Low end graphics card advice

[whitzend]

I'm building a relatively low-end, value system, based around a Pentium G840 CPU.

It will be used for fairly basic gaming in the first instance: flash games, Minecraft, perhaps Civ 5. Maybe at a real push something like Just Cause 2.

The person using the system has been gaming on an i3-350 laptop fairly happily, so some upgrade from that would be nice, but it needn't be huge.

The monitor will be an LCD panel running 1680x1050.

So I'm shopping in the bargain basement. At c£50 a Radeon 6670 is probably the absolute maximum I'd consider.

My question is whether there is anything BELOW this price/spec? Is there a card out there for about £20-30, that is actually worth buying, or are they all a waste of money at that end of the market.

The market seems to be populated with GT610/620s and HD5450/6450s which don't feature much in comparisons any more.

Are any of these worth spending money on, or are they so minimal improvement over the G840's integrated graphics, as to be a waste?

Any advice more than welcome.

 

[bigshootr8]

Any dedicated card would be a vast improvement over a onboard video solution. What kind of budget are you looking at. I would say 20-30 euro cards are a waste of money mainly due to the fact that they are mainly catered to those who are into home theater and as a use of multi display. There is a good 7770 by sapphire on sale for £66 sounds like a steal to me at that price range.


http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/parts/video-card/#c=115,80,79&sort=a5

 

[whitzend]

Thanks for the response.

As I say, the top end of my budget is a 6670 for about £50.

If I can't find anything worth buying below £40, I might as well stick with a 6670.

So, my question is whether there is anything worth buying below £40. Or if the spec per £ is so poor as to be a waste - given what it will be used for.

 

[bigshootr8]

Not a problem. The performance per £ is so poor that it would be a waste if the 6670 is as high as you can go get the best you can afford. Civilization V will rip through systems in late games my 670 goes on a fritz with a ton of units on the field but again I'm running on all maxed out settings. But if Civ 5 is the graphical limit for you or Just Cause 2 I would say you should be just fine.

requirements for civilization v seem to be in line with that card
http://store.steampowered.com/app/8930/?snr=1_7_suggest__13
and even more so with just cause
http://store.steampowered.com/app/8190/

(I'm looking at recommended system requirements)

 

[mycutefairy]

You can actually. If you are not a heavy Gamer, you can get that card and would be good. I had the GT 430 once and the HD 4670 which is about $50 that time. I played Star Craft 2 on good details, Assassin's creed ( medium settings) and even Dragon age 2 ( high settings) and I am getting about 20 to 30 fps at 1366 resolution. If you check youtube, some people even play BF3 at Ultra and is getting 25-35 fps with the $55 card GT 630. You may check it yourself.

If you are really on a tight budget, the GT 630 and GT 640, HD 6670 will do the job. Although not at a performance level, but hey you can play those games using those cards. It's funny but I think most people will be surprised how Low end cards perform on the "Actual" Game and not just basing on figures we see on benchmarks.

Just stick with 1366 resolution and you'll be ok at 20-30 fps and as long as you do not expect a miracle on $50 card. No matter what benchmark says, I used the card myself ( GT 430 ) and yeah, it could do the job. Just check out youtube for samples. Hope this helps you out

 

[bigshootr8]

He is dealing with Euro's so his pricing will not be in dollars. And yes he could lower his resolution to give himself more frames that is true.

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/parts/video-card/#c=105,106,58&sort=a5

 

[bigshootr8]

Okay I took the chance to find a site that could compare the two the 6670 is over a better card then the 630 can't say I'm surprised. If they are around the same price I would say the wiser of the two choices would be your original 6670 idea. Look at the very bottom of the list or press control f and type in 630 and you'll see it and there not to far above the 6670.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/common_gpus.html

 

[whitzend]

I've seen that site before and had some people comment that it's not too useful because it doesn't use a standard test spec - it relies on user submitted scores.

However, one way of reading that is:
6670 = 1031
GT630 = 717

So, if I can buy a 6670 for £50 then a GT630 for £50x(717/1031)=£35(ish) would be a reasonable purchase!

 

[bigshootr8]

Yea I would say so. And normally the second number is quite telling of how good a card is. It's a little tricky with nvidia because there 5 cards are typically home theater/entry gaming where as with amd a 5 series card would be complete bunk.
Another thing I came across was that a lot of the time the lower end cards don't get benchmarked I guess because a lack of interest from websites and quite possibly them warning of a poor value overall but again you are on a budget and I know how those go.

 

[whitzend]

Stupid question: How risky is it buying second hand GPUs?

It's not really something I've considered in the past, but I've not been working to a budget to this extent, before.

I could potentially get quite a bit more spec per £ that way. Maybe I could move my 6670 down to the other machine and upgrade to a 6770 or 7750 or even 7770 in my system (which will be running a 1920x1080 monitor) for £40-ish?

 

[bigshootr8]

Um, I wouldn't would say its a coin flip. I've sold GPU's I've had and taken really good care of and the people I've sold them to haven't had any issues with them. I've sold a old 8800GTS 320MB I had and a Sli configuration two 560Ti's with extended warranties with EVGA. If the seller is good about returns then I can see it working out but I would want to ensure that I wasn't getting a bunk card.

 

[mycutefairy]

The worse thing you could have for buying a 2nd hand GPU is if they Oc'd the card to the limit and fried it. I'd suggest you just buy new ones

 

[bigshootr8]

Right that is something to could come up for someone who is experiencing artifacts with there card. There is the chance of being conned which is why I would only buy a card second hand if you had a return policy along with the card.