Help i need a new graphics card!

[ecoho]

so I need a new graphics card as my old one is kind of not cutting it anymore, unfortunately my tech guy is now in another country(freeking air force....) so I have no one I can ask.

So I now turn to you all I have a limited amount of cash and would like to spend about $300 total on the new card, any suggestions?

Edit: im using a HP envy 700-056 and my current graphics card is about as good as the one it came with (but that ones integrated and I was told not to trust those.)

 

[ecoho]

so I need a new graphics card as my old one is kind of not cutting it anymore, unfortunately my tech guy is now in another country(freeking air force....) so I have no one I can ask.

So I now turn to you all I have a limited amount of cash and would like to spend about $300 total on the new card, any suggestions?

Edit: im using a HP envy 700-056 and my current graphics card is about as good as the one it came with (but that ones integrated and I was told not to trust those.)

bump

 

[Laughing Man]

Hmmm mid to weak range CPU and a weak PSU, best you're gonna get is either a 750ti maybe you could stretch to a 760 / 960 but I think both of those are over your money budget and I suspect both them would be seriously limited by the systems CPU, I would be worried about the systems PSU as well, especially if it's the one fitted by HP.

Problem though is you haven't told us anything

1). You haven't told us what you are looking to achieve with the new GPU, the 750Ti I mentioned will push 1980x1080 res and give you anywhere from 30 to 60fps depending on the game and image quality

Full review here http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/msi-geforce-gtx-750-and-750-ti-gaming-review,11.html

2). You don;t mention what CPU you are using, that rig can have upwards of 10 different CPUs factory fitted and they vary widely from bottom end dual cores to mid range quad cores the bottom end I would stick with a 750ti or a 560ti if you can find one or a 7790 if you prefer AMDs offerings. If you have the more powerful CPUs and can stretch the budget then a 960 or a 7870 is about the best you can go, just remember that in both cases the Nvidia options tend to be the least power hungry.

 

[ecoho]

Hmmm mid to weak range CPU and a weak PSU, best you're gonna get is either a 750ti maybe you could stretch to a 760 / 960 but I think both of those are over your money budget and I suspect both them would be seriously limited by the systems CPU, I would be worried about the systems PSU as well, especially if it's the one fitted by HP.

Problem though is you haven't told us anything

1). You haven't told us what you are looking to achieve with the new GPU, the 750Ti I mentioned will push 1980x1080 res and give you anywhere from 30 to 60fps depending on the game and image quality

Full review here http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/msi-geforce-gtx-750-and-750-ti-gaming-review,11.html

2). You don;t mention what CPU you are using, that rig can have upwards of 10 different CPUs factory fitted and they vary widely from bottom end dual cores to mid range quad cores the bottom end I would stick with a 750ti or a 560ti if you can find one or a 7790 if you prefer AMDs offerings. If you have the more powerful CPUs and can stretch the budget then a 960 or a 7870 is about the best you can go, just remember that in both cases the Nvidia options tend to be the least power hungry.

A10-Series APU I believe is what I have for the cpu and I know its a quad core. sorry I usually have my buddy just build me a machine but as I said hes currently deployed so hes not an option so consider this PC upgrading for dummies.

as to what I want to achieve id like 60 fps in my games ranging from starcraft 2 at ultra to Dragon age at decent settings. (yes I know DA:I drops to 30 fps in cut scenes.)

 

[Laughing Man]

A10-Series APU I believe is what I have for the cpu and I know its a quad core. sorry I usually have my buddy just build me a machine but as I said hes currently deployed so hes not an option so consider this PC upgrading for dummies.

as to what I want to achieve id like 60 fps in my games ranging from starcraft 2 at ultra to Dragon age at decent settings. (yes I know DA:I drops to 30 fps in cut scenes.)

Okay the CPU, though you didn't specify exactly which one, is able to do what you want which means that you just need a GPU that will do the job, lucky for you any of the GPUs I mentioned will do the job. So I guess it comes down to cost and performance.

 

[ecoho]

A10-Series APU I believe is what I have for the cpu and I know its a quad core. sorry I usually have my buddy just build me a machine but as I said hes currently deployed so hes not an option so consider this PC upgrading for dummies.

as to what I want to achieve id like 60 fps in my games ranging from starcraft 2 at ultra to Dragon age at decent settings. (yes I know DA:I drops to 30 fps in cut scenes.)

Okay the CPU, though you didn't specify exactly which one, is able to do what you want which means that you just need a GPU that will do the job, lucky for you any of the GPUs I mentioned will do the job. So I guess it comes down to cost and performance.

id like a consistent 60 fps at least for starcraft 2 at ultra the other stuff I can deal with but that's a must as losing FPS on starcraft at the wrong time really sucks. id prefer no more then $350 but could go a little higher.

 

[Supernova1138]

Well unfortunately you're likely to lose frames on Starcraft because you have an AMD CPU. Starcraft's outdated engine has limited multithreading support, and the weak single threaded performance on AMD chips means you're going to have a hard time maintaining 60FPS constant on ultra when things get busy regardless of what GPU you have. Unfortunately switching to Intel would go beyond a $350 budget and would be a more involved process than a simple GPU upgrade, so that's out. You may have to turn some settings down in Starcraft if you want to maintain 60FPS constant.

The A-10 APUs aren't that great in terms of processing power, so it will be a bottleneck for high end graphics cards on newer games. I wouldn't recommend going beyond a GTX 960 or equivalent (eg. GTX 770 or R9 280x) with your current CPU, anything more will definitely be held back by your CPU, and even a 960 would likely be held back to an extent.

 

[ecoho]

Well unfortunately you're likely to lose frames on Starcraft because you have an AMD CPU. Starcraft's outdated engine has limited multithreading support, and the weak single threaded performance on AMD chips means you're going to have a hard time maintaining 60FPS constant on ultra when things get busy regardless of what GPU you have. Unfortunately switching to Intel would go beyond a $350 budget and would be a more involved process than a simple GPU upgrade, so that's out. You may have to turn some settings down in Starcraft if you want to maintain 60FPS constant.

The A-10 APUs aren't that great in terms of processing power, so it will be a bottleneck for high end graphics cards on newer games. I wouldn't recommend going beyond a GTX 960 or equivalent (eg. GTX 770 or R9 280x) with your current CPU, anything more will definitely be held back by your CPU, and even a 960 would likely be held back to an extent.

so if I decided to upgrade my cpu as well what should I look for? or should I just buy a new PC?

lol the captcha is down the rabbit hole I think its trying to warn me

 

[Supernova1138]

Well unfortunately you're likely to lose frames on Starcraft because you have an AMD CPU. Starcraft's outdated engine has limited multithreading support, and the weak single threaded performance on AMD chips means you're going to have a hard time maintaining 60FPS constant on ultra when things get busy regardless of what GPU you have. Unfortunately switching to Intel would go beyond a $350 budget and would be a more involved process than a simple GPU upgrade, so that's out. You may have to turn some settings down in Starcraft if you want to maintain 60FPS constant.

The A-10 APUs aren't that great in terms of processing power, so it will be a bottleneck for high end graphics cards on newer games. I wouldn't recommend going beyond a GTX 960 or equivalent (eg. GTX 770 or R9 280x) with your current CPU, anything more will definitely be held back by your CPU, and even a 960 would likely be held back to an extent.

so if I decided to upgrade my cpu as well what should I look for? or should I just buy a new PC?

lol the captcha is down the rabbit hole I think its trying to warn me

You'd be pretty much looking at a new build if you want a new CPU. The A-10 is probably about the best your motherboard can take, and switching to Intel or one of the better (albeit older) AMD chips would require a new motherboard as well. For optimal gaming performance, Core i5s, which are quad core CPUs are recommended, and they are usually priced somewhere between $180 and $250 by themselves. Core i3s will work for current titles, but they are only dual cores with hyperthreading, and their ability to run future games well is questionable at best. Avoid the Pentiums, while they will run old games fine, Dragon Age Inquisition will not launch on a Pentium without the use of a third party hack that doesn't seem to work for everyone. Even with the hack, the Pentium struggles in that game.

 

[ecoho]

Well unfortunately you're likely to lose frames on Starcraft because you have an AMD CPU. Starcraft's outdated engine has limited multithreading support, and the weak single threaded performance on AMD chips means you're going to have a hard time maintaining 60FPS constant on ultra when things get busy regardless of what GPU you have. Unfortunately switching to Intel would go beyond a $350 budget and would be a more involved process than a simple GPU upgrade, so that's out. You may have to turn some settings down in Starcraft if you want to maintain 60FPS constant.

The A-10 APUs aren't that great in terms of processing power, so it will be a bottleneck for high end graphics cards on newer games. I wouldn't recommend going beyond a GTX 960 or equivalent (eg. GTX 770 or R9 280x) with your current CPU, anything more will definitely be held back by your CPU, and even a 960 would likely be held back to an extent.

so if I decided to upgrade my cpu as well what should I look for? or should I just buy a new PC?

lol the captcha is down the rabbit hole I think its trying to warn me

You'd be pretty much looking at a new build if you want a new CPU. The A-10 is probably about the best your motherboard can take, and switching to Intel or one of the better (albeit older) AMD chips would require a new motherboard as well. For optimal gaming performance, Core i5s, which are quad core CPUs are recommended, and they are usually priced somewhere between $180 and $250 by themselves. Core i3s will work for current titles, but they are only dual cores with hyperthreading, and their ability to run future games well is questionable at best. Avoid the Pentiums, while they will run old games fine, Dragon Age Inquisition will not launch on a Pentium without the use of a third party hack that doesn't seem to work for everyone. Even with the hack, the Pentium struggles in that game.

so yeah I don't have time to build a pc myself and the only place near by that builds them is horribly over priced, I mean they charge $200 just to look at your pc if you have a problem (doesn't help that they are raging asshats ether). Is there anywhere I can buy a decent mid range pc for about $800? if not I may be stuck till my buddy gets back so he can build me a PC

 

[Supernova1138]

The problem with a lot of the prebuilts in the $800 price range is they tend to either not have a graphics card, or they have a shitty graphics card that is barely better than the integrated graphics, and may or may not have a shit power supply. Prebuilts are pretty badly overpriced when it comes to gaming rigs as most of them won't include a decent graphics card until you go past the $1000 mark. It's almost better in that situation to grab a $500 prebuilt, and then try to pop in a decent graphics card and power supply yourself.

There are some sites online that will build PCs like Cyberpower, and I think they do offer some customization so you can at least try to get a balanced system out of them unlike say Dell or HP who will pair a $300 CPU with a $40 graphics card. That might be your best option if you don't want to build yourself or try to mod an existing prebuilt.

 

[ecoho]

The problem with a lot of the prebuilts in the $800 price range is they tend to either not have a graphics card, or they have a shitty graphics card that is barely better than the integrated graphics, and may or may not have a shit power supply. Prebuilts are pretty badly overpriced when it comes to gaming rigs as most of them won't include a decent graphics card until you go past the $1000 mark. It's almost better in that situation to grab a $500 prebuilt, and then try to pop in a decent graphics card and power supply yourself.

There are some sites online that will build PCs like Cyberpower, and I think they do offer some customization so you can at least try to get a balanced system out of them unlike say Dell or HP who will pair a $300 CPU with a $40 graphics card. That might be your best option if you don't want to build yourself or try to mod an existing prebuilt.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Mega_Special_II/

is this a good pc if so I may be able to swing the price in about a week

 

[Supernova1138]

Assuming you are going for the defaults, its not too bad though I would probably change some things. I'd aim higher than a GTX 750 for your GPU, it won't do too bad at Starcraft II, but isn't going to be that great for Dragon Age Inquisition. You can save some cash by dropping down to a lower i5 and losing the liquid cooling. Overclocking is a nice option to have, but it really isn't essential unless you plan on spending a huge amount of money on an extreme high end multi-GPU array. Dropping down to an i5 4590 and losing the liquid cooling will save you about $70 that you could put towards a much better graphics card like an R9 280 or GTX 960 if you're willing to splash out an extra $30 or so. Unfortunately a lot of the Nvidia options above the GTX 750Ti are a lot more expensive, though the GTX 960 isn't too badly priced, as there is a rather big gap in Nvidia's performance lineup right now, so if you want to stay within the listed price while still keeping an i5, you may have to look at AMD cards.

 

[ecoho]

Assuming you are going for the defaults, its not too bad though I would probably change some things. I'd aim higher than a GTX 750 for your GPU, it won't do too bad at Starcraft II, but isn't going to be that great for Dragon Age Inquisition. You can save some cash by dropping down to a lower i5 and losing the liquid cooling. Overclocking is a nice option to have, but it really isn't essential unless you plan on spending a huge amount of money on an extreme high end multi-GPU array. Dropping down to an i5 4590 and losing the liquid cooling will save you about $70 that you could put towards a much better graphics card like an R9 280 or GTX 960 if you're willing to splash out an extra $30 or so. Unfortunately a lot of the Nvidia options above the GTX 750Ti are a lot more expensive, though the GTX 960 isn't too badly priced, as there is a rather big gap in Nvidia's performance lineup right now, so if you want to stay within the listed price while still keeping an i5, you may have to look at AMD cards.

you know if I can get DA:I playing at the same prettiness as my friend's XB one but at 50-60 fps then ill be happy will the stock model do that?

 

[Supernova1138]

The GTX 750 is only about as powerful as the Xbone's GPU, and that's without the optimization advantage that the Xbone would have due to being a platform with fixed hardware. If you want 60FPS, you're probably going to want more horsepower, as I don't think the Xbone version of the game runs at 60FPS. The 750 is really only an entry level gaming graphics card these days, and is something I'd only put in a really low budget build eg. $400 to $500. If you want to play modern titles at more than 30FPS, you're going to want something faster than a 750. The cheaper CPU isn't significantly slower than what is in the regular package, but saves you about 40 bucks. Water cooling isn't needed if you're not going to overclock, which you can't with the cheaper CPU, so having it is a moot point. Having an overclockable CPU wouldn't even help game performance as the GTX 750 would be the limiting factor in every gaming scenario, even in very CPU heavy games like Starcraft.

If you can't afford to increase the budget anymore, then I'd say drop the CPU to the i5 4590 and go with the stock CPU cooler, or a cheaper aftermarket air cooler, and get the R9 280 for your GPU, there a few models on that card that are quite inexpensive right now on that site. It's much faster than the GTX 750, and Mantle support will probably help performance a little bit in Dragon Age.