Diablo 3 vid card advice, $80 budget

[lukaspriest]

Hello,

Just got a quadcore fx-4100 AMD setup with 8 gigs of DDR3 ram. I'm running an OCZ 650 watt psu. I'm looking for a cheap videocard that will play Diablo 3 at high res and decent performance. Does such a card exist at this pricepoint? I'm not worried about DX11 or playing more demanding games like Crysis 2...this is basically for a Diablo 3 dedicated rig. I've considered buying an old Galaxy gts 250 off of Amazon for 60 bucks; it seems to push better numbers than most of the cards I look up in the 80 dollar price range. Thoughts?



Edit: I really want to stick with Nvidia.....I don't care for the newer ATI/Radeon software...

Edit: OK, nevermind about sticking to Nvidia....I'm open to exploring Radeon products as well. I've heard good things about the 6670 card for a budget card (as recommended by the Tomshardware buyers guide)...

But then I come back to the question of if I should just get an old 250 gts....but then of course I have to put up with the much higher power draw and fan noise...

 

[rolli59]

You could get a GTS450 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127606
But either card will do fine in Diablo3

 

[vrumor]

Well you wouldnt fare much better with nvidia, theyve had some system breaking drivers in the past 3 or 4 months but to each their own.

 

[bobochez]

for an $80 budget I would 100% of the time go amd but your choice.

 

[jerubedo]

My honest recommendation, if you could swing $20 more, would be to go with the new Nvidia GT 640. It is Nvidia's triumphant return to good performance for the low-end GPUs. Previous to the GT 640 AMD had been dominating the under $100 price point, but this new GPU, which features the Kepler GK107 technology, looks great!


***Edit: Here is a link for it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127680

 

[vrumor]

The 640 isnt going to be a world beater at that price with 2 gb of 128 bit DDR3. If it were DDR5 then it would be a nice little card. There is a low profile DDR5 version of the 6670 for like $75 or so on Newegg that will outperform that 640.

 

[lukaspriest]

Thanks for all the replies, folks. A friend of mine had an unused Radeon 4870 lying around, so I was able to stick that in my build...for free! Diablo III is running smooth as silk....well, except for the stupid micro-stutters that seem to be plaguing everyone. Again, thanks for your help guys.

 

[Deemo13]

Good deal! The 4870 is a pretty good card, even by today's standards.

 

[lukaspriest]

Yeah, it's pretty righteous, I feel most fortunate! The thing runs crazy hot...when I first put it in, it was idling at like 75-80 degrees; it would get even hotter under load. I installed MSI afterburner, jacked up the idle fanspeed, and I'm now idling at about 58-60 C and going up to about 78 C or so under load.

 

[lukaspriest]

Best answer selected by lukaspriest.