Pros: Has better quality and slightly more power.
$55 ($35 after rebate)

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Graphics cards:

MSI Radeon HD 7790 1GB
Model: MSI R7790-1GD5/OC
GPU Score: 3,007
Pros: Best value graphics card. And supports AMD's "Mantle".
$115

EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB
Model: EVGA 01G-P4-3655-KR
GPU Score: 3.572
Pros: Nvidia's good quality and driver support. Does not support AMD's "Mantle".
$135

Gigabyte R7 260X 2GB
Model: GV-R726XOC-2GD
GPU Score: 2,828 (The 260X is the same card as the 7790, but with more ram and a audio chip)
Pros: Comes with built in audio ("True Audio"), which takes stress off of the CPU. And supports AMD's "Mantle".
$140

Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB
Model: Sapphire 11200-16-20G
GPU Score: 3,710
Pros: Higher memory bus. More graphical cores. Supports AMD's "Mantle". And step up from the 7790. And slightly better than a GTX 660.
$160

MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 660
Model: MSI N660-2GD5/OC
GPU Score: 4,109
Pros: Nvidia's good quality and driver support. Higher performance than the 650 ti boost.
$180

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Sources:

PSU prices
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/power-supply/#w=500&e=2&sort=a9&m=50,14

GPU prices
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=132,114,131,81,149&sort=a7&m=14,18,27,41

GPU score
http://videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

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Ok, here they are.

Let me explain this "Mantle". It is a new API used to develop games. This API lets the developer to directly make the game for the hardware. Thus will increase performance by a lot.

And all of the cards that I have listed above, should play BF4 on high, with more than 30 FPS.

Battlefield 4 (BF4) is a very demanding game, and it something to go by.

yeah, any of these cards could max TF2 no problem. My graphics card, the Intel HD graphics 1000, can play TF2 fine on low-medium setting, and its the same or worse than the HD 5450 (Very bad card).

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Hope this helps
-Snake