Good graphics card to go with the TS Budget Box

[TorturedChaos]

Well my parents desktop is finally dieing, and their laptop wont turn on any more -_- ./sigh.

So I'm trying to come up with a decent build for them so my younger siblings can play some games, do homework, get online etc.

Planing on using the budget box build for the tower. But now I want a decent graphics card to pair with it. Any good recommendations? Have another $75 or so to spend on this build.

Kinda leaning towards:
ASUS ENGT430/DI/1GD3(LP) GeForce GT 430 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card

But would love any better recommendations.

Thanks,

 

[Arris]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2761-2.html

They recommend a 5670 ~$80 or 5550 for ~$60. I'd say the Radeon 5550 would be more than fine for a general purpose machine and a little gaming.
These are meant to give comparable performance to a Geforce 9600 GT, and more than enough for a little gaming at 1650x1080 resolution or below.

I don't think any of the lower end fermi offerings are particularly good from what I've read. Have to go for GTX 460 and upwards or not at all.

 

[Leeky]

As above, I would stretch it slightly and go for a GTX460 if possible. The bonus being that it will last substantially longer whereas the others will show there age from the get go.

With a 768mb GTX460 you can look forward to throwing most things at it without any issues at all. You are talking just over $100 with rebates on newegg.com though, but its well worth the additional $25-30 spend.

 

[Arris]

As above, I would stretch it slightly and go for a GTX460 if possible. The bonus being that it will last substantially longer whereas the others will show there age from the get go.

With a 768mb GTX460 you can look forward to throwing most things at it without any issues at all. You are talking just over $100 with rebates on newegg.com though, but its well worth the additional $25-30 spend.

Going with Leeky's suggestion would be good. You could even transplant the 9800 GT from your machine to the "parent's machine" and get yourself a reasonable upgrade, No one else will notice

Edit : January update to that Tomshardware site says 4670 for $60 now.

 

[Ritwik7]

The HD 5770, HD 5830 or the GTX 460. All very good options.

 

[TorturedChaos]

Thanks for the advice guys . I thought about giving them my hold graphics card (which is actuall a 8800GTX now because the 9800 died a while back. Had to steel the 8800 from a computer I picked up at a garage sale). But on giving them my old card - I planing on building a new computer this spring and turning this on into my file server/DVR. So its hard to swap it out just yet. I still game on it, so I don't want to downgrade but I don't really want to upgrade it yet either.

The 460GTX just seems a bit to far out of my Dad's budget saddly .
So for now I'm leaning towards this one:
HIS H467QR1GH Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
But maybe if I can put this off until I see my tax return I will get them a late Christmas present .

 

[Arris]

Just note that dropping to the 4XXX series the new card won't support DX11. Not that it should be much of an issue for the machines purpose.

Re-reading some reviews the GT 430 and it doesn't seem that bad at all.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gt-430-gf108-fermi,2766-5.html

 

[Leeky]

The HD4670 is a very capable GPU, I currently use it in my PC, and it plays most games including Crysis (sorry!) at moderate settings quite happily.

If your budget can only stretch to a DX10 card, then the HD4670 will do you well, as long as your happy with low to moderate settings in most newer games.

 

[TorturedChaos]

The HD4670 is a very capable GPU, I currently use it in my PC, and it plays most games including Crysis (sorry!) at moderate settings quite happily.

If your budget can only stretch to a DX10 card, then the HD4670 will do you well, as long as your happy with low to moderate settings in most newer games.

Its looking like thats as far as my Dad's budget with stretch.

Where would you but the HD4670 in comparison to a GeForce 8800 GTX so I can compare it to my machine??

 

[Arris]

Where would you but the HD4670 in comparison to a GeForce 8800 GTX so I can compare it to my machine??

http://www.hwcompare.com/3116/geforce-8800-gtx-vs-radeon-hd-4670-1gb/

Few other comparisons put it a bit behind the 8800 GTX (was my old card before it died and replaced it with 5850), more similar to the performance of the the 8800 GS.

 

[TorturedChaos]

http://www.hwcompare.com/3116/geforce-8800-gtx-vs-radeon-hd-4670-1gb/

Few other comparisons put it a bit behind the 8800 GTX (was my old card before it died and replaced it with 5850), more similar to the performance of the the 8800 GS.

Ok good to know.

And wow. I didn't even know about that site! Adding that to my bookmarks .

 

[Arris]

Neither did I
It just looked like the most valid quick comparison between those cards. I'm not sure it's worth bookmarking as it doesn't seem to have any recent cards added to it. For recent cards Anandtech.com has a nice tool named "Bench" that lets you compare cpus, graphics and hard disks. But mostly more modern ones as its a newer comparison tool.