Radeon HD 6000 Series + AMD FX 4100

bradyarch

Distinguished
Jan 1, 2012
39
0
18,530
Currently, I have the:

-ASRock 970 Extreme3 Motherboard,
-4x4 PNY DDR3 PC3-10666 RAM,
-NVIDIA GeForce 9500 Graphics Card
-RHINO ATX12V 450W Power Supply,
and the
-AMD FX 4100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor in my rig. The side of the FX 4100 box says:

"Combine this processor with AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series graphics... to enjoy the ultimate HD experience with supercharged, responsive gameplay and mega-multitasking"
etc.

So my question is, what is/are the best graphics card(s) I can buy for no more than $100 to make gaming faster and smoother (and "supercharged"er and "responsive"er!)?

And how much worse is my current video card than what you recommended for a good video card?

Thanks for the help guys, I know I'm like SUPER cheap but if there is no good option(s) for less than $100, thanks for reading and sorry I wasted your time. Thanks!
 
i assume you recycled your psu from your previous pc. your psu needs an upgrade first.
after you upgrade your psu to a good, 80+ rated, active pfc, 450+ w with lots of amps on it's +12v rail (something like CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W) :
asus 6770, no cfx
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-121-468&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=100&PurchaseMark=true&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&chkPurchaseMark=on&Keywords=%28keywords%29#scrollFullInfo
powercolor 6770
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131434
recommendations are based on price. look up your chosen card's review. make sure your chosen card fits your case. make sure your psu has enough amperes to run the card.
 
Agree with de5_roy, upgrade your PSU and I think you recycled that PSU from your old PC :lol: :). Time for an upgrade, Then get yourself a 6770, here are good ones:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150560
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102940
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161383
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121468
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127599

I will go with the HIS because it has really good features like higher clock and iceQ X. By the way these 5 are really good cards and based or personal preference. They are also really similar in price.
 

bradyarch

Distinguished
Jan 1, 2012
39
0
18,530
Thanks for the responses everyone. I'll look into them. That HIS looks real nice. No clue what IceQ x is at all but I do know that cold is good. I basically just wanna run games at ultra graphics with as few flaws as possible, and I'm not smart enough to know exactly what all the specs mean and how much the values make a difference. I think I should be real set with all my new stuff plus a slammin GPU. So tell me, what makes all these GPUs better than what I currently have (specifically? Thanks again
 
Better VRAM, DirectX/Direct3D 11 support for DirectX 11 games, OpenGL 4.1 support, Higher clocks and in 1366x768 you can probably play games on high-ultra no problem with the exception of really high end games such as metro 2033 or BattleField 3 but I think they should run on medium. Your old GPU won't do this and there should be a big improvement from your old GPU.

One more thing, is the FX 4100 nice compared to i3-2100? And is it really that easy to overclock? How much do you get the overclock with stock coolers? Answers please!
 

6670 or 6770 won't run every game at ultra settings @1080p. those cards fit within your budget except you need a better psu to run them.
what resolution do you use for gaming? (e.g. 1024x768, 1280x800, 1650x1080, 1920x1080 etc.)
for 1080p gaming at ultra.. a geforce gtx 560ti or higher or radeon hd 6870 or higher would be better. but they cost much more and require good psu. there is also a chance that your cpu might bottleneck those cards.
here's a gaming gfx card hierarchy chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fastest-graphics-card-radeon-geforce,3085-7.html
the higher the card, the better it performs.
 

kinggraves

Distinguished
May 14, 2010
951
0
19,010
The 6670 will slide by on a good 300W PSU so it will probably run on his generic 450W PSU. His current 9500 only uses slightly less watts. Ultra settings at 1080p will need a new good brand power supply and a much higher budget (even though I agree a new PSU wouldn't hurt). The 4100 shouldn't be bottlenecked until the highest tiers and multiple cards. Oh, and make sure you get a 6670 with GDDR5, even though it gets pretty close to your max.
 

bradyarch

Distinguished
Jan 1, 2012
39
0
18,530


Haha I would love to answer your question, but I'm not experienced enough. I have never used either the FX or the i3. I own the parts I mentioned, but when I turn the computer on, it blue screens and resets. When I format the drive and reinstall XP 32-bit, it blue screens during the "installing devices" screen during installation. I'm getting Win7 64-bit though for some epic performance.
 

bradyarch

Distinguished
Jan 1, 2012
39
0
18,530


I play WoW currently, but I'm keeping my eye on all other MMOs too, whether upcoming (TERA) or already out (SW:ToR).

I run at 1440x900 because it fits my 22" ViewSonic monitor perfectly. I love my current display, I would just like it to be better. My current rig hardly runs WoW on ultra (very bad frame rate), but when I turn shadows to low it runs flawlessly. But WoW surely isn't anything to rave about when it comes to graphics... I wish I played a game that looked beautiful and that I could run flawlessly on ultra. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

To all who are still reading (and whom I thank kindly for the help (I love a community willing to help!)), what is a good PSU I can grab from anywhere that will run fine and doesn't have problems (and again, I'm cheap... $30 or less would be appropriate, and I wouldn't buy it until I had all my rig set up and knew I needed it.)

Thanks
 

bradyarch

Distinguished
Jan 1, 2012
39
0
18,530



Yeah I will not buy a new PSU until I know that my 450W doesn't suffice.

And ok... 6670 with GDDR5. Sorry to be so inexperienced but why GDDR5 over the others? Like I just searched and found these:

DDR3 $60: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161386

GDDR5 $90: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161386

They have basically the same specs... The only thing I would could consider different (I am inexperienced though) is that one's DDR3 and one's GDDR5 (obv.), and one's 1600MHz Memory clock (the cheaper one... Isn't that better though?), and one's 1000MHz.

Why would the cheaper one look better?
 

kinggraves

Distinguished
May 14, 2010
951
0
19,010


From what I understand, more memory bandwidth. GDDR3 uses a multiplier of 2 where as GDDR5 uses a multiplier of 4. This seems to add up as 2 x 1600 =3200, which is less than 4 x 1000 (4000), making the DDR3 model slightly slower in memory bandwidth at a higher clock. Here's a comparison:

http://banglagamer.com/showthread.php?18066-hd-5670-ddr3-vs-ddr5&p=359350&viewfull=1#post359350
 
geforce gt 440 512 mb gddr5 vs 1 gb ddr3
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/GeForce-GT-440-512-MB-GDDR5-vs-1-GB-DDR3-Video-Card-Review/1272
radeon hd 6670 1 gb gddr5 review
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/AMD-Radeon-HD-6670-Video-Card-Review/1259
you'll see in the first article that the gddr5 wins despite using less memory. but gt 440 doesn't use gddr5's full potential anyway. the 6670 makes better use of gddr5 on the same test platform. they use 1440x900 resolution with the cards. should be easy for you to compare performance.
 

bradyarch

Distinguished
Jan 1, 2012
39
0
18,530


Oh ok I got you. So is it worth $30 more though?

Now to break into a 100% new topic... Overclocking. Should I overclock my FX-4100? Or maybe do that Turbo feature for 3.8 instead of 3.6? Edit: Should I also overclock my graphics card (that's possible, right?)?

I've tried and failed to learn why overclocking can be a bad idea... And how do I know my chances for failing? And what does failing even do to me?
 

Overclocking has it's own forum.
 

bradyarch

Distinguished
Jan 1, 2012
39
0
18,530


Definitely true. I figured I could get some tips and stuff out of these cool guys that are already helping me but... Forums have to have those rules of staying on topic and stuff I guess : /
 

wow... Good luck on installing

Now, is the FX-4100 good?

The best thing is still, get yourself a 6770. It will kill those games at your resolution and will bring nice improvement through your old GPU. You can find lots of guides on overclocking CPU and GPU in this whole internet. You need to overclock especially the CPU because as we know FX processor main power is overclocking.
 

bradyarch

Distinguished
Jan 1, 2012
39
0
18,530


Thanks... Keeping in touch with ASRock so that I can get it running.

And I'm not sure if the FX-4100 is good yet because I haven't used it, but it's got some very nice specs on it. 3.6GHz (3.8 Turbo) Quad-core. AM3+. L1=4mb, L2=8mb, L3=8mb. I've heard that the FX series is really amazing, but it was only like $110 so if it's flawless I'll be really pumped.

Back to graphics cards... Again, I want to save money obviously, but can anyone tell me if there will be a noticeable difference between:
Card #1
and
Card #2
 
Apr 30, 2013
7
0
10,510
Currently i have following rig:
Amd fx 4100 at stock
Corsair 2x 4gb ddr3 @1600mhz
Coolermaster thunder 600w
Coolermaster elite 311 case
Asus monitor 1336x768 but i might play games on 1280x720

Can u tell me which card is best for me that wont bottlebeck at under 429 dollars