$70 fixup budget

neckneck

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Oct 19, 2012
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So my friend and i play all these games. However my computer is far beyond his so he will be playing at like 10 fps lowest settings while i play at 100+ max. He has a $70 dollar budget, but all he really is looking for is mid-high settings at around 30-40 fps. He needs a new cpu, motherboard, and gpu. His current cpu is a amd e-cpu something along those lines. And his current gpu is the gpu that comes with the cpu. The motherboard is unknown. Does anyone know a cheap motherboard that could fit maybe a pentium cpu? Also i forget but which pentium is the good gaming ones again? the g5 or something like that? i forget i havent looked for computer parts in ages. Also if he gets a cheap pentium ($15-20 last time i check) and a cheap motherboard that can support a pentium ($?) Im guessing he would have like 40 dollars left for a gpu. Any suggestions?
 
With $70 you would only be able to get a cheap video card. That is probably your best route and should give you better performance in games since you say he is using on-board video. Just make sure it is compatible with his board and psu. Getting a decent "cheap" cpu and motherboard would run you at least about $100 alone.
 
hey there... its a really really tight budget you got there... here is what i could find... I believe you cant get anything cheaper than those if you actually want to play with 30-40fps
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Celeron G530 2.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($43.30 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H61M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Galaxy GeForce GT 610 1GB Video Card ($28.57 @ Newegg)
Total: $116.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-13 02:40 EDT-0400)

good luck... seriously :)
 
A word of warning, because it sounds like your friend may have an AMD E-series APU (E-240, E-300, E-350 or E-450). The CPU portion of that chip would hold back even the weakest graphics cards, and they wouldn't perform any better than the onboard Radeon 6310/20. I would definitely double-check the hardware in his computer before upgrading just the graphics card.

I like the cheap Pentium, motherboard, and GPU approach, though $70 is just not enough if you want new parts. The Celeron G530 that n1ghtr4v3n recommended would not hold back a nicer graphics card than the lightweight GT 610, if you could find one (perhaps a used model) at a decent price.