Upgrade: EVGA 450 GTS to EVGA 740 GT

ICIT2LOL said:

Yep well not wanting to get too far off topic that's ok for the UK folks but I cannot understand why Amazon does not have a site out here, because I reckon it would do well because of the lack of sites with realistic prices.

Bezos' will most likely start opening more sites in other countries sooner rather than later, he's just focusing on US domination at the moment. He's putting more warehouses across the US to speed up shipping and he's invested a lot in new robotics for the warehouses to speed things up, and then on top of that he's still trying to get his drone plans off the ground (no pun intended). He's more concerned about domination than profit at the moment, in fact from what I've heard he's not worth as much as many would think since he sinks so much of what is made back into the business and on top of that, a lot of the items sold on Amazon are just slightly above cost.

As for GPU's, I just was hit with another car issue, so now I really have to go cheap when it comes to fixing this green pixel issue. Since I already tried a new monitor and a new dvi cable, I figured the smart thing to do is to get that 740 GT but I probably waited too long and the sale is probably over.

ICIT2LOL said:

Guess it is worth a try to get the card and I think most stores if they are any good usually will see the predicament and help out - they can only say no and at best yes

I'm not worried about New Egg's return policy, it isn't bad. One just has to log into their account, request an RMA, print out the self addressed stamp and send the item back.

My two concerns.

1. The 740 won't fix the green pixel issue (its the last thing I have left to try since I already swapped out the monitor, purged and re-installed the drivers, and tried a new DVI cable).

2. The 740 will fix the green pixel issue but open the door to a new issue.

Even if the GPU doesn't fix the green pixels, if it works and I see an improvement over the 450, I'm going to keep it. However, if it doesn't fix the green pixels, I'm out of ideas. I called the tech shop who built the pc, they said they'd have first tried replacing the GPU, then the monitor and then the DVI cable, so I went backwards. However, since the problem first started a few months back, they said it was the GPU. They actually seemed shocked that I was still using the 450 they put in the computer 5 years ago.

GTX 1050 is a decent card as far as I know, the direct replacement for the 750. Should be considerably better than a GTS450.

The *50 series cards are often a fair bit better than the *40 counterparts as they seem to jump from casual/multimedia to low-midrange gaming. If you're buying an older card like the 750 or 650, then I'd go for a refurb, if you're buying new then just get the 1050!

As for the computer shop that said they'd change the GPU first... nope. In-house troubleshooting they might do it with a known working card, but at home you should always go for the cheapest options first, if it had been the cable at fault and you bought a new GPU you'd be pretty pissed off... plus it's normally easier to get a refund on a cable!

joedaman633 said:

If it had been the cable at fault and you bought a new GPU you'd be pretty pissed off... plus it's normally easier to get a refund on a cable!

That's a good point. This specific shop has tons of GPU's sitting around that they've tested and know that work.

As for going refurb with the 750, the only retailer I came across that I trust that had refurb 750's is New Egg but I found out today that on gpu's, at least the ones I looked at on their site, they have a strict replacement only return policy. In short, if it isn't the GPU causing the issue, I'd be stuck with a refurb 750. I'd prefer to get the 1050 since its less expensive but the sites I came across didn't have the I5 2300 listed as a CPU it works with. Those same sites did say the 750 will work with the I5 2300.

I still have a few days until two refunds are transferred back to my bank account before I can order a new GPU, so I'm hoping someone can help me figure out if I can run the 1050 with the I5 2300. To be exact, its the I5 2300 2.8 Sandy bridge, but I'm pretty sure it says that in my specs. The other thing I'm curious about is the difference between GPU's that have to be connected to the PSU and those that don't. Do the ones that don't need to be connected to the PSU tax the CPU more?