need a recommendation for under 40 dollars!

[windo7]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for a graphics card, doesnt matter if its 2nd hand or not because I wouldnt mind buying it off ebay too.

I have a 400W power supply and a pci-e 16 slot on my geforce 6100 sm-m.

I was looking at the following ATI Radeon 4550, ATI Radeon 4350, Nvidia 8400GS and Nvidia 8500GT. I dont really know which one is better or if they're even worth looking at.

There was a Sapphire HD3870 with ddr4, 512mb on it, which I didnt bid for yesterday because of its power requirements...

So if you guys know something better for that price or think that one of the above is better than the other, I'd appreciate your views


I'm not a gamer but I do watch movies on the PC. It wouldnt hurt to have a better graphics card in either case.

Thanks

 

[RST101]

This seems to be what your looking for and is better than the 84/500. They are in fact the equivalent of a 8600gt.

They do not need any extra power other than the rail and come equipped with dvi-hdmi sockets.

9500GS

 

[thefabe]

Looks like a great suggestion. Fabe

 

[windo7]

Thank you for your suggestion. The active cooler looks hardcore haha

Do you think it really matters between 512mb DDR2 and 1GB? So its just a big confusion in my head between all these. Right now I'm using the onboard graphics and I'm sure that whatever I choose to buy, would produce a better picture, than what I'm having now.

Any other suggestions other than the 9500gs? Any ATI stuff thats good and cheap too?

 

[thefabe]

Just to answer yes more memeory is good as for your ATI request well those lurking ATi guys will have to provide you with that. Good luck with your upgrade. Fabe

 

[windo7]

Thanks for your reply. 'Lurking ATI guys'? haha

Well I also found some other cards on ebay like the 9500GT with 1gb on it. I read that the GT unit is better than the GS unit even if memory is the same.

If anyone can throw a couple more suggestions, it would help

 

[windo7]

Ok new question after alot of searching:

Which would be a better card among these 2:
geforce 9500GT(1gb ddr2) or geforce 9600GT (512mb ddr3)

Im still checking if my system can handle the 9600GT. The ATX p400 p4 says it has DC Output Max +12V /16A. I'm afraid that it the system wont be able to handle it.

 

[stormy13]

Which would be a better card among these 2:
geforce 9500GT(1gb ddr2) or geforce 9600GT (512mb ddr3)

Don't be fooled by the 9500 having 1 GB of memory on it, as it is about as useful as lipstick on a pig. Also the 9600 will be close to twice as fast as the 9500, even with half the memory.

The ATX p400 p4 says it has DC Output Max +12V /16A. I'm afraid that it the system wont be able to handle it.

That unfortunately is correct. Without a new power supply you're looking at the 9500GT or something similar. With that power supply and not buying a new one you should be able to get away with going up to a HD4670,

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR VA4673NH51-B Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

about 1.5x your stated $40, and performs close to the 9600GT.

 

[ThePizzaMan]

hm... want a ati suggestion? i'd go with what stormy said for a 4670 or a 4650 or 3650 are also great, i've had a 3450, and a 3650 both are great cards
otherwise a 9600 would be good also
if you can pull t any of these would be great
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131345
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150393
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150483

 

[smarteyeball]

I'm not a gamer but I do watch movies on the PC. It wouldnt hurt to have a better graphics card in either case.

If you don't play games, then 512mb is perfectly sufficient for your requirements.

 

[Wishmaster]

IMHO, 1GB VRAM really only becomes usefull for gaming at higher resolutions (such as 1080P)

Below that, 512MB should be sufficient with no real performance difference between the 2.



Having said that, if your wanting to game at 1080P, you'd want a more powerful GPU ideally anyway.

 

[windo7]

Thank you very much for all those suggestions.

Yes I do not play computer games anymore, so I guess many of you are right about me not needing the 1gb. I will check out the Ati's that you guys mentioned as well.

Right now I have a GT240 and a 9500GT in ebay. Though I dont think the GT240 would go for my price range, I'm hopeful. I'm only wondering about the amperage there because it requires 18A on a 350W PSU. What I have is a 400W, with a 16A PSU.

I really dont want to upgrade the power supply just for a graphics card. Though newer PSU's seem more energy efficient than mine Besides, the machine itself is 3 years old and I'm just trying to get it to run 2 more, maybe 3.

 

[windo7]

The HD 4670 you guys recommended, seems to be around 50euros. The 4650 goes from 40 to 50 and the 3650 isnt really that much cheaper than the 4650.

I've put a HD4650 in my ebay to see how it goes. I'll bid if its under 40. Wish I was in the US, everything seems to be so much cheaper! hahaha

 

[pparks1]

If you don't play games, then 512mb is perfectly sufficient for your requirements.

Even if you do play games. I have a 9800GTX+ with 512MB of RAM and I play Crysis, Wolfenstein, Call of Duty World at war and I play at 1920x1080 and it's just fine as far as I am concerned.

 

[windo7]

yeah but I doubt I will, so I'll just stick to the cheaper 512mb.

What do you think about the geforce gt240 on my 400W,16A pc? I only read good things about that card. Except some people say it crashes. with Windows XP. Though thats not my concern, I'm about to upgrade the OS anyway.

I used to have a GeForce FX5500 with 256mb RAM on a barebone PC I had. I tried Far Cry with that once but, it was BAAAD. haha that was a long time ago

 

[ThePizzaMan]

hmmmmm it could work but then you run the risk of killing your gpu overtime

 

[windo7]

Really? I didnt know it would hurt the card. I thought as long as i had enough power it'd be ok, since the card only requires a 350w psu. Well i was tipping more towards the gt240 than the 9500gt. Thank you for your reply.

 

[stormy13]

hmmmmm it could work but then you run the risk of killing your gpu overtime

Or anything else that the power supply is connected to if it isn't strong enough and up and dies. The cheaper ones have a bad habit of usually taking at least the motherboard and sometimes more (ram, video card, etc), when they blow out.

I thought as long as i had enough power it'd be ok, since the card only requires a 350w psu

One thing to remember is that not all power supplies are created equal. Just because it says 400W doesn't mean it is. Not saying yours is one of those (you didn't say what the make and model of it is) but this article here,

The Bargain Basement Power Supply Roundup Review

should give you an idea as to just how bad some PSU's are.

 

[windo7]

Thanks for your reply again. My psu is an Atx p400 p4. It has one 12v 16A. I read that somewhere else too, that not all are equal haha. Atx isnt those bad ones right? I know its not the mercedes of psu's.

I really want to fit the 240gt on it but i dont want to do something disasterously stupid. If the 9500gt is the safest way to go then i guess i'll have to stick with it.
They happen to be both 1gb by the way and i have only the next 12 hours to decide if i should bid or not.

 

[windo7]

Thanks for your reply again. My psu is an Atx p400 p4. It has one 12v 16A. I read that somewhere else too, that not all are equal haha. Atx isnt those bad ones right? I know its not the mercedes of psu's.

I really want to fit the 240gt on it but i dont want to do something disasterously stupid. If the 9500gt is the safest way to go then i guess i'll have to stick with it.
They happen to be both 1gb by the way and i have only the next 12 hours to decide if i should bid or not.