Advice needed re: graphics card

starnight_2

HI

My likes playing games on the pc, it is a good few years old and some of the newer games are lagging. I'm looking to replace the graphics card and operating system (still currently on vista). Processor is AMD Athlon II x 4 640.

The current graphics card is nvidia geforce 7025/nforce 630a. I am obviously looking for a card that can handle games, ds mostly plays on steam, but I do have a limited budget, probably no more than £300.

Does anyone have any recommendations/advice?

GunJack

can pick up a Radeon HD7770 for around £70-£80 (ebuyer, dabs, etc) and you may need to allow an extra £15-20 for a bigger psu.

your gfx benchmark = 24

radeon 7770 = 2155

so you should see a big difference without getting into silly money

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

Cycrow

is £300 the budget just for the graphics card ? as that will get you all but the top of the range GPU's.

what kind of games is it for thou ?
as that would depend what card you would need.
also, what type of monitor does the pc have, ie, what res does it run at?

i would suggest something like an NVIDIA GTX760, which will cost around £200, these would handle pretty much any game without too much trouble.

If you want to save abit of money, the GTX660 can be had for about £150 (or cheaper if you can find one second hand)

GunJack

cpu should be fine as-is, got enough oomph

GunJack

it does depend on what you want to play, but a Radeon HD7660D (onboard, part of APU family series) will play CoD:Ghosts at normal resolution fine...depends how silly money you want to go to...

poppellerant

Please don't buy a cheap PSU for £20! If you're spending £300 on a graphic card, buy yourself a bit of insurance and get a good PSU which is far less likely to take out any of your other PC components if it dies/explodes.

On top of that, very rarely do cheap PSUs deliver their full advertised power. So thinking you've bought (for example) a £20 500w PSU, you try to draw 500w from it - if it does, it won't do it efficiently and it's not likely to last long.

Of course some people might say how their £10 1000w PSU has lasted them for years. That's probably because it's never been fully loaded.

I'll leave you with these links for your consideration:
[url="http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/low-cost-psu-pc-power-supply,review-32182.html]Don't Be Surprised When Your Cheap PSU Blows Up[/url]
[url="http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/How-Much-Power-Can-a-Generic-500-W-Power-Supply-Really-Deliver/534/]How Much Power Can a Generic 500 W Power Supply Really Deliver?[/url]

Nilrem

I'd definitely second the don'y spend £20 on a PSU, that actually had me wincing, as after the store profit and shipping costs you'd be looking at something put together for a couple of quid, the heatsink, wiring and physical connectors on a good PSU would cost more than that.

If you need a new PSU buy a reasonable quality brand and expect to pay about £50 for a £500 watt unit (I paid about £95 for a very good quality 650 one).

almillar

Agree with popellerant. I've personally seen PSUs fail, and they absolutely can take out other hardware. Bad value overall, and a ticking time bomb, especially if you're going to connect it to quite demanding hardware, which you are.

starnight_2

Thanks everyone

The psu was replaced last year as it failed, but thankfully everything else was ok.