Upgrading from a non-existant graphics card - ~£70 budget [UK]

[AJMac]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Around 2 - 3 weeks time.

BUDGET RANGE: £70 - If it's really worth spending that bit more for something bigger and better, then I'd probably go higher.

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: WoW and possibly at bit of EVE. I might consider playing some more demanding PC games but don't expect them to be on high settings. I'd like WoW and EVE to have half decent settings and still run at a good frame rate. Oh, and some Battlefield 2.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: Intel G33 / G31 Express Chipset Family (I know, I know) with what I believe to be a PSU between 250W and 300 W (I say this because I'm unable to crack open the case at 20 to 3 in the morning. Despite that, a quick Google came up with those results).

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: I'll admit - I'm out of my depth with graphics cards. They've baffled me for years. I have a 22" LG monitor with a resolution of 1920 x 1080.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Anywhere trustworthy and cheap. I don't know many UK sites (bar Dabs). I've looked at importing from the States, but the tax and shipping is just too much to justify it.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK

PARTS PREFERENCES: As you can probably tell by now, there are none from me. ^^

OVERCLOCKING: No

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No - unless my budget can handle it ... which I don't think it can.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920 x 1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I've looked at the "Best Graphics Cards For The Money: August 2010" article and deduced that, unfortunately, the Radeon HD 4850 1 GB and GeForce GTS 250 1 GB are too pricey for me (unless someone knows where I can get them cheap. I went back and looked at the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, but also noticed the final paragraph, mentioning both the GeForce 9600 GT and Radeon HD 5670. This is where I got thrown and would appreciate any assistance that can be offered.

 

[wa1]

For your budget, GT240 DDR5 or HD5670 is the right choice...
Those cards doesn't need a lot power, you'll be fine with 250W-300W PSU.

But don't expect playing those games at HIGH setting on your resolution, you will need more stronger card, which mean you need a bigger PSU...

 

[Maziar]

Its definitely worth it to pay about £5 more to get HD 4850
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-135-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938
Which is significantly faster than both 5670 and GT 240 but you have to get a new PSU,because it won't work with 250-300W PSU

 

[plastichairball]

I'm running an 8600GT on a 250W PSU, and never had any problems. It plays all modern games (although not at uber high resolutions), but for WOW and EVE it would be a perfectly adequate card. It is quite cheap, which is great but if you're looking for a little more bang for buck I'd say go for a ATI 4670. Its the card I've been looking at for my own system and you can get one for under £40 if you look hard enough. With your budget you might be able to get the 1gb version, which would be well worth the cash.

 

[infernox_01]

i would say the 5670, u can find it for less then £70 here. its the 512mb version, people have told me its not worth buying the 1gb version. theres a sapphire card for a few £ more if u dont like the xfx.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190648

 

[plastichairball]

i would say the 5670, u can find it for less then £70 here. its the 512mb version, people have told me its not worth buying the 1gb version. theres a sapphire card for a few £ more if u dont like the xfx.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190648

Oh man, I forgot about that card! Good call, I recommended that to a friend in the office who was looking for a little upgrade and she says she loves that card. If you can get the 1GB DDR5 version of that card you'll be smiling!

 

[AJMac]

Huge thanks for the help so far. I have a couple of questions that I'd like to ask and would be grateful for any help.

What sort of difference can I expect to see between a 512 MB card and a 1 GB card?
and
Which manufacturer(s) should I be looking for? Are there any that are no-gos?

 

[plastichairball]

Well it depends. With some cards you'll see an increase of about 5fps at high resolutions, and if that's the difference between 25fps and 30fps then its definitely worthwhile. There isn't a huge difference between manufacturers, what you should look for in a manufacturer is 1) what cooling solution have they put on the card, 2) What clock settings are they shipping the GPU with. Some manufacturers will factory overclock a GPU and put on a decent cooler to cope with it, so that's something to watch out for.

 

[AJMac]

So after looking for several hours, it seems that the 5670 and 8600 GT have a "recommended" power supply of 400W. plasticthairball - I know you said that you can run an 8600 GT fine on 250W, but is there a danger of damaging some of my other components if I were to run it on my current PSU?

Regardless of that, would it be worth upgrading my PSU regardless? What sort of prices would a reliable PSU at around 400W be costing?

 

[plastichairball]

So after looking for several hours, it seems that the 5670 and 8600 GT have a "recommended" power supply of 400W. plasticthairball - I know you said that you can run an 8600 GT fine on 250W, but is there a danger of damaging some of my other components if I were to run it on my current PSU?

Regardless of that, would it be worth upgrading my PSU regardless? What sort of prices would a reliable PSU at around 400W be costing?

Well it all depends. As i said, i run my 8600gt on a 250w, and it has had no problems for 2 years now. It all depends on how many amps you get on the 12v rail of the power supply. If you're looking into getting a 400w, the most important thing to note is its amps on the 12v rail. There are some 400s that, for example supply only 14a on the 12v line, which isn't enough. If you find a psu that delivers decent amps, but is say, 350w, that's fine. I've heard good things about corsair, but there are definitely ones to avoid like winfast. A good price for a 400w would be... Thirty pounds? Having said that i just got a decent 500w off ebay for two pounds. I wouldn't recommend doing that unless you were 100% sure that you had done all your research on it!

 

[infernox_01]

heres a good 400w power supply. its a bit over £30 but its worth it. im currently using a HD5570 on a 250w power supply. no problems so far. just wondering, ur computer isnt a slim 1 right?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150985

 

[AJMac]

I'm pretty sure it's not. I have a Dell Inspiron 530 (not the 530s). I'm sceptical about upgrading my PSU as I've never done it before. My dad tried changing a graphics card once and messed it right up, resulting in him having to go to a shop to get it fixed (well, he just bought a new one seeing as it was quite old, but that would've done that if he hadn't).

I always thought that buying a graphics card was confusing, but not this confusing!

 

[infernox_01]

its not really that confusing. the inspiron 530 comes with a 300w power supply if its a dual core processor and 350w power supply if its a quad core processor. i think both would be good enough for a 5670.

 

[AJMac]

So, I've managed to find a 4850 and a 5670 at my budget. Which one will run best on my 300W PSU?

 

[infernox_01]

the 5670 like we said before.