GPU replacement advice wanted

B

Bill Clo

Gawd
Joined
Jan 24, 2002
Messages
959
I just had my old GPU up and die on me - an ATI Radeon 4850 HD. I need something inexpensive to replace it, but I haven't been keeping up with computer stuff in a few years, so I'm asking for advice as to what to get to replace it.

I'm a middle-aged guy who doesn't have much time to play games anymore, and when I do, it's older titles, like Battlefield 2, Call of Duty 4. I don't expect to get any of the newer games due to lack of time and interest. I do want to keep the price under $100, preferably Nvidia this time. System has an Intel Q6600 (I think), 2gb memory, Windows XP.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
 
I don't know much about ATi family, but anything comparable to a gtx 460 - gtx 560 ti. I've seen those used from $50-$100.
 
Well the 4850 up and died, so baking it means what?

The games I played back in 2006-2008 seemed to do okay with 2gb memory, and I don't want to put more money into this old system (7 years old) than I have to, as it's a secondary system that I game on once in a great while. I'm not planning to run recent games to run on it; I don't have the time, interest, and since I'm getting up there in years, the reflexes can't keep up with the twitchy kids anyways. :)
 
hit the f/s forum. You can probably scrounge up something good for $100. For a system that old, I don't know if I'd put something new in it. If this is a networked PC you plan to keep for a good year or so, I'd consider a windows 7 upgrade as xp's loosing all support this year which means drivers will be hard to find, holes wont be patched, and software devs will probably begin to fade support on as well. Just a thought to consider.
 
I have a comparable pc and went from a 8600GT to a 650Ti, very nice upgrade.

You can get one for $110-$130 AR.
 
Everyone (including myself) seam to be straying away from what your looking for. I believe the card I linked is exactly where you want to be. A bit of an upgrade and in your price range.
 
Decided to look at ATI, and found an another option that might work as well:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129232

Thoughts?

Slightly smaller power supply allowable (I have a 380w, 17A on the 12v rail), which looks better than the Nvidia's that want 20a on the 12v rail. I am NOT upgrading the power supply to use a more power hungry video card; there's no point on this old system.
 
I would say that the 650ti is a good upgrade for you, maybe the 7850 (you might be able to find a deal for 100 is if the miners don't grab it first). The 7750 is basically the same performance as the 4850 minus the new direct x features. If you are looking used the 560ti is a huge bump, maybe also look in the 7770 or r260 range. But in all honesty if you don't really game anymore maybe throw your cash at a new cpu/ motherboard and get more out of your computer that way. In theory the new kaveri AMD A10 7850 and a10 7700k integrated chips are close to the 7750 (on paper) and you prob get a better cpu out of the deal.
 
Done give up gaming dude, Hit the sticks fat for life.Gaming has only just begun. 480 is my 2 cents on a card.
 
or HD7790, which is on sale a lot you should be able to find one under $100 easily.
 
Use this as a guide for relative performance:

[URL="http://www.techspot.com/review/734-battlefield-4-benchmarks/page2.html"]http://www.techspot.com/review/734-battlefield-4-benchmarks/page2.html[/URL]

Since you like Battlefield consider getting either R9 270 or 270X which comes with free Battlefield 4:

https://www.superbiiz.com/landing.php?id=2783c1c05f1f54533cc032181b8c767fa769dc1b7cef8307225849bd17d5bf91

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/features/battlefield-4-r9-launch.aspx

If you're going to spend $110 on a throw away card might as well invest a little more for something usable for the next few years.
 
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Well as of late I went from a GTX 660, to 7950, to a GTX 760, hated my AMD experience really stupid issues, crap support from powercolor, I was glad the bitmining idiots were willing to pay $100 more than the card was worth so I picked up a GTX 760. If I was you I'd pickup something cheap decent performance. Maxwell should be out sometime this year and the competition between AMD and Nvidia is finally heating up again. Competition is good for the consumer so we'll see what is offered in a few months.
 
like many said the 650 / 650 ti is your best bet . yo u can even pick it up at local retailers with online price match :)

Note 650 has dx11 8600/8800 does not
 
BTW the 650Ti is well worth the price premium over the regular 650, there's a big performance difference between them.
 
If you bake the card make sure to take off the heatsink and fan assembly and clean off all the thermal paste and stuff, so basically you are putting in a bare card. In theory you are able to get the solder for the gpu to reflux and possibly revive the card. In my opinion it is totally worth a shot as its virtually free and you possibly get you card back and a cool tech story like hey I froze my dead hdd and miraculously was able to copy the data off kind of deal ;).
 
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