Originally posted by TheScavenger Can you recommend any graphics cards that are in the 150 dollar range? Mine one that looks to be dead is a Geforce 260GTX 896MB...but any out there in that price range, that are better? Mine was like 500 when I got it, but with how fast PC hardware ages...my dad imagines I can get something better than my current one, but cheaper. If that makes sense.
The GeForce GTX 260 was something like $450 at launch, and then $300 two months later when AMD launched the Radeon HD 4870 and it was better than most people expected. And it was under $150 a year later after AMD started a price war and Nvidia had to sell probably at a loss to clear inventory.
Anyway, the nearest modern equivalents are a GeForce GTX 650 or a Radeon HD 7750, either of which are around $100. On a strict $150 budget, I'd go with a Radeon HD 7790:
I sent those two links to my dad, so I'll see what he thinks. It isn't a strict 150 dollar balance, but some 20-30 dollars less/more probably doesn't matter. He did looking around as well and linked me this early in the morning.
That one looks pretty cheap and would be a huge upgrade to my dead one. Gets good reviews as well. However it take a week or two to save up money for it. Even a 150 dollar card or a bit cheaper one, would still take the same amount of time to save for...so the price doesn't matter too much. But I don't think my dad would want to go past 200 dollars or more, as that is slightly past our income. But that card on amazon is a really good price for what I'd get. And like I said, way better than what I had. Do you know anything about it by chance?
It is definitely the graphics card though. When one gets lines and red dots at boot up, that is a bad graphics card from what my dad read up on it.
At least I get an upgrade out of it ;p and a new power supply.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
While it would be easy to have software create lines and red dots if you wanted to, if it does that when it's not supposed to, then yeah, that usually means the video card is dying.
That's too much to pay for that particular card. That's a lot more expensive than the Radeon HD 7850 that I linked earlier: $26.60 before rebate or $31.60 after rebate. And the Radeon HD 7850 is a faster card, too.
If it's video memory capacity that you're looking at, then you should be aware that the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost mismatches the memory channels. It should have been a 1.5 GB card, as if you use more than that, you lose memory bandwidth. But AMD had a 2 GB version of the Radeon HD 7850, so Nvidia stuck an extra 512 MB on their card for reasons of marketing rather than engineering.
And if you are willing to pay more for a faster card with more video memory, then a 2 GB version of a Radeon HD 7870 is the way to go:
That's a much faster card, on top of letting you use the full 2 GB of video memory.
You should realize that the only real advantage of 2 GB of video memory rather than 1 GB is that it will let you use higher resolution textures in games with a high resolution texture pack.
Comments
The GeForce GTX 260 was something like $450 at launch, and then $300 two months later when AMD launched the Radeon HD 4870 and it was better than most people expected. And it was under $150 a year later after AMD started a price war and Nvidia had to sell probably at a loss to clear inventory.
Anyway, the nearest modern equivalents are a GeForce GTX 650 or a Radeon HD 7750, either of which are around $100. On a strict $150 budget, I'd go with a Radeon HD 7790:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161434
If you're willing to go a few dollars over that budget, you can get a Radeon HD 7850, which would roughly double the performance of your old card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004
I sent those two links to my dad, so I'll see what he thinks. It isn't a strict 150 dollar balance, but some 20-30 dollars less/more probably doesn't matter. He did looking around as well and linked me this early in the morning.
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GTX650Ti-SuperClocked-Dual-Link-Graphics/dp/B00BZB0I3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369060851&sr=8-1&keywords=GTX+650+Ti+BOOST+2GB+192-bit
That one looks pretty cheap and would be a huge upgrade to my dead one. Gets good reviews as well. However it take a week or two to save up money for it. Even a 150 dollar card or a bit cheaper one, would still take the same amount of time to save for...so the price doesn't matter too much. But I don't think my dad would want to go past 200 dollars or more, as that is slightly past our income. But that card on amazon is a really good price for what I'd get. And like I said, way better than what I had. Do you know anything about it by chance?
It is definitely the graphics card though. When one gets lines and red dots at boot up, that is a bad graphics card from what my dad read up on it.
At least I get an upgrade out of it ;p and a new power supply.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
While it would be easy to have software create lines and red dots if you wanted to, if it does that when it's not supposed to, then yeah, that usually means the video card is dying.
That's too much to pay for that particular card. That's a lot more expensive than the Radeon HD 7850 that I linked earlier: $26.60 before rebate or $31.60 after rebate. And the Radeon HD 7850 is a faster card, too.
If it's video memory capacity that you're looking at, then you should be aware that the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost mismatches the memory channels. It should have been a 1.5 GB card, as if you use more than that, you lose memory bandwidth. But AMD had a 2 GB version of the Radeon HD 7850, so Nvidia stuck an extra 512 MB on their card for reasons of marketing rather than engineering.
And if you are willing to pay more for a faster card with more video memory, then a 2 GB version of a Radeon HD 7870 is the way to go:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025
That's a much faster card, on top of letting you use the full 2 GB of video memory.
You should realize that the only real advantage of 2 GB of video memory rather than 1 GB is that it will let you use higher resolution textures in games with a high resolution texture pack.