Video Cards
- Thread starter LaBlallin
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Try Craigslist or something, maybe even ebay. You don't necessarily have to buy new, I didn't check ebay prices but you might be able to save yourself a good chunk of change. Maybe check a local computer shop and see if they have refurbished parts, they're usually priced well too.LaBlallin said:
I like this chart: http://www.nvidia.com/object/graphics_cards_buy_now.html
Didn't know it existed.
GTX 470 should do for you
http://www.nvidia.com/object/buy_now_results_ci.html?id=GFGTX470
BUT: Do you have PCI Express 2.0? Is your CPU 2.8GHz+? Otherwise, these will be the bottleneck, as the new cards do their work fast, thus would be useless if it will need to wait on other components.
Didn't know it existed.
GTX 470 should do for you
http://www.nvidia.com/object/buy_now_results_ci.html?id=GFGTX470
BUT: Do you have PCI Express 2.0? Is your CPU 2.8GHz+? Otherwise, these will be the bottleneck, as the new cards do their work fast, thus would be useless if it will need to wait on other components.
CPU: Computer->right mouse button->properties. Look for the GHz or MHz numbers there.
PCIe: Download GPU-Z, run it, hover over "Bus Interface" value box (where it says "PCE-E x16" or something). A tooltip will show up telling you what your motherboard supports and what you are running at the bottom of it.
EDIT: To be more exact, you could run CPU-Z instead and just post screenshots of all tabs of it so that the performance of the computer is clear to us.
PCIe: Download GPU-Z, run it, hover over "Bus Interface" value box (where it says "PCE-E x16" or something). A tooltip will show up telling you what your motherboard supports and what you are running at the bottom of it.
EDIT: To be more exact, you could run CPU-Z instead and just post screenshots of all tabs of it so that the performance of the computer is clear to us.
I used to have a similar problem and upgraded to an ATI 5850, but it turns out the reason why my comp was failing was due to memory bandwidth.
I use an ATI Radeon HD5770 that I bought for about $100 off Ebay a year or so back. I don't know about Just Cause 2, because I'm still running XP, but it runs Mass Effect 2, Crysis, Bad Company 2 and all Valve games at 60fps on the highest settings.
And if you're looking for something more expensive, you could always buy two 5770s and crossfire them, if you power supply and motherboard can handle it.
And if you're looking for something more expensive, you could always buy two 5770s and crossfire them, if you power supply and motherboard can handle it.
True, I feel you, but I think local shops with refurbished stuff are safe bets. At my local mac shop, they treat all their customers like kings, I much prefer them over the apple store actually. They take in comps, refurbish them and sell them, and my dad bought a macbook pro. The hinge started breaking (which apple is notorious for that) and he brought it back and they fixed it for free. There was no warranty on it left or anything, but they just care about maintaining customers, rather than hiring young hipsters to sell their products.gl1koz3 said:
So IMO, go to a local shop, but gl1koz3 is right, sometimes you don't want used/discounted electronics if you can't return it or have some sort of guarantee.