Looking for a new Graphics card.

[Darth Sea Bass]

I was thinking of moving up to the 250 GB xbox but i don't think i'm gonna bother now so I wondered if anyone could suggest a half decent graphics card to replace my current 8400 GS.

I'm gonna have about £115/130 to spend on one.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Thanks for the suggestions the GTX 460 looks like the one for me can't find the dual fan model over here but a friend recomended this one...

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-evga-gtx-460-se-3400mhz-gddr5-gpu-648mhz-shader-clock-1296mhz-288-cores-2x-dl-dvi-i-mhdmi

 

[ImprovizoR]

If you have a 8400GS I'm guessing you don't have a very good PSU either. So if you buy one of the newer cards you'll need a new PSU probably. Could you post full PC specs?

 

[TiefBlau]

Yeah, posting the specs would help greatly.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Operating System
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40GHz 30 °C
Conroe 65nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz (5-5-5-15)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5B-Deluxe (LGA 775) 37 °C
Graphics
LE1940 (1440x900@60Hz)
NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS
Hard Drives
156GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD160JJ ATA Device (SATA) 38 °C
Optical Drives
Optiarc DVD RW AD-7170S ATA Device
Optiarc DVD RW AD-7170S ATA Device
NERAHG TINS9IF SCSI CdRom Device
Audio
High Definition Audio Device

The 8400 GS was a replacement for another card that had failed.

 

[Valiance]

I'd go for a 6870 if you can afford it, or the 460SE is alright especially if you can overclock it. It's a huge upgrade over the 8400GS even stock though.

 

[SnowyGamester]

I currently use an old 9800gtx+ and I couldn't recommend it more. Runs everything I buy at full speed full graphics in 1080 (except antialiasing needs to be off sometimes) and in 3d when need be. No need to buy mid-range current gen stuff when you can get top-range last gen stuff for cheaper

edit: oh man your RAM it slowzor, you might want to sort that out first. You'll probably need a new board, though. Also you'll need to know your PSU wattage before you can tell what will actually run on it.

 

[ImprovizoR]

Yeah, newer cards require about 450W to run but I wouldn't recommend anything below 550W for gaming rigs. It's good to be future-proof. Also, your RAM is very slow. For gaming PC you need at least DDR2 667Mhz. Again, I wouldn't go below 800Mhz, but maybe that's just me.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Can't find a 9800 GTX but I found a GT model this any good and i found 4GB of Crucial DDR 2 667Mhz Ram Are they worth getting?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nvidia-Geforce-9800GT-Videocard-PCI-Express/dp/B003CMAD6E/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1308936002&sr=8-3-fkmr0

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142387

 

[weker]

gtx 460 is the best value for money card out their

 

[AndyRock]

if you're wanting to go for anything more than a 9800Gt (not too bad, but not amazing) I would upgrade CPU, RAM, your motherboard and probably your PSU first, as they would bottleneck a GTX 460 massively.

EDIT: get at least a quad core, and DDR3 RAM, but you will need a little more than £130 for this, but you will see a massive improvement.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

I'm starting to get the impression this machines a lost cause. :/ Knew it had to happen eventually.

 

[Wolfram23]

I'm starting to get the impression this machines a lost cause. :/ Knew it had to happen eventually.

No, it's ok. At your resolution and budget, an HD 5770 or GTX 460 768mb are good choices. You'll need around a good 400W PSU like a Corsair 430CX. If you can open your system up, can you tell us what PSU is in there exactly? Brand + wattage.

You already have 4 gigs of RAM and Win 7 64 bit. Your CPU is a tad slow, for around $75 you could most likely upgrade to an E6600 3.06ghz dual core. Otherwise the only other upgrade I'd consider is a new HDD like a Western Digital Black Caviar or Samsung Spinpoint F3, or for a little cheaper/slower (but good quality and quiet) Seagate Barracuda.

Actually, looks like you have a decent mobo, I wouldn't be surprised if you can overclock with it. In that case, a cheap $30 heat sink can allow you to hit over 3ghz pretty easily and IMO with a midrange GPU like I mentioned, your system will play games just fine.

(FYI, I guarantee I know at least as much if not more about building PCs as anybody else here. I can tell you some people have already given you some silly advice like suggesting you need a new CPU, mobo, and RAM... let's call those things a "future upgrade" because just baseline cost is going to be ~$250 just for those 3 things)

Take your time with upgrade. Get the GPU and maybe PSU now. Maybe get a fast HDD. Then maybe a case with good airflow (~$50 for Antec 300). Then you might consider spending the cash to really bump you up to modern specs with new hardware. Low end idea would be an i3 2100 CPU, P67 mobo (to allow upgrading to an i5 2500k or i7 2600k with overclocking) and 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM. Or just go straight to the i5, which will be a good CPU for many years to come.

 

[qazmatoz]

Yeah, step up your motherboard to something that supports the new intel processors and DDR3; improved my computer's performance at least 5x. I tried upgrading graphics cards twice before finally realizing that it was the other parts that were choking the performance.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

I've had a look at what wattage the psu is but there's no labels visible and i'm not sure i'll be able to fit a 460 without blocing the sata sockets.

Oh the case is an jeantech aqua gaming case...

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=CAJ-JNR102V3

Not sure if that's the exact model but it looks pretty similar.

 

[yretsyMredruM]

Both cards, 6850 and 460 GTX reference cards, have relatively small dimensions, so you should be able to fit either in. A 460 GTX would be slightly cheaper and they have about equal performance (very minor edge towards the 6850), so I would suggest a 460 GTX.

If and when you do find the label on your PSU, look up both the wattage and amp on your 12V rail.

-Edit: After looking at your computer specs, I agree with everyone else that you should upgrade your motherboard and CPU before the GPU. If you do upgrade your GPU before anything else, you will notice negligible improvements since your system would be bottlenecking your GPU.