Getting a new Graphics Card ><

krisnda

So after all this time, my graphics card finally decided to die on me. It was a Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS (Yea, I know it's a dinosaur), and it helped me play loads of stuff. Now.... I can barely play Shovel Knight b:laugh.

So, now I'm looking into getting another (kinda cheap) one (more like a budget one to tide me over until I can get the money to build my own desktop) and so far I'm looking at these 2:

One

Two

I think 1 gig would be more than enough for now for what I'm doing (pretty light gaming, too bad I can't name certain games lol), but any suggestions would be helpful. b:pleased


Here's a pic of the dinosaur lol

belnor

So both of those cards have advantages and disadvantages.

The 210 is newer and likely will consume less energy.

The 8400 is a little older but looks to have similar specs.

The one thing I would caution you about is that the 210 model you have picked out doesn't have any active cooling. On the positive side it will be a lot quieter with your system. However if the system doesn't have adequate airflow or if your environment gets pretty warm, this could cause problems for you.

krisnda

belnor wrote: »

So both of those cards have advantages and disadvantages.

The 210 is newer and likely will consume less energy.

The 8400 is a little older but looks to have similar specs.

The one thing I would caution you about is that the 210 model you have picked out doesn't have any active cooling. On the positive side it will be a lot quieter with your system. However if the system doesn't have adequate airflow or if your environment gets pretty warm, this could cause problems for you.

Hmm... Didn't think about that, gonna have to keep looking (though I do like the 210 somewhat), because it's not a big problem if it doesn't have active cooling, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

Personally, between the two, go with the 210, but stay far away from that one.

It's a tad more because it's a bigger name, but you're talking about one of the two leading companies is quality and performance specs for their cards here. It will not disappoint. The 210 you've got will burn out, and they aren't a great company to begin with.

Here's my choice.

Lolgasmic - Raging Tide

I was about to suggest a 600 series as well, I had a GT 620 4GB and similar 620's were around $50 or $60 I think.

And yes I know nobody makes 620's with 4GB, at least not the card. But my PC came with it and it's definitely what the specs said in dxdiag.

But if you're looking for a budget card shouldn't you be looking for ATI cards? Nvidia is typically more expensive because it comes with some doo-dads and bells & whistles.

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

Lolgasmic - Raging Tide wrote: »

I was about to suggest a 600 series as well, I had a GT 620 4GB and similar 620's were around $50 or $60 I think.

And yes I know nobody makes 620's with 4GB, at least not the card. But my PC came with it and it's definitely what the specs said in dxdiag.

But if you're looking for a budget card shouldn't you be looking for ATI cards? Nvidia is typically more expensive because it comes with some doo-dads and bells & whistles.

The low-end ATI cards are notorious for compatibility issues with some games. PWI being one of them.

krisnda

SylenThunder - Sanctuary wrote: »

Personally, between the two, go with the 210, but stay far away from that one.

It's a tad more because it's a bigger name, but you're talking about one of the two leading companies is quality and performance specs for their cards here. It will not disappoint. The 210 you've got will burn out, and they aren't a great company to begin with.

Here's my choice.

Hmm, I kinda like that one, it looks like it has better specs than the ones I posted xD.

Lolgasmic - Raging Tide wrote: »

I was about to suggest a 600 series as well, I had a GT 620 4GB and similar 620's were around $50 or $60 I think.

And yes I know nobody makes 620's with 4GB, at least not the card. But my PC came with it and it's definitely what the specs said in dxdiag.

But if you're looking for a budget card shouldn't you be looking for ATI cards? Nvidia is typically more expensive because it comes with some doo-dads and bells & whistles.

I get what you mean, which is why I'm kinda debating whether or not I should just wait until I can shell out a tad more money for a better card like this one, because for some of the cards that I am looking at, people are saying that they "suck for gaming," and I'm not really sure if that's true or if it's because they can't play COD at 60 fps ><. But... I don't like waiting so I may go for one of the lower priced ones. lol.

Lolgasmic - Raging Tide

Krisnda wrote: »

Hmm, I kinda like that one, it looks like it has better specs than the ones I posted xD.



I get what you mean, which is why I'm kinda debating whether or not I should just wait until I can shell out a tad more money for a better card like this one, because for some of the cards that I am looking at, people are saying that they "suck for gaming," and I'm not really sure if that's true or if it's because they can't play COD at 60 fps ><. But... I don't like waiting so I may go for one of the lower priced ones. lol.

Wow.

Suddenly I've become a lot more relevant than I would've thought... I own the 750 Ti FTW from EVGA. I've also been recording and posting lots of benchmarks for the card on my YT.

The Ti SC is one step below the FTW.

krisnda

Lolgasmic - Raging Tide wrote: »

Wow.

Suddenly I've become a lot more relevant than I would've thought... I own the 750 Ti FTW from EVGA. I've also been recording and posting lots of benchmarks for the card on my YT.

The Ti SC is one step below the FTW.

XD, I'm psychic.

I also wasn't aware that FOV affected FPS.

Salari - Raging Tide

On my desktop I ran a 9600 GSO then replaced it with a radeon 6850 I picked up off of craigslist for 20 bucks so I could play another game. Now I am on a laptop for portability(move around)

You should be fine with any directx 9c compatible card. Some of the generic video cards would have problems with 9c some newer ones as well. Being more of a cpu driven engine you can get away with alot playing this game.

krisnda

Salari - Raging Tide wrote: »

On my desktop I ran a 9600 GSO then replaced it with a radeon 6850 I picked up off of craigslist for 20 bucks so I could play another game. Now I am on a laptop for portability(move around)

You should be fine with any directx 9c compatible card. Some of the generic video cards would have problems with 9c some newer ones as well. Being more of a cpu driven engine you can get away with alot playing this game.

Well, that's the thing though. I'm not looking for something to just play PWI (I could play that with my Radeon X300 card I got lying around probably b:chuckle).

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

Krisinda, if you can afford to spend the extra for the 750Ti, do it. The difference will be like night and day. The 200-series is an entry level card equivalent with what most inbred laptop cards are capable of. It's great if you are on a tight budget and need a half-decent card, but if you can afford to go a little further and pick up a 650-750 series card, don't pass it up.
The closest equivalent I can think of is like comparing a tuned Corvette to a Koenigsegg on the race track. They're both fast, but the 'Vette will be severely out-classed.

Bellicious - Dreamweaver

SylenThunder - Sanctuary wrote: »

Krisinda, if you can afford to spend the extra for the 750Ti, do it. The difference will be like night and day. The 200-series is an entry level card equivalent with what most inbred laptop cards are capable of. It's great if you are on a tight budget and need a half-decent card, but if you can afford to go a little further and pick up a 650-750 series card, don't pass it up.
The closest equivalent I can think of is like comparing a tuned Corvette to a Koenigsegg on the race track. They're both fast, but the 'Vette will be severely out-classed.

Inbred laptop cards? What do you even mean by that?



Anyway OP, if you can stretch your budget I'd suggest either a R7 260X if you want to go team red, or 750Ti if you want to go team green. Both of these are very good for their price point.

krisnda

SylenThunder - Sanctuary wrote: »

Krisinda, if you can afford to spend the extra for the 750Ti, do it. The difference will be like night and day. The 200-series is an entry level card equivalent with what most inbred laptop cards are capable of. It's great if you are on a tight budget and need a half-decent card, but if you can afford to go a little further and pick up a 650-750 series card, don't pass it up.
The closest equivalent I can think of is like comparing a tuned Corvette to a Koenigsegg on the race track. They're both fast, but the 'Vette will be severely out-classed.

Bellicious - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Inbred laptop cards? What do you even mean by that?



Anyway OP, if you can stretch your budget I'd suggest either a R7 260X if you want to go team red, or 750Ti if you want to go team green. Both of these are very good for their price point.

Yea, I may just wait till I can get the 750Ti (birthday's next week, maybe I'll get some monies lol), instead of being cheap and having to buy another one anyway lol.

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

Bellicious - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Inbred laptop cards? What do you even mean by that?
...

It's slang for the integrated video cards in laptops that pretend to be more than they are. Desktops have them too, but at least the desktop cards don't usually pretend they are actual cards. They'll usually have shared memory and use the CPU, rather than dedicated memory and full GPU processing.

Remember, I may be IT, but I'm a redneck at heart b:chuckle

Bellicious - Dreamweaver

SylenThunder - Sanctuary wrote: »

It's slang for the integrated video cards in laptops that pretend to be more than they are. Desktops have them too, but at least the desktop cards don't usually pretend they are actual cards. They'll usually have shared memory and use the CPU, rather than dedicated memory and full GPU processing.

Remember, I may be IT, but I'm a redneck at heart b:chuckle

Oh yeah the iGPUs and APUs are weak when compared to dedicated GPUs but they've definitely come a long way.

I was going to have to let fly if you were insulting dedicated GPUs in laptops xD. I was thinking sure they're not as powerful as a desktop GPU but they're still quite powerful. b:pleased

Lolgasmic - Raging Tide

Lol I met a guy online, I forget where, he had a $3,000 laptop with 780Ti in SLI. XD He said he had a reason for it in laptop form though, because he travels all the time.

Dutch_death - Heavens Tear

i dont know abouts videocard price,s in the us or canada but i really good but cheap mid range card here in europe is the nvidia gtx 550 ti i used it a long time and it can play most game on high settings and isnt to expensive here annyways gl finding a good card i would recomend do go for nvidia in mid range cards they are better then ati

richiekh

You can't be serious considering those 2 GPU's. It's a waste of money since they are about 6 generations old. Buy a low-budget GT740 for about 60 bucks. Even that is more worth your money. (And even that is something that I call **** for the money)

Right now, the best low-budget cards you can buy are the GTX 750(ti) or the R7 270.
Everything lower then that, is a waste of money. Since you can spend another 60 bucks a year later due games getting more intensive. (Since 4GB of GDDR5 is getting a standard now)

If you want best for your money right now, the GTX 970 is the best choice. But that one is pricy (400 bucks)

As myself I'm gaming on the Asus Strix GTX 780 OC. Rather expensive one (~600 bucks) but doesn't really do anything better then the 750ti for PWI for that matter.

If you are a light casual gamer, you should consider the GTX 750ti. Don't buy ****.

Cheap buys are expensive buys in longterm.

Lolgasmic - Raging Tide wrote: »

Lol I met a guy online, I forget where, he had a $3,000 laptop with 780Ti in SLI. XD He said he had a reason for it in laptop form though, because he travels all the time.

I highly doubt it. a 780ti SLI solution for a laptop is not possible due heat production, use of space and use of power.

It's only "possible" in the mere future (2015 ish) with a 9xxm series of nvidia. And overall, if there is a 780ti in a laptop (again not possible as "ti") you would have a 780m or a 780mx
Also, a SLI solution of 2x 780ti is about 900 bucks for desktop. That would be about 1600 bucks for a laptop solution. Again for that price, not possible. To cheap to get such configuration.

So I call bull **** on that one

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

richiekh wrote: »

I highly doubt it. a 780ti SLI solution for a laptop is not possible due heat production, use of space and use of power.

It's only "possible" in the mere future (2015 ish) with a 9xxm series of nvidia. And overall, if there is a 780ti in a laptop (again not possible as "ti") you would have a 780m or a 780mx
Also, a SLI solution of 2x 780ti is about 900 bucks for desktop. That would be about 1600 bucks for a laptop solution. Again for that price, not possible. To cheap to get such configuration.

So I call bull **** on that one

It is entirely possible. If you build it out maxing all the components you can get a system for about $4200. We're talking about a laptop that has a 17" display here. It's got quite a bit of room for both the added components, and heat management. I'll have to find the last site I was working on a build with so I can link it for you.

Bellicious - Dreamweaver

richiekh wrote: »

I highly doubt it. a 780ti SLI solution for a laptop is not possible due heat production, use of space and use of power.

It's only "possible" in the mere future (2015 ish) with a 9xxm series of nvidia. And overall, if there is a 780ti in a laptop (again not possible as "ti") you would have a 780m or a 780mx
Also, a SLI solution of 2x 780ti is about 900 bucks for desktop. That would be about 1600 bucks for a laptop solution. Again for that price, not possible. To cheap to get such configuration.

So I call bull **** on that one

SylenThunder - Sanctuary wrote: »

It is entirely possible. If you build it out maxing all the components you can get a system for about $4200. We're talking about a laptop that has a 17" display here. It's got quite a bit of room for both the added components, and heat management. I'll have to find the last site I was working on a build with so I can link it for you.

A desktop card in a laptop is not possible at all. 780M SLI was featured in a few models such as Alienware & Clevo custom builds. Also 780MX does not exist. The 680MX only exists as the card was designed only for the use in macs.

The 3k price point for a 780M SLI is true for when the 780M was the flagship mobile GPU from nvidia.

Go to xoticpc.com to check out all the laptop customization you can do. I suggest looking at the sager/clevo line if you want to see ALL the customization options as that is the most customizable laptop.

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

Bellicious - Dreamweaver wrote: »

A desktop card in a laptop is not possible at all. 780M SLI was featured in a few models such as Alienware & Clevo custom builds. Also 780MX does not exist. The 680MX only exists as the card was designed only for the use in macs.

The 3k price point for a 780M SLI is true for when the 780M was the flagship mobile GPU from nvidia.

Go to xoticpc.com to check out all the laptop customization you can do. I suggest looking at the sager/clevo line if you want to see ALL the customization options as that is the most customizable laptop.

SOrry, thought the 780m was available in a TI option. It's possible I was just looking at an overclocked version that rated equivalent to the Ti.

I believe Falcon was the manufacturer I was browsing at the time, but that was like a year ago.b:surrender

Bellicious - Dreamweaver

SylenThunder - Sanctuary wrote: »

SOrry, thought the 780m was available in a TI option. It's possible I was just looking at an overclocked version that rated equivalent to the Ti.

I believe Falcon was the manufacturer I was browsing at the time, but that was like a year ago.b:surrender

Naw, no mobile card is able to overclock to the power of a desktop card counterpart, especially the 780Ti.

The new 980M is closing the gap in the desktop/laptop market however, with it having 75% of the desktop counterparts power. (Desktop 980 165W, Laptop 980M 120W). Maxwell architecture really allowed the GPUs to run at great efficiency.
Side note: The GTX 980 slightly beats the 780Ti which has a TDP 85W higher.

The kepler 780M/880M are approx 60% the power of the desktop counterparts.

With future Pascal architecture we can probably see this gap being closed even more.