I need a budget videocard

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londonandlawson

2[H]4U
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Aug 25, 2006
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I think my ATI X300 is about to die. I see small color blocking on my screen on occasion, this happen last time my old vc died. I don't play computer games. I need something with dvi out because vga looks horrible on my monitor.

I don't mind to buy used either
 
1. How much do you want to spend? Give the budget.
2. What is the native max resolution of your monitor?
3. What is the wattage of your power supply and how many 6 pin pcie connectors does it have? Or just give the exact psu model.
 
I want to spend little as possible, not sure about my monitor. It is an Acer al2216w and my power supply is an Antec Earth Watts 340 I think.
 
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Yup, any of those should be good. It's just a matter of finding the best bargain now. Check the benchmark numbers to calculate your bang for the buck ratio. Although I'd say the $59 HD 3850 looks like the best in the budget segment. That's the price of a slightly expensive video game.
 
if i were you i would find one of the many 7600's, 8600's and x1900's/x850's that are in the for sale section for like $25-$30 bucks
 
Well you get what you pay for.
Check out this chart:

Memory transfer rate
HD 3850 53.12 GB/S
HD 4670 32 GB/S
HD 4650 22.4 GB/S
HD 4350 8 GB/S

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/131

I think that you can infer the performance yourself from the numbers.

Here are some more benchmarks. The 3850 was not in the bench, but we've already established that it's the fastest of the bunch.
The 4350 finished dead last in nearly all the tests. However if you don't intend to game and say plan to stick this into a file server, then you won't need the better video performance of the 4670 or 3850.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3420&p=5
 
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x300 was PCI-E or AGP?

Anyways, anything will do really. x300 is probably slower than today's onboard video chips.

I recommend ATI's HD3****, HD4**** series or Nvidia's 8**** or 9**** series video cards as I know they support DRM material (such as bluray movies) and allow for video hardware H.264.

Sub $50 ATI PCI-E cards in preformance order (AGP versions will cost more):

ATI x1600pro, 2400pro, HD3450, 2600pro/XT, HD4350, HD3650, HD4650

Sub $50 Nvidia:

8400GS, 8500GT, 9400GT, 8600GT, 9500GT (AGP versions not availible)

Even older video cards will work just as good as your old x300 or better, but these cards are already cheap enough.
 
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It all really depends on OP's intended usage for the video card. If he wants to play modern video games at playable rates, I'd lean towards the higher performing 4670 or 3850. If it's just for casual use like internet browsing/word processing, with little gaming expected, it's fine to spring for the cheapest card available, but don't expect to be able to game on them at playable framerates. Sub 20 FPS = Stuttering games. Resolution of the monitor also matters. At 1680x1050, expect framerates in the teens from a 4350.

Oh yeah make sure you confirm your video card slot type. I assumed OP had PCIE slot for his video. But some of the older motherboards are AGP based. Get the appropriate card for your card slot.
 
vjcsmoke said:
Oh yeah make sure you confirm your video card slot type. I assumed OP had PCIE slot for his video. But some of the older motherboards are AGP based. Get the appropriate card for your card slot.
Click to expand...
Great point.



vjcsmoke said:
It all really depends on OP's intended usage for the video card. If he wants to play modern video games at playable rates, I'd lean towards the higher performing 4670 or 3850. If it's just for casual use like internet browsing/word processing, with little gaming expected, it's fine to spring for the cheapest card available, but don't expect to be able to game on them at playable framerates.
Click to expand...
Well thank god he didn't write this in the OP:
OP said:
I don't play computer games
Click to expand...
 
JaguarSKX said:
If you have PCI-e slot: HD 3450 - $20 after $10 rebate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121259


If you have AGP slot: HD 3450 - $50 (hey, obsolete tech costs more)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121315
Click to expand...

For PCI-E get the ASUS HD4350; it has free shipping right now for $33 shipped - $10 rebate and has twice the steam processors (80 vs 40). The HD3450 is $36 shipped - $10 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121310

For AGP, the 2400pro is pretty much the same card as the HD3450 for $45 + shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102836
 
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Are you running Vista or Win7? Even if you don't game, a little kick for Aero is good.

Otherwise see what card you can get for 15-20 shipped in FS. I always have a backup 7200 for machines, something like that would do you well.
 
londonandlawson said:
It is a pci-e slot
Click to expand...

The HD4350 is a great choice then. Newegg has the ASUS model for $23 after rebate and free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121310&Tpk=asus HD 4350

Next jump in performance would be the HD4650/70, HD3850/70, which can be found for ~$50 after rebates, but are not really needed unless gaming. Might be nice for some heavy video encoding.
They do have 4x the processing power (320 steam processors vs HD3650 = 120 vs HD4350 = 80 vs HD3450 = 40 vs 2400pro = 40)
 
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