Budget video cards

[zappp]

Hey everyone. I'm looking for a cheap ($50 or less) replacement video card. I've been running a radeon hd 4650 for several years and the fan is completely shot. it's starting to overheat and crash my system. For games I play New Vegas, Dues Ex, Bad Company, with fairly high settings, looking to get similar/slightly better performance, preferably something I can hold onto for a bit when I get a new motherboard. Current systems specs are below.

PSU: LOGISYS PS480D2
ATX12V
Maximum Power: 480W
Fans: 2
PFC: No
Main Connector: 20+4Pin
+12V Rails: Single
PCI-Express Connector: No
SATA Power Connector:2
SLI: No
Modular: No
Input Voltage: 100-120V/ 200-240V
Input Frequency Range: 50/60 Hz
Input Current: 10A/ 5A
Output: +3.3V@28A, +5V@36A, +12V@16A, -5V@0.5A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2.0A


Mother board: BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX

CPU: AMD Phenom 9600 2.3 quadcore

RAM: 8gb ddr2 1066

Soundcard: Creative xfi usb




Can't upgrade anything else at this point. I've been looking at the geforce gt 240 series. Newegg has a rebate deal on the 512mb ddr3 version, or I could skip the rebate and go for the ddr5. Any other suggestions?

 

[JDFan]

Anything you get at that price range is not going to offer any improvement over your 4650 so would be a waste of $ -- just get an aftermarket cooler for around $10 ( Like this one for example ) to replace the dying fan and save the other $40 toward a real upgrade card when you can save more $.

 

[jamx13]

Why not just replace the fan on the HD 4650?

 

[zappp]

Yeah, was leaning toward fan replacement but wanted to see if there was any "newer" cheapos on the market that would offer an improvement. So no real performance difference between a hd 4650 512mb ddr2 and a gt 240 512 ddr5? passmark ranks it a bit higher then my current card.

 

[JDFan]

Perhaps a small bit of improvement but not really noticeable and not worth a $50 investment if that is all you have -- best to replace the fan now and then save up enough to get a better GPU later that will give a noticeable improvement or a simultaneous CPU\GPU upgrade since that CPU is also going to hold back any further upgrade in the GPU.

 

[Archean]

If you push your budget up to 70$, you can get an HD 5670 which will offer some benefits, but that is about it. I am in agreement JD, replace the fan (hopefully your GPU will not have gotten damaged so far) and save the money for future system upgrade.

 

[zappp]

Ok cool, if it won't really be noticeable then the fan it is, thanks. i was looking into upgrading the cpu a while back but if i remember right the mobo had problems with higher end am3 chips. so it was the same issue as the gpu, just not worth it to upgrade. time to sell it as a cheap gaming rig on craigslist and start over lol.

 

[rickytrux11]

I cant understand the thing you want, a New Fan, A new GPU or a New CPU?