Thinking about buying a cheap video card - help!

303 ACH / 5560 P

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Forgive my ignorance, but I'm in need of some advice from someone who knows anything about PCs and video cards. So right now I'm running a 2 yr. old HP Media Center PC with the following specs.

Base processor - Athlon 64 X2 (W) 5600+ 2.8 GHz (89W)

Chipset - GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 (it says it's integrated graphics, which I think means I don't have an actual graphics card)

Memory – 3 GB

So I'm thinking of getting a new video card, because I realize that's the main thing keeping me from playing most games (especially thinking about Dragon Age: Origins), but I'm definitely on a tight budget. Does anyone have any suggestions for a video card that can get me by (nothing fancy) for 100 dollars or less? Any help would be appreciated.

Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Post by OwnlyUzinWonHan (534 posts) See mini bio

2967 ACH / 52108 P

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Annnnd this thread will answer what I buy next.

Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Post by clush (53 posts) See mini bio

334 ACH / 1770 P

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AMD ATi's Radeon 4850 will bring everything you want and more. Integrated GPU means your graphics chip is built into you motherboard, and yes, that would definitely hold your machine back. The 4850 will fit in nicely with the rest of your specs. It's definitely won't bottleneck your machine, but it isn't too overpowered either. You can get it for just under $100 online, at mwave.com or ewiz.com for instance.

Edited 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Post by Pazy (1,079 posts) See mini bio

481 ACH / 7740 P

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Im not really familier with what you can get for $100 (since im the the UK) but looking up Newegg in the £75-100 catagory the best I can seem to find is a 9800GT 512mb. There are a couple other cards like the 9600GT 1gb and the GT 220 1gb but looking up bench marks the 9800GT still seems to be doing a bit better in straight gaming. Though it should be noted that in terms of computer components that graphics cards are my weakest part of the computer so if someone else knows more/better then please dont hesitate to correct me.

Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Post by ShaunassNZ (277 posts) See mini bio

535 ACH / 7649 P

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@Pazy: @clush: Yes I would agree with Clush I recently got a 4850 and it's superb like awesome great magnificent! Oh yea 9800gt aren't that great compared to a 4850.

Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Post by Slippy (268 posts) See mini bio

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131140

I recommend a 4870 512mb. Only $20 more than the cheapest 4850 on Newegg and will give you a huge leap in performance. Amazing price and you get free STALKER.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=198&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=7

Edited 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Post by Nate (137 posts) See mini bio

303 ACH / 5560 P

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Thanks for the replies ya'll. This is very helpful. It looks like there might be some hope after all for me to get Dragon Age running on the PC. I was afraid I was going to need to drop 200 or more in order to make it happen.

Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Post by Fuzz_Butt (50 posts) See mini bio

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Make sure you got a good Power supply to power the card.

Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Post by Nate (137 posts) See mini bio

303 ACH / 5560 P

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@Fuzz_Butt said:

"Make sure you got a good Power supply to power the card. "

Thanks for the advice. I'm totally clueless on this stuff. Would my current power supply not be sufficient?

Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Post by mhkjtha (428 posts) See mini bio

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4830 is great and mad cheap

Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago

Post by Nate (137 posts) See mini bio

303 ACH / 5560 P

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Thanks for the help everyone. Don't quite know where I'd start without people like you.
I think I'll start shopping around for the 4850 this weekend (pay day tomorrow). Dragon Age Origins - here I come!

Posted 3 weeks ago

Post by Droop (155 posts) See mini bio

1846 ACH / 33400 P

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ATI Radeon HD 4850 System Requirements

o PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
o 450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended (550 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
o Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products
o Minimum 1GB of system memory

copypasta

Posted 3 weeks ago

Post by Siris (100 posts) See mini bio

1537 ACH / 26155 P

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@Nate: since your CPU is decent and you have plenty of RAM.. if you wanted to go really cheap you could get a Geforce 8600 GT card.. they're around $55 new online and mine plays Dragon Age: Origins on medium settings just fine. The game looks fantastic at these settings and plays smoothly.

If you're looking to get a card that can do more however, then you're better off getting something more recent, like others have suggested.. you'll be able to use it for other games later on, assuming you even play the PC much. I know I don't.

Posted 3 weeks ago

Post by Nate (137 posts) See mini bio

303 ACH / 5560 P

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@Droop said:

" ATI Radeon HD 4850 System Requirements

o PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
o 450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended (550 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
o Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products o Minimum 1GB of system memory copypasta "

Got the 4850 - now trying to find a power supply on the cheap -- does this one look acceptable? It's only $30 on mwave.com
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch_v3.asp?scriteria=BA24633
Again - trying to do one as cheap as I can while still getting what I need.

EDIT: Found a dude on Craigslist who has a bunch of computer parts - 450W power supply for $15. It's a 30 min. drive to his place, but oh well. I should be up and running in a few days! For the first time in 15 years I'll have a PC capable of playing current gen games.

Edited 2 weeks, 4 days ago

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Thinking about buying a cheap video card - help!