Upgrading my brother's comp - need advice

[savagegreywolf]

My brother has finally given up and gotten Steam, haha (it was the new Monkey Island games that did it). He called me last night and told me he was having a bit of trouble with slowdown in one of the games he's downloaded, and I figure (though I haven't gotten the chance to go take a look at his computer yet) that it's probably a graphics card issue, I don't really know anything about what he's got under the hood except that he got it from Fry's as an HP premade, probably about a year ago. I can't be 100% it's the graphics card, but I know my brother- he probably went for more of a multimedia package than a gaming machine.

I told him as a temporary measure to go into the video options and turn off anything like water effects and AA until I was able to take a good look at his specs.

Anyone have any recommendations on a graphics card to suggest to someone who isn't a hardcore hardcore gamer but still wants some decent performance? Will update this topic as I learn more about his rig.

It just occurred to me that he might not have the latest drivers for his graphics card too: I'll have to ask him about that.

 

[roco_nights]

I would recommend a radeon 4670 which is cheap, does not require psu upgrade and is a very decent performer.. if you're lucky and find a radeon 4770, that's a no brainer

 

[jsrudd]

Find a 4770. It has performance equal to a 4850 in some cases because of the DDR5 ram, but doesn't take nearly as much power. It's much more powerful than the 4670, but also more expensive.

 

[megamanx00]

I say a 4670. If it's an HP prebuilt then it probably won't have too much reserve power on the PSU so getting something more powerful will require a better PSU as well.

 

[Jaysin]

4770 or 4670. Whatever best suits his budget.