Recommend a Good but cheap Video Card

[Rad Party God]

I am not looking for anything elite. I just want something that can play something like Portal 2 with medium/high Quality at about 30-40 frames a second at my screens full resolution. That should be more then enough for all my games in my steam library.

My Current specs:
Intel Pentium D CPU 2.80GHz
2 GB Ram (Will be upgrading to 4GB eventually)
2 Harddrives. 500GB and 320GB each.
And my current Graphics is ATI Radeon Xpress 200

So anybody know any cards that I could get?

I would also prefer it if it had a VGA output. I really do not want to get a new monitor. I am happy with my 1440x900 screen.

My oh my!, your specs are oh so similar to mine!.

I too have the exact same CPU, but I have 3 gb of ram and 3 harddrives, 1 500gb SATA and 2 IDE, 160gb and 80gb respectively. And my PSU is a Cooler Master with 460w.

My current graphics card is a GeForce 9600GT, it's been able to run almost everything I throw at it at the same resolution you have (1440x900), ranging in the Medium specs. I can even run Portal 2 at 60 fps, but only my CPU (and probably my ram) is bottlenecking it. The card cost me around $250, but IMO, that was money very well spent. I bought that card like 5 years ago and it's still kicking some serious ass.

EDIT: Today, the card may be a lot cheaper than 5 years ago, but a quick research in Google tells me that a 6670 is much better than my good ol' graphics card, performance and power consumption wise. I'll be upgrading my PC soon and I'll be on a tight budget, I'll definitively consider that card when I get the chance to upgrade.

 

[veloper]

There's 300W PSUs and there's 300 Watt PSUs.

I'd trust a 300W Enermax to support lower end mainstream cards, but not a 300W cheap stuff.

Yeah, but if he has a half decent PSU or a Dell PSU then he will be fine (as the Dell will actually put out 300W like it says).

I knew I was cutting it a bit tight with using 300W but I made sure to get an 80+ Bronze one. I only did that as my build was getting pricy due to the form factor (mini-itx).

Then we should prolly ask the TS first, before suggestion he'd throw money at the GPU. If he doesn't know, safer to assume something crappy.

I still feel all the suggestions are overkill btw.

I'm always there if I can make someone happy with my old hardware. Surely there must be some PC gamer in the area of the TS willing to part with something appropriate for a beer or two.
Me I wouldn't even ask money for anything less than 8600GT and that's already overkill.

Really I'm seeing comparison to core2duos in this thread, but in games an old pentium D is more comparable to a single-core pentium 4 (like a northwood core), than any modern budget dual core.
Even in a properly multithreaded game those 2 cores will just be getting in eachother's way trying to access the RAM. The early dual core cpus were really crap.

 

[Wolfram23]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102934
6570 would be pretty decent for you. Low power, and honestly your system can't put much more power than that to use anyway. At the most I'd suggest a 6670, or something like a GT 540 from Nvidia. Maybe a 520.

On the other hand, for around $500 you could put together a waaaayyy faster new PC.

 

[Snotnarok]

I'd skip over anything ATI, the drivers have always sucked, everyone said oh they got bought out their policies will probably change! They haven't, their drivers still suck and they don't support any of their laptop cards at all.

Geforce updates their cards often and when a new big game comes out (skyrim diablo battlefield) the card gets updates to optimize performance.

 

[veloper]

Then we should prolly ask the TS first, before suggestion he'd throw money at the GPU. If he doesn't know, safer to assume something crappy.

I still feel all the suggestions are overkill btw.

I'm always there if I can make someone happy with my old hardware. Surely there must be some PC gamer in the area of the TS willing to part with something appropriate for a beer or two.
Me I wouldn't even ask money for anything less than 8600GT and that's already overkill.

Really I'm seeing comparison to core2duos in this thread, but in games an old pentium D is more comparable to a single-core pentium 4 (like a northwood core), than any modern budget dual core.
Even in a properly multithreaded game those 2 cores will just be getting in eachother's way trying to access the RAM. The early dual core cpus were really crap.

From what I've seen looking at reviews (we just hauled our old Pentium D out of the closet the other day), the Pentium D was literally just 2 Pentium 4s strapped together.

And that was fine for cpu benchmarks and mathematics, but for anything that would put the memory subsystem to the test, like a game, you'd be lucky to see a 5% speed increase.

 

[Snotnarok]

I'd skip over anything ATI, the drivers have always sucked, everyone said oh they got bought out their policies will probably change! They haven't, their drivers still suck and they don't support any of their laptop cards at all.

Geforce updates their cards often and when a new big game comes out (skyrim diablo battlefield) the card gets updates to optimize performance.

I've used AMD for a while now and they have been fine.

And seeing as the OP is looking for cheap AMD is the way to go.

It's just a difference of opinion. I've had several ATI cards and ATI cards in laptops, I've had to go to 3rd party drivers every time.

 

[Warped_Ghost]

What's your PSU?

No idea. But the side of the Power Supply says 300W max.

Radeon 7750, go go.

because it's cheap, powerful (for the money) and draws all it's power from your PCIEx16 slot.

Sweet thanks man. Though it is over $100 :/
Anything a bit cheaper? [sub]Just curious...[/sub]

Site says I need 400W for it. So it is a no go...

Plus I nee VGA output. I can't shell out the cash for both this AND a new monitor...

A lot of cards have vga adapters that come with the card

 

[Solo-Wing]

Boom. Found what I want.
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX35819

Thank you everyone who helped ^^

 

[Solo-Wing]

Boom. Found what I want.
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX35819

Thank you everyone who helped ^^

Why not just spend $20 more and get a good card?

That thing is NOT for gaming, it will struggle even on the games you want.

Yes but it fits my PSU requirements unlike most which need 400 PSU

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

My Current specs:
Intel Pentium D CPU 2.80GHz

Ahem, sorry, just a bit surprised there. Whoa, is it 2012 already? Ahh - awkward - um, I don't know how to delicately put this but you might want to consider upgrading that as well, as almost every graphics card on the market will be CPU limited with modern games.


"I would also prefer it if it had a VGA output."

I got bad news for you, VGA is hugely being phased out. Anything I suggest will not be supported in the next few years so you may be left high and dry. The ultra-low end micro-computer the Raspberry Pi, that doesn't even have VGA out, only HDMI/DVI out.

hahaha that picture is perfect, thank you for rationalizing my thoughts.

OT: sweet jesus, most suggestions have been made fine in this thread, and any old card you get will have it's driver kinks worked out so they should all run fine..HOWEVER

good god mate, just save up for a new pc build, everything from your specs just wreaks of a veteran of war, time to put that baby to rest.

 

[viranimus]

That card is acceptable. I have the EVGA version in my HTPC on a Pentium D 3.1 DC and It runs The Old Republic at roughly 30-45 fps It runs roughly 85% of my steam library out of like 143 games. So roughly 120 out of 143. Thats pretty much the type of result he was looking for. This card will do that.

Personally I like the cheaper route. It gives you something to tide you over for a year or maybe even 2 dependent on your demands, and gives you time to save up for building a more preferable box anyway


I was wondering why you kept referencing that memory express site.

Upon further investigation, OP, I assume now you are in Canada?

If so... I would not purchase from that site, They may be ok, But honestly Newegg supports canada as well as the US and you can get the same card through them, and buy more confidently knowing that if something goes wrong, Newegg will work with you faster to resolve problems than a lesser known organization will

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121475

Final edit:

Also, if your willing to go 10$ more I think

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500252

Would certainly be a worthy investment, Stay cheap, keep under PSU requirements, and open up your capacity for games greatly.

 

[sanguinator]

Since your talking about saving up for a new pc, ill just tell you what i did for my gaming pc. i based it off the Asus Essentio CM6730-04 Desktop i5 3ghz 8GB 1TB DVDRW. heres a link
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&biw=1280&bih=899&q=asus+essentio+cm6730&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=12124188040780166592&sa=X&ei=VnbGT5vmN6Oc2AWZrL2sAQ&ved=0CK0BEPMCMAM

then i put in the evga geforce gtx 550 ti, which is an excellent card. however, if you are just going to be playing basic games, you could probably go for the cheaper eVGA GeForce GT 520 for roughly 50 bucks. so that could add up to 570 dollars if you dont get any of it on sale. soon im going to upgrade again and set up full water cooling and a new motherboard with more graphics slots and set up dual sli. hope this helps.

 

[Solo-Wing]

That card is acceptable. I have the EVGA version in my HTPC on a Pentium D 3.1 DC and It runs The Old Republic at roughly 30-45 fps It runs roughly 85% of my steam library out of like 143 games. So roughly 120 out of 143. Thats pretty much the type of result he was looking for. This card will do that.

Personally I like the cheaper route. It gives you something to tide you over for a year or maybe even 2 dependent on your demands, and gives you time to save up for building a more preferable box anyway


I was wondering why you kept referencing that memory express site.

Upon further investigation, OP, I assume now you are in Canada?

If so... I would not purchase from that site, They may be ok, But honestly Newegg supports canada as well as the US and you can get the same card through them, and buy more confidently knowing that if something goes wrong, Newegg will work with you faster to resolve problems than a lesser known organization will

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121475

Final edit:

Also, if your willing to go 10$ more I think

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500252

Would certainly be a worthy investment, Stay cheap, keep under PSU requirements, and open up your capacity for games greatly.

Oh Memory Express is is really close to me. I live in Calgary. I can visit one of their retail stores easy. Plus I am not a fan of ordering stuff online.

 

[Tharwen]

What's your PSU?

No idea. But the side of the Power Supply says 300W max.

Radeon 7750, go go.

because it's cheap, powerful (for the money) and draws all it's power from your PCIEx16 slot.

Do...

er...

Do you not know where the PCIEx16 slot gets its power from?

 

[ResonanceSD]

What's your PSU?

No idea. But the side of the Power Supply says 300W max.

Radeon 7750, go go.

because it's cheap, powerful (for the money) and draws all it's power from your PCIEx16 slot.

Do...

er...

Do you not know where the PCIEx16 slot gets its power from?

The point of course, is that a 7750 doesn't need external power connectors.

 

[Solo-Wing]

What's your PSU?

No idea. But the side of the Power Supply says 300W max.

Radeon 7750, go go.

because it's cheap, powerful (for the money) and draws all it's power from your PCIEx16 slot.

Do...

er...

Do you not know where the PCIEx16 slot gets its power from?

The point of course, is that a 7750 doesn't need external power connectors.

Yes but that thing need at least 400W. I said I had 300W.

 

[ResonanceSD]

What's your PSU?

No idea. But the side of the Power Supply says 300W max.

Radeon 7750, go go.

because it's cheap, powerful (for the money) and draws all it's power from your PCIEx16 slot.

Do...

er...

Do you not know where the PCIEx16 slot gets its power from?

The point of course, is that a 7750 doesn't need external power connectors.

Yes but that thing need at least 400W. I said I had 300W.

\


Dude I don't know how to put this so I'll just say it bluntly.

You have a terrible PC.


You're barely going to see any appreciable differences 'upgrading' to a 5450.

You're not going to get the full benefit of 'upgrading' to 4GB of RAM. As you're currently running a 32bit OS, you'll see just over 3GB being read by the system. As such, if you have anything other than the game you're playing running, and that includes most natural processes AND STEAM, you'll get hardware lag in games. You'll also be able to join the masses of people complaining about Steam being a massive resource hog.


And also because I'm not finished yet.

If your budget for a new GPU is less than $100, you're really, really going to struggle playing stuff at any appreciable level. When I had a better video card than that (still terrible, let me tell you), I couldn't even open TF2.

With your spec for a 5000 series AMD card, you'll also get to play around with genuinely terrible pieces of hardware and the ever present shit that is the Catalyst driver library.



Moreover, for Portal 2.

Your 1100 is regarded as the bare minimum for running portal. That's at low spec, low resolution with all of the graphics options turned off. With a 5450, and all of your programs still turned off,

you get this.

Now, as we can see, that's at 720p, so you won't actually be getting this kind of performance if you want to run at full display.

I don't know, maybe for me it looks terrible because I'm accustomed to something else, who knows.

The bottom line is, save up some money and get a new pc. The i3 series is 'good but cheap' and with a new system, you'll see appreciable improvements in everything. You can even keep your screen.

 

[Solo-Wing]

What's your PSU?

No idea. But the side of the Power Supply says 300W max.

Radeon 7750, go go.

because it's cheap, powerful (for the money) and draws all it's power from your PCIEx16 slot.

Do...

er...

Do you not know where the PCIEx16 slot gets its power from?

The point of course, is that a 7750 doesn't need external power connectors.

Yes but that thing need at least 400W. I said I had 300W.

\


Dude I don't know how to put this so I'll just say it bluntly.

You have a terrible PC.


You're barely going to see any appreciable differences 'upgrading' to a 5450.

You're not going to get the full benefit of 'upgrading' to 4GB of RAM. As you're currently running a 32bit OS, you'll see just over 3GB being read by the system. As such, if you have anything other than the game you're playing running, and that includes most natural processes AND STEAM, you'll get hardware lag in games. You'll also be able to join the masses of people complaining about Steam being a massive resource hog.


And also because I'm not finished yet.

If your budget for a new GPU is less than $100, you're really, really going to struggle playing stuff at any appreciable level. When I had a better video card than that (still terrible, let me tell you), I couldn't even open TF2.

With your spec for a 5000 series AMD card, you'll also get to play around with genuinely terrible pieces of hardware and the ever present shit that is the Catalyst driver library.



Moreover, for Portal 2.

Your 1100 is regarded as the bare minimum for running portal. That's at low spec, low resolution with all of the graphics options turned off. With a 5450, and all of your programs still turned off,

you get this.

Now, as we can see, that's at 720p, so you won't actually be getting this kind of performance if you want to run at full display.

I don't know, maybe for me it looks terrible because I'm accustomed to something else, who knows.

The bottom line is, save up some money and get a new pc. The i3 series is 'good but cheap' and with a new system, you'll see appreciable improvements in everything. You can even keep your screen.

Dude that looks fucking awesome to me. AGAIN. I am NOT going for max stuff. I just want a good framerate. I do not are if the settings are on low. LEARN TO READ.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Dude that looks fucking awesome to me. AGAIN. I am NOT going for max stuff. I just want a good framerate. I do not are if the settings are on low. LEARN TO READ.

and

I am not looking for anything elite. I just want something that can play something like Portal 2 with medium/high Quality at about 30-40 frames a second at my screens full resolution.

If you want high settings at 40fps at 1440x900, you're going to need more power than exists in your entire system.


Ahem.

LEARN TO READ YOUR OWN POST.

 

[Solo-Wing]

Dude that looks fucking awesome to me. AGAIN. I am NOT going for max stuff. I just want a good framerate. I do not are if the settings are on low. LEARN TO READ.

and

I am not looking for anything elite. I just want something that can play something like Portal 2 with medium/high Quality at about 30-40 frames a second at my screens full resolution.

If you want high settings at 40fps at 1440x900, you're going to need more power than exists in your entire system.


Ahem.

LEARN TO READ YOUR OWN POST.

I don't WANT High settings! Just a good 30ish frame rate at full resolution!