$125 to buy a video card

Burks · **Posted:** November 23rd, 2012, 10:24 am

So my 9800 GT is taking a crap on me. Just isn't working well and working hard (fans run like mad).

Only wanting to spend $125 or so. nVidia, Radeon, whatever. I'm partial to nVidia as I've had less problems with them over the years (I went through FOUR ATI cards within a year....).

Any ideas? Radeon 7770 looks good, and better than the GTX 550 Ti.

I mainly game, no graphics design or crap like that.

reggie · **Posted:** November 23rd, 2012, 12:03 pm

get a better cooling solution for your 9800GT ? Ive got a 9800GTX and ive had no issues playing games (granted you probably play more than me though)

Burks · **Posted:** November 23rd, 2012, 1:13 pm

I would but I think after three years of 24/7 operation, she's dying.

I can at least use whatever card I buy in my build while I save for the best card out there.

Animal · **Posted:** November 24th, 2012, 5:09 am

Unless you are very tightly constrained to that $125 budget, I'd recommend maybe getting something like this GTX 650 Ti. II'll give you a bit more oomph than the 560 Ti, while also using much less power. It also apparently comes with Assassin's Creed III, which is nice. There's also this one, but has a much smaller cooler, but also a bit cheaper than the Asus, which won't allow for as big of an overclock, which you should be able to pull off nicely with that Asus.

Burks · **Posted:** November 24th, 2012, 1:44 pm

Good find. Might just get that. Ill have to measure to see if it will fit.

Ill probably just buy the EVGA since its cheaper and I don't overclock. Huge jump from my 9800gt. PSU is 650w so I'm good there

bartoron · **Posted:** November 25th, 2012, 5:28 pm

Instead of a 550 Ti, go for a 560 SE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130770

I have it. It's awesome.

:-s

bartoron

Burks · **Posted:** November 25th, 2012, 8:32 pm

I'm keeping a close eye on Cyber Monday sales. Really want to stick with nVidia, as quality control seems better. Have a hard time paying less for a card that supposedly scores better (ATI vs nVidia), when the cards don't last long.

bartoron · **Posted:** November 25th, 2012, 8:46 pm

The card I posted is an nVidia card. :-s

bartoron

Pupsin · **Posted:** November 25th, 2012, 10:01 pm

Burks wrote:

I'm keeping a close eye on Cyber Monday sales. Really want to stick with nVidia, as quality control seems better. Have a hard time paying less for a card that supposedly scores better (ATI vs nVidia), when the cards don't last long.

For nVidia cards tommorow, you'll find 500 series cards on blowout because the 600 series was just released. A 550 Ti, 560 SE or 560 Ti will suit your needs.

I put a 560 in the build I made over the summer and overclocked it slightly and run Skyrim maxed at ~50 FPS and AC3 around 45 FPS. YMMV though.

Burks · **Posted:** November 25th, 2012, 10:22 pm

bartoron wrote:

The card I posted is an nVidia card. :-s

bartoron

I know, just making the statement.

Pupsin wrote:

For nVidia cards tommorow, you'll find 500 series cards on blowout because the 600 series was just released. A 550 Ti, 560 SE or 560 Ti will suit your needs.

I put a 560 in the build I made over the summer and overclocked it slightly and run Skyrim maxed at ~50 FPS and AC3 around 45 FPS. YMMV though.

I'll keep an eye out on the 560 Ti then. Skyrim maxed is fairly impressive. I know my CPU holds me back, but at least I can use my video card NOW instead of later. Might even pick up a DIY bundle for cheap too, as long as it's an i5.

Burks · **Posted:** November 26th, 2012, 8:33 am

Wow. Weaksauce deals. Newegg has a ton of refurbished cards but I'm leery about buying those.

WeirdBoy · **Posted:** November 26th, 2012, 7:32 pm

Uh... first off... can your computer handle it?
PCI slots have evolved since the times of 9800GT

Might need to forever stick to an older GPU

Burks · **Posted:** November 27th, 2012, 12:42 am

It should. PCI express 2.0

Burks · **Posted:** November 27th, 2012, 11:26 am

I stand correct, I have a PIC-E 1.0 16x slot. Did some reading, PCI-E 3.0 are backwards compatible but I'll run into a small bottleneck (4.0 gbps vs 4.8 gbps).

GTX 650 2GB for $110, going with that.

killa kiaba · **Posted:** November 27th, 2012, 5:23 pm

Burks wrote:

I stand correct, I have a PIC-E 1.0 16x slot. Did some reading, PCI-E 3.0 are backwards compatible but I'll run into a small bottleneck (4.0 gbps vs 4.8 gbps).

GTX 650 2GB for $110, going with that.

for gaming the gtx 650 is good but for me i would add $40 to that and get the TI version as it is double the CUDA cores of the standard GTX 650.

p.s just giving a little info on cuda cores, its just alows the GPU of the card to be used for general purpose tasks instead of relying on cpu like video encoding ect (mainly graphical things like video editing).
But the main reason i say a TI is because it has a much higher benchmark rating the 650 is scoring at 1800 and the 650 Ti scores about 2700

GTX 650
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.p ... 50&id=2155

GTX 650 TI
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.p ... Ti&id=2177

also dose it have to be nivida i am hearing great things about the Radeon HD 7850, when over clocked it can match the gtx 570

$125 to buy a video card

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