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Video card recommendation

J

jon6

n00b
Joined
Mar 20, 2010
Messages
57
Hi,
I have an HP m7640 n. It has:

AMD Athlon 63 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ 2.60 GHz
2 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
500W power supply
300 GB hard drive
ASUSTek NODUSM3 motherboard

I want to be able to play StarCraft 2 very well, but my video card is weak. What video card (for about $200) could I upgrade to and what should I consider when doing so?

Thanks
 
What resolution do you play at? For $200 I would suggest a 5770 and then 2 more gb of ram or possibly a harddrive upgrade.
 
Is that 5830 on newegg still on sale for $200?

edit: Oh wait, I just saw your CPU. As someone who was using a heavily OC'd Athlon 64 X2 5200+ and upgraded my video card to a Radeon 5770 I can tell you my cpu was really holding me back after the upgrade. In something like SC2 which is going to be pretty CPU intensive your CPU is gonna be an issue.

If you can't upgrade the CPU too I would just pick up a 5770 for $150 probably.
 
I play at a 1280 X 1024 resolution.

If i were to get a 5770, what do u suggest for the CPU?

I had someone offer me a used Radeon HD 4770 512 MB for $110, what do you think about it? or would it still be better to go with the 5770?
 
A used HD 4770 for $110? That's a ripoff considering that a faster and new HD 4850 1GB video card can be had for $110 from Newegg. Also at 1280x1024, the HD 5770 is a tad overkill for that res. So I recommend this card for that low res:
$110 - PowerColor AX4850 1GBD3-PH Radeon HD 4850 1GB PCI-E Video Card

What 500W PSU do you have? Exact make and model please. No point in upgrading the video card or CPU if the PSU can't handle it.

EDIT: Do you happen to live near a Fry's?
 
Your CPU is going to hold you back, I would check what socket your board has and what processors it can handle as a $200 upgrade of just the video card will improve some but not much compares to a $300 upgrade of card and cpu if you can utilize the same board.
 
ELox said:
Your CPU is going to hold you back, I would check what socket your board has and what processors it can handle as a $200 upgrade of just the video card will improve some but not much compares to a $300 upgrade of card and cpu if you can utilize the same board.
Click to expand...

According to the specs on the HP website, the X2 5000+ IS the highest CPU supported. So he's looking at a new CPU and mobo upgrade at the least if he upgrade the CPU. Hence why I asked if he lived near a Fry's since they usually have cheaper sub $100 CPU + mobo combos that are still faster than the X2 5000+.

EDIT: Ahh good PSU. Yeah that Earthwatts will be enough for a HD 4850 upgrade.
 
jon6 said:
What is a mobo upgrade?
Click to expand...

mobo = motherboard.

Hmm, for now, the HD 4850 upgrade will be be a huge stepup over your current onboard video. May not be getting full performance but still a good buy nonetheless.
 
what do you think i should do to get full performance (to me it means playing starcraft 2 with high quality, and to be prepared for other future games) so that I can compare the costs of of the HD 4850 and the things that you guys think i need to get full performance. Still keeping in mind an average budget, such as about $200 for the video card.
 
jon6 said:
what do you think i should do to get full performance (to me it means playing starcraft 2 with high quality, and to be prepared for other future games) so that I can compare the costs of of the HD 4850 and the things that you guys think i need to get full performance. Still keeping in mind an average budget, such as about $200 for the video card.
Click to expand...

You don't need a $200 video card because:

jon6 said:
I play at a 1280 X 1024 resolution.

If i were to get a 5770, what do u suggest for the CPU?

I had someone offer me a used Radeon HD 4770 512 MB for $110, what do you think about it? or would it still be better to go with the 5770?
Click to expand...

Your resolution is so low. You'd be wasting the performance of the 4850 and the 5770 at that resolution and your CPU bottlenecks your GPU as well.

I hate to say it, but you'd need a system overhaul, including a new display. This isn't quite as bad as 1024x768 but it comes close.
 
Thanks for your honesty, Im just trying to find out what my options are and what to do and you guys are being real helpful.

So far it looks like the upgrades i would need to make are coming close to the price of a new computer.

What would you guys do if you were in my position (as in what would be cheapest/best), buy a new computer, upgrade or something else?
 
jon6 said:
Thanks for your honesty, Im just trying to find out what my options are and what to do and you guys are being real helpful.

So far it looks like the upgrades i would need to make are coming close to the price of a new computer.

What would you guys do if you were in my position (as in what would be cheapest/best), buy a new computer, upgrade or something else?
Click to expand...

Are you proficient in building your own PC? Would you be comfortable swapping motherboard on a system?
 
I agree with Danny Bui. If you don't plan on upgrading the monitor and don't want to spend a ton, buy a Radeon 4850 for $100 and work from there. You'll likely be stuck at around 25 fps just due to your CPU but you ought to be able to play at max settings at 1280x1024..

I'd overclock your CPU as much as it will take then start looking into buying a ~$70 AM2+ motherboard and something like a $100 Phenom II x3 720.

Altogether It's gonna cost a total of $300 to get someplace decent (CPU, mobo, GPU). If you can afford more there's definitely better options though.
 
jon6 said:
ive never swapped a motherboard, but i could figure it out, if i dont, ill just ask someone.

I can afford those three things for $300.

Would this be the AM2 + motherboard that your talking about:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131595
Click to expand...

That's a decent enough mobo. CPU wise, even something as low as the AMD X2 240 would be a huge step up over the X2 5000+. However, just pick up the Phenom II X3 720 as noquarter said and you'll be fine:
$100 - AMD Phenom II X3 720
 
Ok I will. Is Newegg.com a good place to get these things off of, or is some other place better?
 
If you do get the Phenom II X3 720 from Newegg that cpu in particular doesn't come with a heatsink but the stock heatsink on your Athlon 64 X2 5000+ will fit on the socket and work fine as long as you aren't overclocking much. If you reuse that heatsink just make sure to clean off the old gunk and put on new thermal compound. MX3 is suppose to be pretty good, Arctic Silver is the old standby, there's plenty of decent inexpensive choices though.

Newegg is pretty much the best place to buy these things. Zipzoomfly, ewiz, mwave, Tigerdirect are a few other places I check for deals, and monoprice for any cables :
 
Yes, jon6. Newegg is a good place to buy from and the recommendations you've been given will be a nice upgrade compared to what you've got.
 
Hey I looked up this for you at Newegg. I know that it's over your amount by alittle, but you may need new memory.

GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813128419 $89.99

POWERCOLOR AX5770 1GBD5-H Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814131330 $149.99

Open Box: AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Heka 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor Model HDZ720WFK3DGI
Item #: N82E16819103652R $78.99

Total $318.97
 
Yea, you can get 4 gig's of DDR3 for that upgrade I put together for $109.00.

Collect some cans or mop up some of that oil spill for the extra cash:cool:

If you really have an issue getting the cash for the memory PM me.
 
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