Looking for a good video card under $100

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What type of games will be played with the video card? The reason he posted the psu tech guide is that the guide gives you an idea of what type of psu is needed to run a certain card.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125380

is the best you are going to get for your money. Before anyone says "it is last generation, you don't get DX11", look at cards in the price range, none of them can play the games in DX 11 at decent settings because they do not have the power, so the claim of DX 11 from them is a gimmick and a selling point, not a plausible feature.

A GTX 260, although getting on a little, will play FO 3, Stalker and BLOPs at full settings, and in fact just about every single game currently out at full settings, as I've found out to my own surprise with mine. You are talking HD 5770 performance from a card that costs substantially less
 
What CPU exactly? 2.6ghz can be anything from a pentium 4 to an I7 920....

Black ops needs a good bit of CPU power, a hefty dual core is bare minimum for smooth play (and even then slight lag when you first start the map until it evens out).

As others have said, the power supply MUST be upgraded first or else you risk popping the cheapo power supply which typically takes the motherboard out with it and sometimes the video card as well.
The corsair power supply that MIHIR linked too would be the one to get-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na&AID=10521304&PID=4169961&SID=yvb0pjmyynz7

You can't beat that deal.

Next question to know what graphics card to pick, what resolution monitor are you running?
 
Aastii said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125380

is the best you are going to get for your money. Before anyone says "it is last generation, you don't get DX11", look at cards in the price range, none of them can play the games in DX 11 at decent settings because they do not have the power, so the claim of DX 11 from them is a gimmick and a selling point, not a plausible feature.

A GTX 260, although getting on a little, will play FO 3, Stalker and BLOPs at full settings, and in fact just about every single game currently out at full settings, as I've found out to my own surprise with mine. You are talking HD 5770 performance from a card that costs substantially less
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I don't think you've checked 5770 prices lately , for $20 more I'd definitely spring for a 5770 over a gtx260-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873
 
87dtna said:
I don't think you've checked 5770 prices lately , for $20 more I'd definitely spring for a 5770 over a gtx260-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873
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Firstly:

Looking for a good video card under $100
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Secondly:

I would sooner take the 260. Having had both cards, they perform pretty much identically, and although the 5770 has DX11, it has nothing else going for it, and as OP isn't planning on playing any DX 11 games, why pay more for what will essentially be the same card?
 
Firstly, we've already all agreed that he needs a new power supply first, so unless you are checking for $50-60 cards he's gonna bust the budget.


Secondly, the 5770 is smaller, runs cooler, only needs 1 6 pin connector, and consumes far less power. He's only getting a 500w power supply, he doesn't need 202w of it taken up by the video card when it could be 108w for 20 bucks more.

And thirdly, thats only a 192 sp unit, not a 216 core. More power consumption, less GPU power, runs hotter. crap.
 
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87dtna said:
Firstly, we've already all agreed that he needs a new power supply first, so unless you are checking for $50-60 cards he's gonna bust the budget.


Secondly, the 5770 is smaller, runs cooler, only needs 1 6 pin connector, and consumes far less power. He's only getting a 500w power supply, he doesn't need 202w of it taken up by the video card when it could be 108w for 20 bucks more.

And thirdly, thats only a 192 sp unit, not a 216 core. More power consumption, less GPU power, runs hotter. crap.
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Firstly, no we haven't, read the thread.

Secondly, who constantly has 100% load and 100% power usage, you know as well as me the power consumption is a moot point. He isn't going to have it on 24/7 constantly under heavy load, and idle you are talking 7W more, so it is over 140 hours before there is 1KW extra used, so cost wise, it is still more efficient. By the time it has cost $20 more, the card will be outdated and OP will be able to upgrade to better for cheaper.

Thirdly, I have looked further and there is a core 216 card for $5 less:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133348
 
lol, who has their system at idle 100% of the time? So are you going to buy him a new motherboard when his power supply exploads? I can't believe you are recommending a gtx 260 on a 300w power supply and arguing with me about it. It's not even enough for a 5770. His PSU probably has about 12 amps on the 12v rail, when the recommended is 38 amps for a gtx260.

Since you have a gtx260, go ahead and stick a 300w PSU in your rig and see what happens when you fire up a game :rolleyes:


And you also don't even know what CPU he has....he could have a pentium 4 for all we know, and a gtx580 wouldn't help him with FPS.

And lastly....does ''out of stock'' mean anything to you? ...
 
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87dtna said:
lol, who has their system at idle 100% of the time? So are you going to buy him a new motherboard when his power supply exploads? I can't believe you are recommending a gtx 260 on a 300w power supply and arguing with me about it. It's not even enough for a 5770. His PSU probably has about 12 amps on the 12v rail, when the recommended is 38 amps for a gtx260.

Since you have a gtx260, go ahead and stick a 300w PSU in your rig and see what happens when you fire up a game :rolleyes:


And you also don't even know what CPU he has....he could have a pentium 4 for all we know, and a gtx580 wouldn't help him with FPS.

And lastly....does ''out of stock'' mean anything to you? ...
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Like I said, read the thread:

omgodzilla10 said:
He has a 300 watt psu (he's going to upgrade it) and a 2.6 ghz processor.
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Benny Boy said:
Power Supply (PSU) Tech Guide
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omgodzilla10 said:
I don't need a psu tech guide, I was asking for video cards under $100
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He has a 300W unit now, isn't going to be keeping it.

If he has a P4, a 5770 or GTX 260 wouldn't help with FPS

And yes it does, it means they currently have none in stock, but unlike Discontinued (does that mean anything to you? There is a difference between the two), they will still be stocking them. Look at the reviews if you don't believe me, the last one from 6 days ago from someone saying he just bought one
 
Whats he upgrading the PSU too?

What CPU does he have?

What resolution monitor is he running?


All questions that you didn't care enough to ask, and therefore cannot give an educated answer on any card recommendation or recommendations on necessary upgrades before a card even gets installed.

Don't hold your breath for out of stock items that are old, they usually never get restocked.

And if you want to wait for out of stock items that will never come back in, there's a superclocked gtx275 for $91 instead.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130677
 
87dtna said:
Whats he upgrading the PSU too?

What CPU does he have?

What resolution monitor is he running?

All questions that you didn't care enough to ask, and therefore cannot give an educated answer on any card recommendation or recommendations on necessary upgrades before a card even gets installed.

Don't hold your breath for out of stock items that are old, they usually never get restocked.

And if you want to wait for out of stock items that will never come back in, there's a superclocked gtx275 for $91 instead.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130677
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Don't know, don't know, don't know. Regarding the PSU, he has been given sufficient information to make an educated decision and he has already said that he is upgrading.

What CPU, yes, it does matter, I agree, however if he is on integrated graphics at the moment, I would say that upgrading the video card first is still the best option. Even if he is on a P4, it will play the games he wants no problems, only the graphics will hold him back.

I fail to see how resolution is important. For $100, he isn't going to get better than the 260 power wise. If he wanted to go for a 440 instead, it wouldn't work as well at higher resolutions.

And the 275 isn't just out of stock, it is a recertified product that is out of stock. Do you really think people will be returning GTX 275's now, or Newegg will be getting more recertified 275's?
 
ROFL, guess which card JUST became available. Click on my gtx 275 link again :D

hahahahahaha



Aastii said:
Even if he is on a P4, it will play the games he wants no problems, only the graphics will hold him back.
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No it will most certainly not. Black ops does not even play without major lag unless you have a VERY good dual core, mean 4ghz E8400 or an I3, and even then it's slightly laggy for the first few seconds and then evens out. You actually must have a quad core for completely smooth gameplay with blackops. I tried playing it with an E5200 at 3.6ghz, too laggy. Popped in the Q9300 at 3.2ghz and everything was fine.


Aastii said:
I fail
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:good: :eek:

What can I say it just stuck out to me :D

Aastii said:
For $100, he isn't going to get better than the 260 power wise.
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Well, actually if he's only on a 1440x900 or 1280x1024 monitor or something like that, I'd recommend a gts250 for $60 (after MIR, $90 up front)-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150513

Save money, save power, save space, save heat, and have no FPS difference between a gtx260 and the gts250.

But again, it's only speculation as we don't know what monitor he actually has. But yes it does make a difference, if he doesn't NEED to spend the entire $100 on a card than why should he? The gts250 is a very capable card.
 
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I just clicked it again, see the picture in my attachment

I play BLOPs on a tri core, no problem, I have played it on a stock E6750, no problems. I haven't played it on a single core CPU, however have heard of others do it. If you do what would seem counter productive and raise settings, it improves performance because it reduces CPU load, so may work, however will take your word that BLOPs is an exception in his list of games.

And I wouldn't recommend a 250. Yes, it is a good card still, however the 260 will allow him to be playing on higher settings for longer than the 250 will do

=EDIT=

realise the attachment isn't clear. That is me, clicking on the link after you said look at it, and it is still out of stock, so what you were getting at, I don't know
 

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