Hey all

Let me preface by saying I'm at work (muwahahahaha) and I don't have my PC specs memorized. I can add info later. I'm also not super-pc savvy..but not a complete idiot either.

So for xmas, my wife bought me a nice, new widescreen monitor. But our PC has a built in graphics card (I'll get back with what it is, but low memory seems to be a big part of the problem). When I use something like systemsrequirementslab "can I run it", generally I get a green light on everything...except graphics. I recently bought Endless Legend..which can the tool says I don't meet the minimum specs for (but it runs, just not in full screen) I can see it would be a totally beautiful game and I'd like to up my graphics quality. Of course I'm also trying to keep costs down as I bought a new house and have kids...so despite making a shit ton of money, we have none to spend.

I'd like to keep my total cost under $150. found a GeForce 730 with 2 mb of GDDR 5 is $80..which I can afford. I don't think I'd need a power supply upgrade for that (I can check tonight). Will that be enough to carry me for a while? Is there something else I should consider? The GeForce 750Ti is twice the price..is that worth it?

I'm currently playing: Skyrim, Civ: Beyond Earth, Endless Legend, Age of Wonder 3, and Grimrock II..all of which run, but at low(est) settings. I anticipate picking up Witcher, Dragon Age and Far Cry sometime in '15 if I can run them.

If you're on a really right budget then yeah the 750ti will let you play video games. They won't be maxed or anything, but they'll run for sure.

Yeah I would say a 750 is the bare minimum really... you can totally find a 750 TI with 2 GB VRAM for 150,00, and since it's a fairly low power card you might not need a power supply upgrade at all depending on what you already have.

Yeah, 750 Ti is the absolute minimum you should consider. Ideally you should wait until you can afford something in the range of a 970 or 280x. Plus, there is a GTX 960 coming out in the next few months and almost assuredly an AMD equivalent as well, you may want to consider waiting for those to see how they perform and what prices look like. Once those come out, prices on the 750 Ti should come down a bit as well.

@lazyturtle: I've been able to run the newest Tomb Raider at about 25 fps with an Intel hd4000 at the 720p resolution with mostly medium settings on a i5 machine.

I'm not sure what your system is but have you tried lowering the resolution. 720p still gives some nice ps3 grade graphics. Make sure your squeezing everything out of your computer before going out and buying a slightly better card. Be sure you optimized the games right and turn off or lower anything that isn't giving that big a visual upgrade. I know it sounds obvious but the right settings for your machine can really improve performance, it's the first thing to look into.

For the 730 card I'm not sure what that card can do but if your not that big on resolution not always being at the highest can really help those effect settings.

of course when going with a new card you want to make sure your getting the right one for your money so definitely do the research before you spend the money. Don't want to be regretting your purchase 6 months down the road.

Also you said 2mb of gddr 5 memory, don't you mean 2gb of gddr 5?

Honestly, my advice to you is to take as long as you need to put away enough money to buy something above "bare minimum" for a graphics card. I've bought cards that were pretty much budget/performance cards and it's something I always regret skimping on. Now, I wouldn't be able to spend a ton on a card so I always keep it sub-$200, but as a result that graphics card has always been the thing bottlenecking my game performance.

You don't have to leap for the Titan of the day, but get a good price/performance card. You'll be glad you did. I wish I could have done that.

@agentboolen: yeah see but first, tomb raider is not exactly the most demanding game ever (I mean the recommended specs are a 1GB gtx 480 ffs) and second, 25 FPS is not at all acceptable imo, a HD4000 is prolly what the OP already has, investing in a cheap card like an 750 ti is very much worth it since the bump in performance is tremendous when compared to any integrated graphics(although still not even near to what a 970 would provide).

Though like MB said it may be worth waiting on a GTX 950/960, will provide a nice upgrade in comparison to their series 700 counterparts while remaining very cheap.

Ok, home now. I popped open the case and read the sticker on the power supply. Under AC output it says "max continuous output 300w"..so I assume that's what I'm looking at when the requirements for the card state 300w minimum (as in the case of both the 730 or 750). My current graphics card is Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600. Processor is Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4430 CPU @ 3.00GHz. I have 8 GB of RAM.

I now see the difference between the 730 and 750 is the type of RAM, DDR3 to DDR5. From what I've read that is a significant difference..correct?

When I look on amazon at the 750s, there are three models. They seem to be differentiated by the base and boost clock speeds...are these significant differences? Its about $20 difference between each model. I can afford this level of card, but don't want to waste money either.

While I would LOVE a really high end card, I also want a hot tub (and holy crap those are expensive) and a couple more surfboards (I REALLY want a fish and a long board to round out my quiver)...so I think the $250 price points are out of the question at the moment. Basically I want to be able to set things to something other than the lowest setting and still have it run nicely.

Also thanks for the awesome responses.

@lazyturtle: Do you have a model number of the PC you have? Also a model number or part number on the PSU would be great, too. The "Max Continuous Watts" thing doesn't mean much in the world of PSUs.

@onarum: yea I know 25 fps isn't acceptable for some but it is in line with what a ps3 can do (yea I know ps4 and above graphically is all the rage now). For me it sounded like he was leaning towards the $80 card, so my advice really was just to try to get as much out of what he has till he can get a card that he really wants. I understand his problem with money being tight, I'm in the same situation 2 kids and there expensive.

As of right now, a 750ti would definitely be your best option. An R7 260x is cheaper and around the same performance as a 750ti, though it uses more power and has some pretty mixed reviews. (From consumers)

Also, don't underestimate the 750ti. I have one, and it's really quite a beast of card for its low cost. It uses a hilariously low amount of power, dead silent, and can play most games out right now at 1080p on medium to high settings and still have playable frame rates. If you bump the resolution down to 720p (or maybe even 900p in some cases) you can get 60fps on pretty much anything.

Hmm..money is the real issue. I'd love to imagine that the day I get exactly what I'd like is near...but I'll bet I'm replacing the whole computer before it happens.

So it seems to me that the 750 is a drastic improvement over the 730 simply because of the different type of RAM. Any thoughts on the difference between the different models of the 750? It looks like the primary difference is about 100 Mhz in base and boost clock speeds...is this a significant metric? The three different models are $20 apart.

PSU: Delta Electronics DPS-300AB-82 A

Also thanks for the thoughtful responses. I really appropriate it. Not surprisingly, ya'll have been more helpful that the staff at Best Buy (where I won't be buying the card!).

100mhz may get you a few extra frames in some games, I'd say it's worth it. The 750 ti is easily and safely overclocked though, you could probably go with the lower clocked version to save $20 and then bump it up 100mhz with EVGA Precision and not even have to overvolt it.

Buy it somewhere with a liberal return policy such as Amazon just in case your PSU can't handle it. It should be fine but you never know when dealing with cheap OEM PSUs.

Save money, buy 970. Hopefully during the process of saving money, the 970 will come down in price just enough. Run a couple OT, or a couple extra shifts. Power through duder! haha

I work at a State job and we have a policy of flex time, not over time..meaning I work extra hours on Monday, I take hours off Friday. I'll never make overtime or extra shifts sadly.
Add to that the fact that my wife wants to spend money on the house (which is hard to argue against) and isn't a gamer (why do you need that? Facebook looks fine to me!)..I COULD spend the money, but its probably not worth the shit I would receive over it. She's an accountant so I already get a bit of crap over how many games I buy (but it was on SALE!)

So thanks for the responses, I think I'll read up a bit on a few pages with what I've gotten here and make a choice.