Video Card for Under $120

[Koroviev]

I'm looking to buy a new video card for the stated price of under $120. I don't have a quad core, so I'm not really looking to play the most recent releases. I'm just looking to find the best card for the money. In terms of games, I'd like to be able to play the STALKER games and Bastion on decent settings. (Bastion runs at 60 fps now on medium settings, but the fps drop quite noticeably whenever there are weather effects).

Here are my current specs:

Operating system: MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250
RAM: 4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 533MHz
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series (VISIONTEK)

I am not exactly a hardware expert, so any advice on the matter would be much appreciated!

 

[Baneat]

Might want to list your old PSU

 

[Koroviev]

Might want to list your old PSU

Yeah, how do I find that out? I feel like an idiot haha

 

[Baneat]

Might want to list your old PSU

Yeah, how do I find that out? I feel like an idiot haha

Just gonna have to look at it and read what's written on it.

 

[Koroviev]

Might want to list your old PSU

Yeah, how do I find that out? I feel like an idiot haha

Just gonna have to look at it and read what's written on it.

Look at what? There is just a power cord connecting the PC to the power strip. Is it inside the PC? <_<

Help me for I am ignorant...

Edit: I don't know if this is relevant, but here's what I found:

CPU CORE 2.160 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 2.160 V
+3.3V 2.160 V
+5V 5.107 V
+12V 4.736 V
CMOS BATTERY 3.120 V

 

[Baneat]

Might want to list your old PSU

Yeah, how do I find that out? I feel like an idiot haha

Just gonna have to look at it and read what's written on it.

Look at what? There is just a power cord connecting the PC to the power strip. Is it inside the PC? <_<

Help me for I am ignorant...

Edit: I don't know if this is relevant, but here's what I found:

CPU CORE 2.160 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 2.160 V
+3.3V 2.160 V
+5V 5.107 V
+12V 4.736 V
CMOS BATTERY 3.120 V

The power cord goes into a box (That's inside the PC) - there should be writing on that box (Which is about half a foot cube). You're looking for the power rating, which is in Watts. The information you provided I think can be used to figure out your PSU's suitability, but I'll admit I don't know how to work with the power rails, just estimate from the overall wattage.

Open the side of the case, look where the power cable's ending up and note anything written on that box. That'll help with figuring out if you'd need a new one to run a better card.

+ in terms of which card to buy, if you're in the US just go to newegg.com and look around the price you're willing to pay, they should all be equally good around that level, but you can type (Card name vs Card name) in google to compare their performances to be sure.

And I'm told you should ignore the mail-in rebate when considering the price, it's apparently a lot of bother.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102898

Is a decent, $120 card

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Can't the 5770 be put into crossfire?

 

[Baneat]

Can't the 5770 be put into crossfire?

Pretty sure you can xfire 2 5770's, however I heard it's only viable price-wise if you already own one, else you can get better performance for less money using a single, better card.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Can't the 5770 be put into crossfire?

Pretty sure you can xfire 2 5770's, however I heard it's only viable price-wise if you already own one, else you can get better performance for less money using a single, better card.

Well, I'm planning for a gaming rig, and I want to know which would work better. Would it be better to go for a single 5870, or a cheaper 5770 that I could put into xfire later?

 

[Koroviev]

Might want to list your old PSU

Yeah, how do I find that out? I feel like an idiot haha

Just gonna have to look at it and read what's written on it.

Look at what? There is just a power cord connecting the PC to the power strip. Is it inside the PC? <_<

Help me for I am ignorant...

Edit: I don't know if this is relevant, but here's what I found:

CPU CORE 2.160 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 2.160 V
+3.3V 2.160 V
+5V 5.107 V
+12V 4.736 V
CMOS BATTERY 3.120 V

The power cord goes into a box (That's inside the PC) - there should be writing on that box (Which is about half a foot cube). You're looking for the power rating, which is in Watts. The information you provided I think can be used to figure out your PSU's suitability, but I'll admit I don't know how to work with the power rails, just estimate from the overall wattage.

Open the side of the case, look where the power cable's ending up and note anything written on that box. That'll help with figuring out if you'd need a new one to run a better card.

+ in terms of which card to buy, if you're in the US just go to newegg.com and look around the price you're willing to pay, they should all be equally good around that level, but you can type (Card name vs Card name) in google to compare their performances to be sure.

And I'm told you should ignore the mail-in rebate when considering the price, it's apparently a lot of bother.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102898

Is a decent, $120 card

Uh, I'll just focus on the cards for the moment. Thank you for informing me, though!

 

[Baneat]

Can't the 5770 be put into crossfire?

Pretty sure you can xfire 2 5770's, however I heard it's only viable price-wise if you already own one, else you can get better performance for less money using a single, better card.

Well, I'm planning for a gaming rig, and I want to know which would work better. Would it be better to go for a single 5870, or a cheaper 5770 that I could put into xfire later?

This depends entirely on what level you want your rig to be at most of the time. Buying 5870-level cards is the "I want to run high-very high on most games I play, barring the Crysises of my time",

5770 is "I want to run medium-high most of the time" level gaming.

What one are you looking at?

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Can't the 5770 be put into crossfire?

Pretty sure you can xfire 2 5770's, however I heard it's only viable price-wise if you already own one, else you can get better performance for less money using a single, better card.

Well, I'm planning for a gaming rig, and I want to know which would work better. Would it be better to go for a single 5870, or a cheaper 5770 that I could put into xfire later?

get a 5870 for now, then get a second one later

there is no point in starting at 5770 in your case, if you crossfire the capabilities of both are only as good as your worst card (i have two 5770's in crossfire right now, they are amazing but i would definitely trade up for a 5870 if i had the money.)



OT: OP i would get a radeon HD 5770, or if you are really tight on PSU/money options, go for the green radeon HD 5670's, where they don't even require a plugin from the PSU because they are so efficient (they work nice, put one into my grandparents rig and it's been workin like a boss.)

 

[Baneat]

Uh, I'll just focus on the cards for the moment. Thank you for informing me, though!

Bear in mind if you put a 5770 in your system and you have a piece-of-shit PSU rated for very shit cards and low-power components, it's not going to run properly. You'd have to gimp your GPU power or replace the PSU

However you could probably buy a better one if that happened anyway, and a single card in that price range doesn't draw enormous loads.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Can't the 5770 be put into crossfire?

Pretty sure you can xfire 2 5770's, however I heard it's only viable price-wise if you already own one, else you can get better performance for less money using a single, better card.

Well, I'm planning for a gaming rig, and I want to know which would work better. Would it be better to go for a single 5870, or a cheaper 5770 that I could put into xfire later?

This depends entirely on what level you want your rig to be at most of the time. Buying 5870-level cards is the "I want to run high-very high on most games I play, barring the Crysises of my time",

5770 is "I want to run medium-high most of the time" level gaming.

What one are you looking at?

Mostly I'm looking for "I want the Witcher 2 to have a steady framerate, but I won't touch Ubersampling".

Right now I'm working off of a laptop with a 4330 in it. Despite being two years old, I'm actually impressed at how well this card holds up. It runs Mass Effect 2 at about 25FPS on high at max screen resolution.

Also, to the OP, a Power Supply Unit is nowhere near as expensive as a GPU. You can get a good 700 Watt PSU for pretty damn cheap.

 

[Baneat]

Mostly I'm looking for "I want the Witcher 2 to have a steady framerate, but I won't touch Ubersampling".

Right now I'm working off of a laptop with a 4330 in it. Despite being two years old, I'm actually impressed at how well this card holds up. It runs Mass Effect 2 at about 25FPS on high at max screen resolution.

5870! my 5850 can do just about exactly that, high-very high with some AA and no ubersampling, playable rates. If you can afford to get a stock 6950 it's secretly just a 6970 with lowered clocks, which you can revert with some safe flashing (Safe because it actually has 2 BIOSes on the card, one which can be altered and a fixed, safe one). That gets you a very good card for the money. I wish I'd sprung for that instead of settling for a 5850, but it all depends on what you're spending.

 

[Koroviev]

Uh, I'll just focus on the cards for the moment. Thank you for informing me, though!

Bear in mind if you put a 5770 in your system and you have a piece-of-shit PSU rated for very shit cards and low-power components, it's not going to run properly. You'd have to gimp your GPU power or replace the PSU

However you could probably buy a better one if that happened anyway, and a single card in that price range doesn't draw enormous loads.

Yeah, a friend of mine installed my current card, so I'm thinking I'll ask him to take a look once I know what I want.

 

[FreakSheet]

I have a GTX 460, and it runs everything I toss at it (latest Deus Ex) pretty well, but its a bit over at around $140

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Mostly I'm looking for "I want the Witcher 2 to have a steady framerate, but I won't touch Ubersampling".

Right now I'm working off of a laptop with a 4330 in it. Despite being two years old, I'm actually impressed at how well this card holds up. It runs Mass Effect 2 at about 25FPS on high at max screen resolution.

5870! my 5850 can do just about exactly that, high-very high with some AA and no ubersampling, playable rates. If you can afford to get a stock 6950 it's secretly just a 6970 with lowered clocks, which you can revert with some safe flashing (Safe because it actually has 2 BIOSes on the card, one which can be altered and a fixed, safe one). That gets you a very good card for the money. I wish I'd sprung for that instead of settling for a 5850, but it all depends on what you're spending.

The 5870 is closer to my price range. I haven't checked out the 6000 series, but the 5000 cards have DX11 and are cheaper while still being really damn good.

 

[Baneat]

Mostly I'm looking for "I want the Witcher 2 to have a steady framerate, but I won't touch Ubersampling".

Right now I'm working off of a laptop with a 4330 in it. Despite being two years old, I'm actually impressed at how well this card holds up. It runs Mass Effect 2 at about 25FPS on high at max screen resolution.

5870! my 5850 can do just about exactly that, high-very high with some AA and no ubersampling, playable rates. If you can afford to get a stock 6950 it's secretly just a 6970 with lowered clocks, which you can revert with some safe flashing (Safe because it actually has 2 BIOSes on the card, one which can be altered and a fixed, safe one). That gets you a very good card for the money. I wish I'd sprung for that instead of settling for a 5850, but it all depends on what you're spending.

The 5870 is closer to my price range. I haven't checked out the 6000 series, but the 5000 cards have DX11 and are cheaper while still being really damn good.

Warning though some of the DX11 features like tesselation murder the card for no legitimate reason, especially considering what visual fidelity you're gaining from it. I can't run any game with tesselation also on. It's not that great a feature anyway.