Upgrading Graphics Card from a AMD Radeon HD 5450

[ewright430]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This month

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming - All Blizzard games, watching movies/youtube videos

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: AMD Radeon HD 5450 and 450W

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: not sure what to put here, ask questions I can answer.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg or amazon

PARTS PREFERENCES: no preference

OVERCLOCKING:No OR CROSSFIRE:No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: Using a small TV so... 720p?

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Not very techy, had a friend who helped me build my system who moved away.

 

[ewright430]

Currently looking at a SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6450 1GB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card ( 100322L)" (link below). Wondering how much of an upgrade this would actually be. Would like to be able to run Hero's of the Storm on better than "low" video settings. Don't know if my current power supply would need to be upgraded to step up to this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102933&cm_re=AMD_RADEON_HD-_-14-102-933-_-Product

 

[Gingerbread]

Upgrade will be really, really low. First mention your motherboard and CPU and ram. Also mention your small tv's model so we can know your resolution for sure. This way we can chose a GPU for you. But the 6450 won't be an upgrade.

 

[ewright430]

Upgrade will be really, really low. First mention your motherboard and CPU and ram. Also mention your small tv's model so we can know your resolution for sure. This way we can chose a GPU for you. But the 6450 won't be an upgrade.

AMD FX(tm) - 4130 Quad-Core Processor, 3800Mhz, 2 Cores, 4 Logical Processors
8.00 GB RAM
TV - VIZIO M220VA

Is this all you needed?

 

[Gingerbread]

It is enough, yes. So first of all your tv is fullhd 1920x1080. Second your CPU is weak. You could upgrade the GPU but the CPU would still be a bottleneck, you should consider upgrading both if you have the budget.

 

[ewright430]

To be able to run a game like hero's of the storm on medium settings, what would you recommend? Full settings?

 

[Gingerbread]

Well, what's your budget. I would recommend getting both a CPU and a GPU but for that I would need your budget and your motherboard model.
To view the motherboard go to run and type CMD or press windows+r and type cmd. Once inside type:
wmic baseboard get product,Manufacturer,version,serialnumber

and tell me what your board is.

 

[ewright430]

Manufacturer Product SerialNumber Version
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. M5A97 R2.0 130915501101126 Rev 1.xx

Budget was under $200 for graphics card, if we're upgrading both CPU and GPU... I could space it out over the next month and probably scrape together $500 total. That'd be top end of the budget for sure, less would be better.

 

[Gingerbread]

Well your motherboard supports decent CPUs. Frankly speaking I would get an FX-6300 or FX-8150/8350 with that motherboard. For those games, FX-6300/6350 is more than enough however. And as far as the GPU goes, I would get a gtx 750ti.

 

[ewright430]

Thanks for your input and time, I will look these up. Would the 450W power supply be sufficient or should I upgrade that too for new CPU/GPU?

 

[Gingerbread]

It will be. 750ti is low power. Only requires 1x6pin which your PSU most likely has (since it's 450w) still I would check to make sure your PSu has the 6pin, or tell me your model (written on the PSU) and I wil ltell you. If it doesn't have a 6pin, then there are 750tis which don't require a 6pin.

 

[Guest]

You should go for the Zotac Nvidia GTX 750 Ti (with a good cpu), it only requires a minimum of around 300 watts and no need for any additonal power cable.