best video card under $100

ScOuT

ScOuT

VIP Member
Just be aware that after market graphics cards have minumum power requirements. Not only total power needed but the amps on the 12v rail for the card to run correctly.

A 300w E-Machines power supply will not run these after market cards. If you buy a new card, you will have to invest in a new power supply also.
 
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
Drenlin said:
^ I'd take the Sapphire 4850, considering it's ~$25 cheaper after rebates... :/
Click to expand...
I agree, but giving options incase the OP prefers nvidia for some reason. Sapphire has some of the best support when it comes to ati gpu's as well.
ScOuT said:
Just be aware that after market graphics cards have minumum power requirements. Not only total power needed but the amps on the 12v rail for the card to run correctly.

A 300w E-Machines power supply will not run these after market cards. If you buy a new card, you will have to invest in a new power supply also.
Click to expand...

Yup, here are a few cheaper options for a psu:
http://www.svc.com/ocz600gxssli-b.html
http://www.directron.com/s61epsb.html <--well worth the $50, one of the best power supplies you can get at the 600W mark.
http://www.directron.com/ocz600mxspb.html
http://www.directron.com/reocz500sxsb.html
 
8

87dtna

Active Member
bomberboysk said:
Take your pick, all are rougly equal in real world performance:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102824
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131162
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134094
Click to expand...

A gts250/9800gtx+ outperforms a 4850 slightly. A 4850 is same as a 9800gtx.


But in all honestly, an awesome video card isn't gonna help you game on a socket 478 setup. The CPU is WAY to much of a bottleneck. I did an experiment with a pentium 4, on a socket 775 setup, the P4 had hyper threading enabled, 2mb cache, and was overclocked to 4.5 ghz (yes 4.5ghz) and it was STILL a HUGE bottleneck playing call of duty world at war. I was also gaming at 1920x1080, higher resolution puts less stress on the CPU and more on the GPU. I could only get like 20-30 FPS. Popped back in my E7200 at 3.8ghz and bam back to 90+ FPS.
 
Last edited:
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
87dtna said:
A gts250/9800gtx+ outperforms a 4850 slightly. A 4850 is same as a 9800gtx.


But in all honestly, an awesome video card isn't gonna help you game on a socket 478 setup. The CPU is WAY to much of a bottleneck. I did an experiment with a pentium 4, on a socket 775 setup, the P4 had hyper threading enabled, 2mb cache, and was overclocked to 4.5 ghz (yes 4.5ghz) and it was STILL a HUGE bottleneck playing call of duty world at war. I was also gaming at 1920x1080, higher resolution puts less stress on the CPU and more on the GPU. I could only get like 20-30 FPS. Popped back in my E7200 at 3.8ghz and bam back to 90+ FPS.
Click to expand...

Only if you overclock the gts250 or 9800gtx+, and even then only if you have the 55nm, otherwise they are the same chip(ex- the 9800gtx black edition i had was clocked higher than most gtx250's, and some 9800gtx+'s as well as GTS250's are 65nm variety).

Plus, benchmarks do not tell the whole story. As far as realworld gameplay, they are essentially identical.
 
8

87dtna

Active Member
65nm VS 55nm makes no difference in performance, only heat/efficiency and maybe overclockability.
A 9800gtx has a stock core clock of 675mhz, a gtx+/gts250 has 738mhz.

So if they are pretty even, why not suggest the Nvidia card? If he ever gets into folding, or any game that uses PhysX there's huge advantages to the gts 250. There is no advantage of the 4850 over the gts250 at all, so why not get the card that has the ''possible'' advantage?
 
Last edited:
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
Well, folding will be a complete nil factor when the GPU3 client comes out as it uses openCL, and physx isnt really supported on alot of games. Main reason i suggest the 4850 is the fact it is $20 less once you factor in rebates.
 
8

87dtna

Active Member
bomberboysk said:
Well, folding will be a complete nil factor when the GPU3 client comes out as it uses openCL, and physx isnt really supported on alot of games. Main reason i suggest the 4850 is the fact it is $20 less once you factor in rebates.
Click to expand...

OpenCL will be as good as Cuda? Not sure about that.

Yes, a lot of games, but once again my statement still stands.

So if they are pretty even, why not suggest the Nvidia card? If he ever gets into folding, or any game that uses PhysX there's huge advantages to the gts 250. There is no advantage of the 4850 over the gts250 at all, so why not get the card that has the ''possible'' advantage?
Click to expand...


Also, I never trust mail in rebates. EVGA is the only one I ever got back, and that took like 3 months IIRC for $15...big whoop.
 
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
87dtna said:
OpenCL will be as good as Cuda? Not sure about that.

Yes, a lot of games, but once again my statement still stands.




Also, I never trust mail in rebates. EVGA is the only one I ever got back, and that took like 3 months IIRC for $15...big whoop.
Click to expand...

CUDA will not be used at all for folding when gpu3 comes out, it will be openCL on both clients, and will result in pretty good increases in points/day.

I've had plenty of good experiences with newegg's rebate system,as well as sapphire's, but companies like OCZ on the other hand...not so much.

http://www.overclock.net/software-news/581863-f-h-folding-home-gpu3-client.html

Not to mention, with a more effecient means of folding on ati gpu's, their theoretical FLOPS power is a good bit more than comparable nvidia gpu's.
 
Last edited:
Dillan500

Dillan500

New Member
87dtna said:
A gts250/9800gtx+ outperforms a 4850 slightly. A 4850 is same as a 9800gtx.


But in all honestly, an awesome video card isn't gonna help you game on a socket 478 setup. The CPU is WAY to much of a bottleneck. I did an experiment with a pentium 4, on a socket 775 setup, the P4 had hyper threading enabled, 2mb cache, and was overclocked to 4.5 ghz (yes 4.5ghz) and it was STILL a HUGE bottleneck playing call of duty world at war. I was also gaming at 1920x1080, higher resolution puts less stress on the CPU and more on the GPU. I could only get like 20-30 FPS. Popped back in my E7200 at 3.8ghz and bam back to 90+ FPS.
Click to expand...

how can i test the FPS on my system playing COD MW2?
 
Dillan500

Dillan500

New Member
LOL, and im still wayyy confused on which video card to buy...

and for the bottleneck issue... you are probably 100% correct that my celeron is a bottleneck... but im sure from an agp 6800xt to a pci-e 9800gtx+ / gts250 / 4550

i will see a little performance. And i will probably try to overclock this celeron :)
 
8

87dtna

Active Member
I would get the gts250, when overclocked IMO it will outperform the 4850 overclocked.

Overclocking the celeron won't do anything. Like I said, one of the best Pentium 4's at 4.5ghz with hyper threading wasn't strong enough to play COD world at war. Your celeron is what, 1ghz? And no hyper threading...it doesn't stand a chance.
 
spynoodle

spynoodle

Active Member
87dtna said:
I would get the gts250, when overclocked IMO it will outperform the 4850 overclocked.

Overclocking the celeron won't do anything. Like I said, one of the best Pentium 4's at 4.5ghz with hyper threading wasn't strong enough to play COD world at war. Your celeron is what, 1ghz? And no hyper threading...it doesn't stand a chance.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's no way you're getting much of an improvement with a GPU upgrade on that CPU. You see, as 87dtna showed before: Upgrading to a Core2 Duo will help a lot more than upgrading to a $100 video card on a celeron single-core. Here's what you should do: Get a cheap $50 LGA775 mobo, put a cheap Pentium or Celeron Dual-core in it, and see if your rig is fast enough. Most likely, once you upgrade those components, your rig will be faster on your Geforce 6600 than it would have been with your celeron single-core and a GTS250. One thing to always remember: your video card is by no means the only component that matters in gaming.
 
8

87dtna

Active Member
Yes and also a part I overlooked with a socket 478 celeron, he most likely also has SDram pc133. 512mb is the typical max, which is NOT enough ram to play COD MW2 let alone it being too slow. Even 1gb isn't enough. 2gb is the minimum anymore to play modern games.

A list on components for an entire build, if you have a case that will handle a full ATX board just skip that then-

case-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147109

Power supply-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008

Motherboard- (Do not skimp on a motherboard, this one is good for the least money)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157175

CPU-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116264

Ram-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211066

Hard drive-(you probably have an IDE drive, so you need a Sata)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

Video card-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...154&cm_re=zotac_9800gt-_-14-500-154-_-Product


That setup there will play pretty much any game, and is very upgradable because it's a good base to work with. It's about $400, no including an operating system either, but thats what it takes to build a PC that can atleast play decent games.
 
Last edited:
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
Agreed, if you can save some money this would be your best upgrade route:
PSU: http://www.directron.com/s61epsb.html
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130267
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211066
GPU(s)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141113
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500133
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131343
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102854
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500154
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102824
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134094


Sell off your old components on ebay/craigslist and you can recoup some of what you spend as well.
 
JareeB

JareeB

Active Member
bomberboysk said:
I agree, but giving options incase the OP prefers nvidia for some reason. Sapphire has some of the best support when it comes to ati gpu's as well.


Yup, here are a few cheaper options for a psu:
http://www.svc.com/ocz600gxssli-b.html
http://www.directron.com/s61epsb.html <--well worth the $50, one of the best power supplies you can get at the 600W mark.
http://www.directron.com/ocz600mxspb.html
http://www.directron.com/reocz500sxsb.html
Click to expand...

i just order the ocz600 from the same site came to 45$ shipped. cant wait to get to use my computer lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top