Can you recommend a video card for me?

[vampire_weekend]

I currently have a Radeon HD 4550 (512MB), which is able to play the game on its lowest settings (and it's still gorgeous!) but I'm looking to upgrade.

What would be the cheapest option that would allow me to get the most (or close to it) out of the game? Civ5 is the only game I play, so I don't need anything fancy. I'm hoping to spent about $50 (unless that's unrealistic). Most of the recommended cards I've found are in forum posts from 2010 so they're mostly discontinued from what I can see.

I would be open to even buying used if you guys think it would be wise.

One minor thing: it must be a low-profile card.

Big thanks!

 

[timtofly]

Have you even looked? Unless you can tell us what is in your availible market area, all you will probably get is suggestions that are not in your market area. If you like your current card, then you will, more than not, like anything that is out there now. It would probably be easier to give us a list and we can say no, that one will not work.

 

[vampire_weekend]

Sorry, I don't mean to be vague. I should have specified that I am not a gamer (Civ is the only game I play) so my knowledge is slim. My 'market' is pretty much Amazon.com. Unless, of course, that is to be discouraged.

I have no preference/loyalty to any brand whatsoever. I'm just wondering if I can afford a card that could provide a great Civ5 experience.

I looked at the Radeon 4830 (recommended card on the box) but it seems like its discontinued. So I looked at the 4850 but one review said it had overheating problems? I didn't see a low-profile model for it.

Anyways, sorry if I'm not giving you enough to go on. Thanks all the same.

 

[timtofly]

I suppose you could go with a Nividea GT 630 or Nvidea GTS 450. If you cannot get your price range, the GT 430 does a great job also.

 

[vampire_weekend]

Cool, much appreciated.

I found this one as well: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6670 1GB

Thoughts? I don't have any fancy cooling (as you might have guessed and I only have the regular power supply.

Might that be a problem?

 

[timtofly]

Your current card specs out needing a 300 Watt PSU. This one requires a 400 Watt PSU. You will probably need to check what your power supply is rated at. The card should work though for the game.


I am curious though if some people are under powering their cards and that is why their systems are crashing????

 

[vampire_weekend]

Shoot, my power supply is only 300W. The more I research the more I realize that seems to really restrict things.

Can you think of any good video cards that only require 300W? I've spent a bunch of time on Sapphire's video card site but found nothing :-(

 

[timtofly]

From all the research I did, it seems that AMD has left lower powered cards behind. They are energy efficient, but when they go full bore (as in playing CivV) they are going to need 400 watts.

Have you checked out the Nvidea cards I recommended?

Unless you pay extra for another PSU, I am not sure the AMD cards are going to work for you.

 

[vampire_weekend]

I did check out the Nvidea cards - those were great recommendations. My power supply is still a limiting factor, but it can handle the GT 430.

In your opinion, is the GT 430 enough of an upgrade on my Radeon HD 4550 to make it worth my while?

I did do some comparison research between the cards, but I must admit the info I got back was mostly technical. If you could translate, that would be much appreciated

Thanks as always!

 

[timtofly]

The game was designed around the GT 430's ability. I am sorry, I thought the other two were also 300 Watt GPU's. It may depend on how much Ramm is on the card though. I just checked again and even the GT 630 according to Nvidea allows 300 Watt minimum. I think that the peak is 65 and I doubt the total of your computer draws 200 outside of the GPU. The only thing you can do is save up and wait and buy both GPU and PSU at the same time. I have seen the GT 430 in action and it is pretty smooth. I think though you are bound by the funds.

Edit your current card has a pass mark score of 352. The GT 430 is a 666 (PNY). There are cheaper imitators like the Winfast GT 430 that score 595.

Have you posted a directx diag? I may be able to figure out what the computer is drawing power wise if I know what is in it.

 

[daviiadams]

I too only play Civ V and have found no difference between using a GT430 and the on-board graphics capabilities on my i3 2120 (HD 2000 off the top of my head).

You may be better off looking at the longer term spec of your computer in general perhaps?

 

[tokala]

I did check out the Nvidea cards - those were great recommendations. My power supply is still a limiting factor, but it can handle the GT 430.

In your opinion, is the GT 430 enough of an upgrade on my Radeon HD 4550 to make it worth my while?

I did do some comparison research between the cards, but I must admit the info I got back was mostly technical. If you could translate, that would be much appreciated

Thanks as always!

You can safely ignore those PSU recommendations

Any low profile card will work with any halfway modern 300W PSU, as long as that PSU indeed delivers its rated capabilities (unless you are heavily overclocking your system).

Those PSU recommendations are designed to reinsure against really, really crappy PSUs, of the "650W - $19.99 kind", which will not even be capable of delivering half their rated capability.

Get that 6670, it will work just fine, and will be a major improvement compared to a 4550.

Or if you are still concerned about your PSU, get a HD 6570 DDR3, not that much slower than a 6670 GDDR5, but cheaper and with even less power consumption (about 40W compared with the 55W for the 6670 during gaming)

 

[vampire_weekend]

You can safely ignore those PSU recommendations

Really?? Wow, that's amazing! I've never heard that before. I found the 6670 on sale for $75. It seems like a great card so I don't mind the slight extra cost.

I'm currently away for work, but once I get back I'll have to verify that it is indeed 300W and not 250W before I purchase - I'm second-guessing myself. It's a Dell Inspiron 537s.

Either way, this help has been invaluable. Thanks to all! If it does turn out to be 250W, looks like I'll just enjoy my low-res but still insanely fun Civ 5 experience

 

[tokala]

Okay, maybe then the 6570 DDR3 would indeed be a safer choice.
It's still about 5 times faster than your old 4550

That Dell appears to have a 250W PSU, but unfortunately with only 14A on the all important 12V rails.
By modern standards this would be more properly labeled as a 180W power supply.
It might also be important to know what CPU is used in your Dell.

We had a few people here on CFC getting a 5550 or 5570 (the 6570s predecessors) for their SFF cases with 180W PSUs, who were quite happy with that.
If you can still find a 5570 DDR3 for a reasonable price (about $50), this would also be a good choice for an upgrade, with a tad lower power requirements than the 6570.

If you are willing to learn about sense and nonsense regarding PSU "requirements" here's a great article to start:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2624

 

[vampire_weekend]

Wow, this is super helpful. I'm learning a lot through this. Sounds like my power supply is even weaker than I thought! For all the hassle of buying and installing a new video card, I think I'd rather make a big jump and get a higher end card like the 6670 so I can max out the settings - which means new power supply.

Is upgrading my power supply a difficult endeavour?

BTW, as requested, my CPU is an Intel® Core 2 Duo E7400 (3MB L2, 2.8GHz, 1066FSB).

Thanks!

EDIT: come to think of it, I'm actually much more concerned about buying the PSU. I'm sure I can figure out the installation by googling a guide. But what would you recommend for me as far as buying a PSU for my pc that could support the 6670?

 

[tokala]

Actually a video card is about the most easily replaced component in a PC.

And a 6670 is still far from being a "high end" card, it's more like a solid entry level gaming card.

For a perspective, it will be about 5 times faster than your 4550, and a real high end card like a 7970 will be again about 5 times faster than a 6670 (ballpark numbers).

Your Dell is not really suited for being transformed into a gaming machine, for various reasons.
You will not be able to coax "max" settings in Civ5 out of it, unless you heavily modify, and invest more money than is sensible into it.

Due to the special form factor, your PSU upgrade options are extremley limited, with basically only one choice at 300W /$50.
And you will still have to use a low profile card. Which will most likely work equally well with your old PSU.

The "all out" option would be a HD 7750, which is significantly faster than a 6670, while having a comparable power consumption. If you can find one in low profile, that is.
If you go for a 6670, I would recommend the DDR3 version, which is only marginally slower but should be quite a bit cheaper.

As your CPU has also a fairly low power consumption, I am very confident that your old PSU is sufficient to power either a 7750 or a 6670.
You might want to check the GPU temperatures during gaming, though. If they get consistently above 90°C, you should install an additional fan, if you have a place for it in the case.

Edit: It looks like I have to retract the "no max settings for you" line
The 7750 appears to punch way above its weight in Civ5, so it might be worth it to wait for a low profile version to become available (at least one vendor has announced one).

 

[Torvald]

Just wanted to jump in and recommend a video card upgrade that worked for me.

I've got a 550 watt power supply, and was successfully using an older Nvidia GeForce 9500GT video card on my Windows XP, DirectX-9 PC playing Civ-5 without any problems at all.

However, the G&K expansion seemed to stress my video card more, resulting in lots of weird problems. Even with all my Civ-5 video settings changed to Low, the game kept crashing over & over.

Therefore, I upgraded to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti (2GB) card this week, and it seems to have fixed most of my video & crash problems. Was even able to use default Civ-5 video settings, except for changing Texture Quality from High to Low.

Could have bought a more powerful video card, but the GTX 550 Ti only needs one 6-pin power connector from the power supply, and that's all my PC had that was not already hooked up to some other device.

 

[vampire_weekend]

I am very confident that your old PSU is sufficient to power either a 7750 or a 6670.

Incredible! I took a quick look at the 7750 and I'm salivating. I will definitely wait for it and check NewEgg daily

I am amazed that my little 180W PSU can power it!

One question though: if the temperature does get over 90C, and I thus need to install another fan, how doable/expensive would that be? And what kind of room would I need for it? Does it just take a card slot?

Thanks!!

 

[tokala]

If your case looks like that one, it appears that there isn't a sensible possibility of installing another fan.

The good news is, the internal layout looks sound, so it's not very likely that the GPU will overheat.

You could remove the lowermost slot cover, that should get a bit more air to the GPU.

 

[vampire_weekend]

Yes, that is exactly my case.

How would I check the temp during gaming? Should I assume the graphics card's software has that as an option?

Also, does the manufacturer make much of a difference? Because I noticed both Sapphire and PowerColor have announced 7750 low-profile cards...