New Graphic card? advice wanted!

evil-yoda

so i got money got money for christmas, with which i intend to buy a decent graphic card, specifically for gaming. i have about 200 euro to spend. however my PC is kinda old, not sure of the exact specs. I was thinking about getting the Nvidia geforce gtx 465 ir AMD radeon hd 6850.
has anyone any advice? opinions?

Zero-Cool

id say the lads in the Graphics Cards forums would be able to give ya the best advice:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=596

evil-yoda

ah i didnt find that fourm! thanks

Jonny7

What size monitor do you have? whats the resolution you will be gaming with?

What about your power supply unit, what model and how many watts is it?

Keep in mind as well that the CPU and system, if they are old, can bottleneck, esp. powerful cards like the 460 and 6850

evil-yoda

Jonny7 wrote: »

What size monitor do you have? whats the resolution you will be gaming with?

What about your power supply unit, what model and how many watts is it?

Keep in mind as well that the CPU and system, if they are old, can bottleneck, esp. powerful cards like the 460 and 6850

not quite sure... my father will be looking at the real technical stuff, hes the expert. I just thought i';d ask here
I can tell you that my machine is a Dell optiplex 745, pentium D i think as well

I'm a newbie at this

Jonny7

Then dude.. pentium D.. think you are pretty screwed..

There is an optiplex with a slow core2duo and I think that one is about the best

Also, if you have the slimline model (the extra narrow one) then .. thats also not good

Basically, if you did actually somehow manage to get the GTX460 into one of those and hooked up, it'd be like sticking a Ferrari engine into a fiat.. it would just .. not work

When you come back with the tech specs and whether its slimline or normal (i.e. can fit a normal card) then we can give you some possible options

Otherwise it looks like you'll have to magically turn that 200 quid into 300.. and get something from adverts.ie or an ultra budget gaming PC (and no those ones you are looking at on ebay right now for 287 euros buy it now are _NOT_ gaming pcs)

evil-yoda

its a normal one, not slimline.

Jonny7

okay, find out the processor

do you have an icon on your PC called "my computer"?

right click on that and choose properties..

what does it say? it tells you how much ram you have as well..

evil-yoda

right here we go
Processor= intel pentium d 2.8 ghz
Ram= 4.00 gb
64 bit operating system

Gonzovision

AMD 6870 is a great card.

Jonny7

Ouch, the best you can do in your situation is to pick up the ATI 4670 graphics card

It doesn't require any power cables to be plugged into it from the PSU (on most models).. and it will run with older 300 watt PSU's (I know I've had one for over 2 years and it runs in just about anything) - about 65 euros new, 30 to 40 euros secondhand on ebay

Then you could run games, like world of warcraft, but the newer ones within the last 2 or 3 years, some will require you run them on low settings and even then some will be jerky (you won't get GTA running on that and the latest Call of Dutys will have a very tough time)



Thats the best you can do..

Or

you could wait till something comes along on adverts.ie, a core2duo PC with a 8800GT(X) perhaps.. about 200 euros

Or

just save.. budget unbuilt PC's from germany start at 300ish minimum.

Right now, AMD processors are insane value, ram is very cheap.. the biggest cash outlet is the graphics card and the operating system.

evil-yoda

thanks guys
I think i'll save for a decent PC
So I'll be able to get the thing about May. being a poor student sucks.
I'll just sell some of my guitar amps!

evil-yoda

ok, trying to decide what to save for... theres a nice PC for 499.99, with a AMD Athlon II X3 440 processor. Would that be enough for games? and enough to run the Nvidia and AMD i mentioned earlier if required?
Like i said, i'm new to this

Jonny7

Most prebuilt PC makers (dell, hp, whatever) put a nice chip in their machine and the standard 4 gigs of ram and 1tb harddrive... (fine for internet, browsing, media)

...unfortunately for us they save on the motherboard, power supply, case and crucially.. the graphics card - because they know most buyers won't have much of a clue

I strongly suggest that when you have the cash, you go to the 'building and upgrading' section on these boards and post up your budget and we'll spec a capable budget gaming machine that'll last you.

SeantheMan

Have a look on adverts.ie, usually some good deals on there , else I'd try the tech forum

Failing that, submit a budget and requirement to the forum, some of the peeps im sure will help you out with pricing of parts so you can build your own. May seem a daunting task, but it really is quite easy

L31mr0d

Big +1 for adverts.ie. It's a member site of boards so you can log in with your boards.ie username and password.

Most of the custom built desktops for sale on there are really good value and built well. If they aren't there are enough people asking the right kinds of questions to weed out the scams.

It's like this forum, but you end up with a killer piece of kit at the end of it. WIN!

chrabo

i get radeon 6870 nice and fast card. SAY NO to nvida

Skerries

as most people are saying the 2 main choices of cards to get are the GTX 460 or the AMD 6870, these will see you gaming for years
but not in your current spec, so if you can get together about €600 then you will be able to build a good gaming pc that will be way better than a €1000 Dell pc

evil-yoda

ok thanks! I'll let you know when i've saved enough