PC World Video Cards

TerrorFirmer

Keep an eye out in your local PC World for old generation video cards. Doesn't necessarily make them bad cards, plenty of the last generation are faster than their replacement cards in the current generation.

However, their pricing isn't great, so the old price may still be up - but if a cards not current gen, odds are it's heavily reduced.

Examples that I've seen (prices on shelve were entirely wrong, typically double to almost triple the sale price):

9800GT 512MB - 39.99
HD4650 512MB - 34.99
HD4670 1GB arctic cooled - 49.99
GTX260 896MB - 129.99

There are plenty of others but don't have prices for them all, and probably varies from store to store. At those prices, the above models are faster then the cards you'd get at the same price point by a very long shot in the current generation in PC World.

Dexterm99

Thanks OP. Did you notice any AGP cards there? Yes it's old I know...;)

TerrorFirmer

Yup actually, AGP 3650...

Dexterm99

Thanks again. I'll take a trip to my local one tomorrow.

ED E

Oooh, INTERESTING.

Notice any PCI(Not PCI-E) cards?

Thanks for the BA btw.

Jonny7

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Keep an eye out in your local PC World for old generation video cards. Doesn't necessarily make them bad cards, plenty of the last generation are faster than their replacement cards in the current generation.

However, their pricing isn't great, so the old price may still be up - but if a cards not current gen, odds are it's heavily reduced.

Examples that I've seen (prices on shelve were entirely wrong, typically double to almost triple the sale price):

9800GT 512MB - 39.99
HD4650 512MB - 34.99
HD4670 1GB arctic cooled - 49.99
GTX260 896MB - 129.99

There are plenty of others but don't have prices for them all, and probably varies from store to store. At those prices, the above models are faster then the cards you'd get at the same price point by a very long shot in the current generation in PC World.

The 9800GT is faster than the 4670, great little bargain there

GTX260 not so great, a 5770 from pixmania for 110 is better

Still, always good to see bricks and mortar drop their prices to realistic levels for 2 or even 3 year old cards

RobertFoster

Jonny7 wrote: »

The 9800GT is faster than the 4670, great little bargain there

Even considering the RAM difference?

mcgovern

I've a Dell Dual Core at home, rarely use it for gaming but picked up Crysis the other day, and can only (barely) run it with everything set on low. What would be the best card to get, the 9800GT? I've 3GB RAM and I think the current card is a Radeon X1300.
I guess one thing to note would be that the PC is always on,so one with a low energy consumption would be good.

shuyin1

mcgovern wrote: »

I've a Dell Dual Core at home, rarely use it for gaming but picked up Crysis the other day, and can only (barely) run it with everything set on low. What would be the best card to get, the 9800GT? I've 3GB RAM and I think the current card is a Radeon X1300.
I guess one thing to note would be that the PC is always on,so one with a low energy consumption would be good.

Cheapest and best option would be 9800gt. 4650/70 are very noisy under load but consume less power and wont require a 4pin power connecter.

Jonny7

RobertFoster wrote: »

Even considering the RAM difference?

Here goes..

The speed of graphics cards has little or nothing to do with onboard memory, however the makers have copped on to the fact that most buyers don't know this.

More memory is better for high resolution textures, but the engine of the card is whats really important..


4650, very entry level card last year, will run all games, but you'll have to choose lower settings to get it smooth on some bigger games.

4670, had one of these myself, again very entry level, but you can play crysis on this, albeit, not high settings, medium for smoothness

9800gt, old card, just a rebranded 8800GT, but about 10 to 20% faster than the 4670. New for 40 euros is good.
However.. with this card you start entering the power supply territory. The bogstandard 300 watt power supply you have in your Dell or HP computer will _just_ about power this card and it has to be connected to the power supply but a molex cable.

260GTX - old by now, eats a lot of power, a 300 watt cheapie power supply is a nono, you really have to have a 500+ watt for this one to be safe. Will run crysis buttery smooth on high settings, will only be limited if you have a crappy processor.

So to sum it up.. if you want to buy a graphics card - READ REVIEWS

Heres a handy chart..
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_5550/28.html

The 5550 is exactly the kinda card people get to play games, theres even a 2 gig version, but as you can see from the chart - its near bottom of the pile
(dude your x1300 would be less that 10% on that chart, I used to have one, can't believe you can even load crysis on it)

If you want a no nonsense card that just slots in and goes and can play games - get the ATI 4670, its small, doesn't require an extra power lead and just goes - can buy second hand on ebay for like 30 or 40 euros

If you want something with a bit more power, grab the 5670, still sucks v little power, have to plug it in but will go on a 300 watt power supply.

You could.. even.. get away with an ATI 5750.. (90 euros)

mcgovern

Thanks for the advice, I used to like building PCs but after spending a few hundred euro trying to fix one a few years ago, I gave up and stuck with Dells.
I should have a 500W PSU lying around, but its probably 5 years old.

Mountjoy Mugger

Worth upgrading a 2900Pro then?

Jonny7

But there's more... there's always more

If you get a quality 400 watt like a Corsair power supply it will kick the pants off a cheapie 550 watt. Its the efficiency and the 12v rail which is key. This rail powers the graphics card.

I'm not gonna get too into it, but power supplies are mainly for peace of mind, if you want to run a big thirsty quad core processor and a dual slot 470 GTX then yes you'll want to choose a quality PSU...

but..

if you have an old core2duo dell and wanna just play crysis.. then look for these in (speed slowest first to fastest)..

ati 4670 - 40 euro ebay 2nd hand
ati 5670 - 65ish 2nd hand, newer
nvidia 8800gt - just missed one for 25 euros from germany, 30 euro+ 2nd hand
ati 4770 (rare but plays battlefield bad company 2 smooth as butter on an old core2duo hp machine) - 50 euros

ati 5750 - not many second hand but 90 yoyos new, maybe pushing it a bit on a dell psu.. but pretty sure it would work fine and of course would play everything on 20 to 22 inch monitor

There is a special place in hell for the x1300 that dell sold in droves with its PCs, rip it out, get one of the above and game away to your hearts content

Jonny7

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

Worth upgrading a 2900Pro then?

They weren't good cards, very thirsty on the power too.

www.techpowerup.com is your friend, look at the reviews section, video cards.. they have a performance summary at the end of each review, you'll be able to see how it stacks up against everything else.. although the 2900 pro is so old not even sure if its there.

99% of all off-the-shelf PCs sold have absolutely cack graphics cards, if you stick to the above cards I listed, you can't go wrong. 35 euros is nothing and could get you a card easily 10 times faster than the "ultra gaming 8500GS" piece of crap in your machine. Surprisingly, manufacturers generally don't pull the same stunt with processors, which are usually very good and up-to-date at the time the PC was bought.

RobertFoster

Has anyone seen any of these cards in a Dublin PC World? They didn't have any that I could see in Airside or Blanchardstown.

ED E

Gonna try Jervis later. Will report back.

Dublin_Gunner

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

Gonna try Jervis later. Will report back.

Yeah Jervis usually have a few stashed on the shelves down the back near their awful tech guru or whatever-they-call-themselves-repair-people.

ED E

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Yeah Jervis usually have a few stashed on the shelves down the back near their awful tech guru or whatever-they-call-themselves-repair-people.

Place was Jammers. Asked a guy, who asked another chap, who said they didn't do them there, which TBH was predictable with the size of the store. Forgot just how small it is.

If its not freezing I might take a spin out to another branch tomorrow.

TerrorFirmer

Just to mention, obviously if you shop online, these prices aren't overly spectacular, though prices on the 4670 and 9800gt are excellent for a retail store. 9800GT is faster, also doesn't necessarily draw much more power, from buying one, I can confirm they're the eco cards, powered entirely from the pci-e lane....though some aren't, so it's 50/50 on whether or not you'd get the 6-pin version. Bought 2 awhile ago and 1 was eco, other wasn't, external boxes were identical so the pc world lads obviously just see '9800gt' and throw whatevers to hand into the box, they're obviously the same sku or whatever, just happens to be a revised edition under the same code.

The 4670 is the arctic cooled edition which is good. onboard hdmi as well.

Either the 4650 or 4670 would be a massive step up from something as ancient as an X1300! Back in 2006 that was bargain basement stuff....:)

4650/4670 are very low power consumption relatively speaking, would be fine on a dell psu for sure, 9800gt would also be ok but pushing it.

Didn't check today what was left today but all the ones listed in my original post were there yesterday when i checked.

If anyone is interested, I have an old xfx HD5550 1GB vga/dvi/hdmi lying around, it's not exactly a crysis slayer, though it's good for older titles like Cod4 and so on at high settings, I was going to flog it off the about 30 euro.

Sgt Pepper 64

I'm looking to replace my 8800 GTS, but I think it still beats most of the cards mentioned. Be nice to get a quieter dx11 card

TerrorFirmer

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

I'm looking to replace my 8800 GTS, but I think it still beats most of the cards mentioned. Be nice to get a quieter dx11 card

The 512mb one or the older 320/640? GTX260 is still considerably faster than any of them, regardless...

Sgt Pepper 64

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

The 512mb one or the older 320/640? GTX260 is still considerably faster than any of them, regardless...

Older 320, is the gtx260 dx11, and quiet and cool?

Rsaeire

I must say, I'm surprised to read that PC World have such great offers on graphics cards as I saw some extortionately high prices on the graphics card in their Liffey Valley branch today. For example, they had an ATI Radeon HD 5770 for €244.99 and an ATI Radeon HD 3650 on "sale" for €79.99. Considering I bought a 3650 from Komplett two and a half years ago for just over €60 shows that their "sale" is anything but.

Jonny7

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Older 320, is the gtx260 dx11, and quiet and cool?

Get the ATI 5770, approx same speed, but cooler, quieter and draws a lot less power - 110 euros new

TerrorFirmer

Rsaeire wrote: »

I must say, I'm surprised to read that PC World have such great offers on graphics cards as I saw some extortionately high prices on the graphics card in their Liffey Valley branch today. For example, they had an ATI Radeon HD 5770 for €244.99 and an ATI Radeon HD 3650 on "sale" for €79.99. Considering I bought a 3650 from Komplett two and a half years ago for just over €60 shows that their "sale" is anything but.

maplin have a 5770 for 149 new at the moment which is decent for retail store. pc world prices are normally terrible but its when you catch the clearance stuff it becomes interesting. i would never nor ever advise anyone to go in there looking for a current-gen gpu.

Rsaeire

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

maplin have a 5770 for 149 new at the moment which is decent for retail store. pc world prices are normally terrible but its when you catch the clearance stuff it becomes interesting. i would never nor ever advise anyone to go in there looking for a current-gen gpu.

I agree with you there. PC World never come to mind as being remotely competitive when it comes to computer components. Thankfully their clearance items are great value, so I'll have to keep an eye on out for them in future when looking for a good bargain.

zod

pcTVworld sell PC parts now

TerrorFirmer

zod wrote: »

pcTVworld sell PC parts now

they always have? they've always sold gpus/cpus/mobos/ram/coolers/cases/psus/fans etc for as long as i can remember

revz

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

they always have? they've always sold gpus/cpus/mobos/ram/coolers/cases/psus/fans etc for as long as i can remember

TerrorFirmer

revz wrote: »

well, earlier someone did mention that some branches don't sell components, i suppose for some of them, it's a straight up hp/acer/dell purchase point....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7llLFbV97bs

Dublin_Gunner

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

Place was Jammers. Asked a guy, who asked another chap, who said they didn't do them there, which TBH was predictable with the size of the store. Forgot just how small it is.

If its not freezing I might take a spin out to another branch tomorrow.

I can tell you, they definitely do sell GPUs/PSUs etc etc there.

Goes to show you the quality of staff they have in these places :rolleyes:

When you go in, go to the right, and straight down the end. Usually on the shelves there. I've yet to go in (not that I'm there that often) and not see any GPU's.

I remember going in there once, and a random old guy was asking me about external DVD burners. He had an old PC, and the manager in the shop (PC World Liffey Valley) told him that a USB2 burner wouldn't work in his USB1 ports...

(obviously it does, it just can't transfer any faster than USB 1 when connected to it).

TerrorFirmer

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

I can tell you, they definitely do sell GPUs/PSUs etc etc there.

Goes to show you the quality of staff they have in these places :rolleyes:

When you go in, go to the right, and straight down the end. Usually on the shelves there. I've yet to go in (not that I'm there that often) and not see any GPU's.

I remember going in there once, and a random old guy was asking me about external DVD burners. He had an old PC, and the manager in the shop (PC World Liffey Valley) told him that a USB2 burner wouldn't work in his USB1 ports...

(obviously it does, it just can't transfer any faster than USB 1 when connected to it).

i actually don't really mind generally that the staff know nothing. after all, i guess you can't expect minimum wage staff to be gurus when it comes to whatever it is they're selling, even if there are exceptions, but what i cannot stand is, instead of saying 'i'm not sure, i'll ask someone else/check google/whatever', this random ' ah yeah, of course it will/won't' when you're asking a question that clearly they know nothing about.

ch750536

I've been removed from PC world 3 times for correcting staff. On one occasion a guy was told he had invalidated his printer warranty by changing the ink cartridge. That was by someone that did know better.

Sgt Pepper 64

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

is the gtx260 dx11

GTX260 is not DX11