Graphics Card for under 250$

jekyl87

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Apr 27, 2010
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So I was set on getting the 5770 HAWK version, available here for approx 233$ along with buying 1gb of ram when I realised that my PSU might not be able to pull through. Below are my system specs:

Intel Dual Core 2180
iball PSU 400 W with 17A listed on single 12v rail - 2year old.
1 GB DDR2
1 DVD/RW drive
1 SATA 7200 RPM drive

now my budget is under 250$...I'll appreciate it greatly if I can get my needs fullfilled in under 200.

My requirements:
Gaming...I'd like to run most modern games with atleast a playable FPS
No more than 1400x900 resolution gaming....even 1280 will do.
No eyefinity or Dx 11 required ( especially if FPS drops on DX 11)

I can split my budget between a gfx card, ram and a PSU. But I think that my PSU would be able to handle the cheaper cards( under 100$ ones).

Please help.
 
Solution
That Iball PSU won't power those card. It has 17A on 12V rail but it won't be able to deliver that much for long time. these cheap PSU can damage other parts too, if they malfunction.

Are you an Indian?

I assume your budget is 11000 INR.

You should get a HD5750 for 8000INR and

Rest Rs3000 invest in a good PSU.
The best one for Rs3000 is Corsair 400CX.

Add more Ram later and for now use XP for gaming as it uses much lesser RAM.
For your budget, I'd recommend a ATI 5770 or nVidia GTX 260 Core 216.

However, I don't think your system is up to par to get the full benefits of either graphics card. Your system would be okay with a GTS 250 or something similar, or one of the older ATI video cards.

Quite frankly, your older processor, and limited 1GB of DDR2 RAM is going to limit your overall performance no matter what you do. In order to play "modern" games at playable FPS I'd recommend you look at an entire system upgrade if you can afford it. With your current system, you really need more RAM (2-4GB total) and will probably have to keep the graphics settings on lower options.
 

jekyl87

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I know that my system sucks right now, but I plan to upgrade the PSU, mobo, processor, ram and hdd in stages. My situation is such that I can spend a little every two months.

For now I think I'll buy a 2gb ram stick and a 5750( since I don't think 5750 and 5770 will give a HUGE difference in performance on lower res ). I can put the difference in 5750 and 5770 towards a new better PSU.
 

shubham1401

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That Iball PSU won't power those card. It has 17A on 12V rail but it won't be able to deliver that much for long time. these cheap PSU can damage other parts too, if they malfunction.

Are you an Indian?

I assume your budget is 11000 INR.

You should get a HD5750 for 8000INR and

Rest Rs3000 invest in a good PSU.
The best one for Rs3000 is Corsair 400CX.

Add more Ram later and for now use XP for gaming as it uses much lesser RAM.
 
Solution
Considering you need more ram, a new CPU(maybe motherboard), a new PSU, ect you may want to go for an HD4850 instead. It should be very good for 1440x900. The HD5750 is a bit better and DX11 but it's also significantly more expensive(in the US at least.)
Is 1440x900 your native resolution? LCDs really should be run at their native resolution and that is what determines what cards are appropriate for your system.
 

jekyl87

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Yeah I'm Indian.

I've already bought a 5750 for Rs.8300 ( lowest price I could find) . So I don't have the budget for a corsair PSU, since I intend to buy a RAM stick also.

I tried out my 5750 on my existing PSU. The card didn't run (even the fan on it didn't power up). Now I'm thinking of buying a generic Ateck 600W psu for Rs.800 as I really don't intend to spend anything over a 1000bucks now.

@shubham: Can you suggest some good cheap psu available in Delhi? I cam stretch my budget to a max of 2000.Tried finding powersafe or vip without luck.
 

tim_tank

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In my opinion here's what you can do , which is what i currently have. I bought 2 years ago so they are probably cheaper now and I paid 300$ on.

These currently play all modern games(ofc not on highest settings but mid settings with like 30-70FPS depending where you are in the gameplay - high or low density)

Vid card; nvidia 8800gt
Ram: you can buy 1more GB of ram
PSU: and you can buy 650W earthwatts psu

the GPU at the time was 200$ , psu was 75, and i had 2gb of ram already

but now im sure they are quite a bit cheap(atleast the videocard is)
 

shubham1401

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Consider Gigabyte Superb 460W For Rs 2000
or VIP Silver 500W for Rs1700
 

jekyl87

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I was able to stretch my budget to 3000INR and am able to find a Corsair 400CX in it. So although I'm now pretty confident about buying the 400CX, I'm being told that
1. The vx450 one is a LOT better than the 400CX one. The 400 CX has bad caps (I've absolutely no idea what that means). Also the CX one is a lot noisier than the 450 one. If someone is using the CX400, can they please confirm if its true ? Since I'm stretching my budget already, I would be very disappointed if the psu turned out to be bad.

2. Is the Cooler master Real Power 460W as good as the corsair 400cx ?
 

jekyl87

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I'm having difficulty finding a unit for Rs.3000, even in nehru place, delhi. I don't want to order it off the net. Can you suggest some good retailer, anywhere in Delhi ?
 

jekyl87

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Update: Got the corsair CX400 from Computer Empire for Rs2800. Now a new problem :

Installed the psu on my system. Everything works fine except the card. The card powers up (its fan atleast does) but windows (7, ultimate) doesn't detect the card at all. And my monitor too doesn't detect any signal from it.

I went into BIOS and changed the primary display adapter to PCI Express, but still no luck. PLEASE HELP.