Budget graphics card

drbob

drbob

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Apr 25, 2009
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The time has come, Bob is looking to bring his rig into the 21st century!
Or at least up to date enough to play through bioshock / fallout 3 on low-med settings >.< (They both require SM3, my card only has shader model 2.0! T_T)

Keep in mind, I'm coming from having an NVidia GeForce FX5200 and an ATI X300 card in my rig, so /anything/ is an improvement in my book.

I've been looking at/around the Radeon HD 3450
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121250

OR

an Nvidia 8400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121240

Anyone have either of these cards that can give /real world/ expectancies on framerates in modern games?

Anyone able to list off some even modern(er) cards around the $50 dollarmark (that is what I consider budget ;P)


Any help in picking out a graphics card would be appreciated. I'm a complete moron when it comes to graphics hardware b/c frankly... I don't need much >.> So I'm ignorant of your fancy new HD video codecs and 300+ FPS stream processing mumbo jumbo xD
(Graphics wise, the Source engine is still impressive to me... and its a couple years old now isn't it?)

(I should note, as a baseline, the card must be DX10... SM3 or SM4... and not require sacrifice)
 
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OK. Those two cards will give you under 30 fps on a normal map in TF2, don't know about CS:S. I used to have an 8500, and it would never give above 30 fps, for anything. An 8400 will be even worse. Also, the 3450 MIGHT be slightly better, but it's still within that range. However, don't despair: I thought I had no money for a video card, but I found a great deal on Amazon one day where I picked up a 9600 GSO for $30. Yeah, you heard me right, THIRTY dollars. There WILL be deals out there, just look around. You can probably get just as lucky.
 
Seriously?
I don't see how that can be so considering they're like eons ahead of the X300 and my X300 can pull 100fps constant on most CS:S maps at medium settings... >.<
TF2 is the orangebox version of the Source engine but I can't imagine, aside from the new shadow effects, the engine is that much more demanding.

How would a card like the 4350 perform?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141083
(I believe its just a "slimmed down" 4600 or something to that effect)
 
@freakinghell, its a BIOSTAR TF5200 (AM2) with a 400W PSU.
Old rig is old but as I said I don't demand much from it, I just want to get a solid (smooth) FPS throughout a modern game, such as Bioschok or FO3, on low or medium settings.

(If I want graphics, my gf's brother has a PS3 ;) )
 
I'd go with an 9500GT if I were you, assuming your PSU has a PCI-e 6 pin connector.
 
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lol it has 3 of those, it'd be nice to actually put one to use ;P
 
Wow, a 400 watt PSU with 3 PCIe 6 pin connectors?

And I want to change my recommendation to a 9500GT. Didn't realize that you could find them around $50.
 
drbob said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162019
I'm puttin my bets on /that/ after rebate, would it be good?

It looks like a decent card and as I said I don't require much.
Also I retract my statement it only has 2, I always thought there was a third.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's a good deal. But I don't know anything about Galaxy. If it were me, I'd cough up the extra money(~$55) for another more trusted manufacturer, like Zotac, Sparkle, or XFX are the ones I see for cheap enough. They don't have the rebate though so they are more money. It's up to you.
 
I couldn't, I can't order this thing today I don't get paid till the weekend and as a general rule of thumb my parents are never keen on loaning me money (they're the "you must be responsible young padawan" types of parents...)

I was looking into this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127384

From what I can gather from online sources its ATI's answer to the 9500/9600 (it falls somewhere in between), and I found benchmarks which put it like a whole 10-20FPS higher than the NVidia 9500GT in Bioshock, but the benchmakrs were from the first versions of those cards (only 256mb video ram)... I was wondering how this card stacks up to the 9500 listed in this thread...

EDIT:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/792/4/
This shows the [256mb?] 4670 getting double the frames of the 9500... and the 4650 from my understanding is just an underclocked 4670, so obviously with some decent cooling I could get similar if not matching performance.

(P.S: I don't intend to play games at high resolution or use AA/AF... I only play at about 1024x768 max. So I'd imagine that card can slice it like a piece of cake anyways...)
 
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looks like a good one there. you could also look at the 9600 GSO. If you don't have either COD, the 1GB version is $70 and comes with both COD4 and 5, which is a pretty good deal.

9600 GSO 1gb
 
im gonna have to say just save up some from this time you get payed and wait till the next time you get paid and use that money to buy a little more expensive card.

also, the from number doesnt mean much. example: Just because it is a 9500gt doesnt mean its better than a 8800gt. The front number just mean the generation of the card. You also need to look at the second number to see how fast that card is compared to the members of its generation. The 9500gt is an ok card but for just a little bit more you can get a lot better of card and will be more satisfied with it.

Im gonna second Rykens choice of card just because you get both cod 4 and cod5 with it.
 
I get the whole generation thing but I just figured that generational differences would be like huge leaps but now I'm reading things where like the 8600 is like barely better than the 6800 which is two generations old so I guess the generational gaps really aren't that huge of an increase?

I do think thats a good deal that I'd be getting CoD4 and 5 which are both games I've been looking into getting, I'll look into it. Though honestly I'm really leaning towards ATI just b/c I have a huge fanboyism towards AMD.

As for saving up for a better card, I don't really see a point b/c I don't need that much graphics power anyways. I mean an FX5200 which is 4 generations old low-tier has gotten me all the way to 2009 and I haven't minded its performance in the least.
Of course now that I've had a taste of whats out there (X300) I just want to get my hands on enough power to play modern games.

I don't really want to blow a lot of money on this card also b/c this rig is going to either end up getting donated to my school or given to a family member, neither of which will appreciate the awesome graphics hardware which will inevitably be replaced in my next rig anyways. So right now I'm looking for a dirt-cheap solution to give this rig a last breath of life before it hits the scrap heap.
 
You can't go wrong with either of those cards. If you were going to buy both the COD, then the 9600 is clearly the way to go as it has $90 worth of games plus a graphics card.

If you want basement prices, just go ATI. I don't see any point in saving up for more of a card unless you are going to keep it for over a year. They will both play games (not all on highest settings) for a while yet.
 
I seriously am shocked that TF2 apparently takes a lot of graphics horsepower. I can't believe a, somewhat, modern low-tier card can't run TF2, it never seemed like an intense game to me. Esp with its cartoonish-style graphics.

Anyways I just put in an order for an MSI 4650, I get a free copy of Vegas6 and a $20 mail in rebate

Thanks for all your help guys :p, I would've obviously ended up in a mess w/o all y'alls help. (No seriously I would've been utterly disappointed in the card I was originally going to buy xD)
 
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