What's a decent mid-level grpahics card?

[RAMA]

I hadn't planned on an upgrade so I haven't been paying attention lately to the graphics cards, and I'm not a gamer, but I am upgrading my power supply to 400 watts, so within that limitation, what is a good mid-level graphics card, say under $120.00? I looked but I haven't found any significant Black Friday deals in the category either.

I have a PCIe slot available, and I want a minimum 1gb, DDR3 card.

RAMA

 

[Amaris]

You can't really go wrong with an ATi/AMD Radeon HD series. There's one on Newegg for $79.99. You can check it out here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125376

Really, you should never have to pay more than $100 for a solid mid-range card. I don't know what you play, but my AMD Radeon HD 4670 can play everything I want at high settings. I ran Crysis at high settings on my 3 year old system and it played it flawlessly. What's nice is the card I have listed doesn't use a lot of power, and it runs quietly.

If, however, you want to push it a little more, you can get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161387

It's $109, but it's got less bottleneck, lots more power, and can handle a heavier load. Spending any more than this and you're wasting your money unless you're a hardcore gamer.

 

[RAMA]

You can't really go wrong with an ATi/AMD Radeon HD series. There's one on Newegg for $79.99. You can check it out here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125376

Really, you should never have to pay more than $100 for a solid mid-range card. I don't know what you play, but my AMD Radeon HD 4670 can play everything I want at high settings. I ran Crysis at high settings on my 3 year old system and it played it flawlessly. What's nice is the card I have listed doesn't use a lot of power, and it runs quietly.

If, however, you want to push it a little more, you can get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161387

It's $109, but it's got less bottleneck, lots more power, and can handle a heavier load. Spending any more than this and you're wasting your money unless you're a hardcore gamer.

Those both look good but the Radeon HD 6770 requires a 450 watt power supply and I already ordered the 400 watt PS.

 

[Amaris]

You can't really go wrong with an ATi/AMD Radeon HD series. There's one on Newegg for $79.99. You can check it out here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125376

Really, you should never have to pay more than $100 for a solid mid-range card. I don't know what you play, but my AMD Radeon HD 4670 can play everything I want at high settings. I ran Crysis at high settings on my 3 year old system and it played it flawlessly. What's nice is the card I have listed doesn't use a lot of power, and it runs quietly.

If, however, you want to push it a little more, you can get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161387

It's $109, but it's got less bottleneck, lots more power, and can handle a heavier load. Spending any more than this and you're wasting your money unless you're a hardcore gamer.

Those both look good but the Radeon HD 6770 requires a 450 watt power supply and I already ordered the 400 watt PS.

It doesn't really need that much power. I've ran cards demanding a 400 watt power supply on a 300 watt PS with no performance lag whatsoever. That said, I still think the card for $79 is a better deal overall.

 

[RAMA]

You can't really go wrong with an ATi/AMD Radeon HD series. There's one on Newegg for $79.99. You can check it out here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125376

Really, you should never have to pay more than $100 for a solid mid-range card. I don't know what you play, but my AMD Radeon HD 4670 can play everything I want at high settings. I ran Crysis at high settings on my 3 year old system and it played it flawlessly. What's nice is the card I have listed doesn't use a lot of power, and it runs quietly.

If, however, you want to push it a little more, you can get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161387

It's $109, but it's got less bottleneck, lots more power, and can handle a heavier load. Spending any more than this and you're wasting your money unless you're a hardcore gamer.

Those both look good but the Radeon HD 6770 requires a 450 watt power supply and I already ordered the 400 watt PS.

It doesn't really need that much power. I've ran cards demanding a 400 watt power supply on a 300 watt PS with no performance lag whatsoever. That said, I still think the card for $79 is a better deal overall.

This was a better card than some of the similar Nvidia models I was looking at, so I ordered it. Thanks

 

[PurpleBuddha]

I can completely vouch for J Allen is saying on this PSU thing. A 400 watt supply should be just fine for a 6770. The 6770 is a great card for the money and you could certainly game with it if you wanted. Even if that is not what you are going to do with it, at least you know the option is there.

 

[RAMA]

I can completely vouch for J Allen is saying on this PSU thing. A 400 watt supply should be just fine for a 6770. The 6770 is a great card for the money and you could certainly game with it if you wanted. Even if that is not what you are going to do with it, at least you know the option is there.

Cool, I'm putting the PS in tonight, the card should be here Monday.

 

[Amaris]

Glad I could help!

 

[Amaris]

Glad I could help!

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I hadn't planned on an upgrade so I haven't been paying attention lately to the graphics cards, and I'm not a gamer, but I am upgrading my power supply to 400 watts, so within that limitation, what is a good mid-level graphics card, say under $120.00? I looked but I haven't found any significant Black Friday deals in the category either.

I have a PCIe slot available, and I want a minimum 1gb, DDR3 card.

RAMA

The question is why do you want to do this? What are you currently lacking, and what do you want to do with it?

Do you plan to play some games or other graphical applications that your current accelerator doesn't handle?
Do you use some application that doesn't work all right?
Does your motherboard offer only VGA and you want to switch to a digital link?
Do you want to use two monitors?
Do you want a dedicated video decoder because your CPU doesn't handle some films? There are dedicated decoders as well, by the way.

If you have no use for it now, you can wait until you do and can get more for less. This card will cost you money, wasted power and noise, while improvements in the terms of number of links (e.g. think multiple 3D monitors), decoded video formats and performance are coming.

 

[RAMA]

I hadn't planned on an upgrade so I haven't been paying attention lately to the graphics cards, and I'm not a gamer, but I am upgrading my power supply to 400 watts, so within that limitation, what is a good mid-level graphics card, say under $120.00? I looked but I haven't found any significant Black Friday deals in the category either.

I have a PCIe slot available, and I want a minimum 1gb, DDR3 card.

RAMA

The question is why do you want to do this? What are you currently lacking, and what do you want to do with it?

Do you plan to play some games or other graphical applications that your current accelerator doesn't handle?
Do you use some application that doesn't work all right?
Does your motherboard offer only VGA and you want to switch to a digital link?
Do you want to use two monitors?
Do you want a dedicated video decoder because your CPU doesn't handle some films? There are dedicated decoders as well, by the way.

If you have no use for it now, you can wait until you do and can get more for less. This card will cost you money, wasted power and noise, while improvements in the terms of number of links (e.g. think multiple 3D monitors), decoded video formats and performance are coming.

I want to:

1. Currently working on developing some software for virtual reality game...the graphics card I have doesn't work completely with software. Also working on going back to designing logos as a side job, I want better tools. The graphics card and PS are the only things I have never upgraded on my computer.

2. I have a new 32" screen, and the graphics card prob doesn't do it justice.

3. I want to run a second 20" monitor.

4. I'm not much of a gamer but I tried out Mass Effect 2 and my Intel graphics card (256mb RAM, but uses my system memory) is not supported.

5. I upgraded to Windows 7.

6. I like new tech. :-)

 

[Amaris]

You should also see a nice overall boost in your system performance.

 

[RAMA]

You should also see a nice overall boost in your system performance.

Connecting it with HDMI adds a lot of settings choices too!!

 

[Amaris]

That's a nice looking card!