Budget-ish Video Card

[Yorak]

My old fella is beginning to show his age. I have a Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.0 GHz, 8 GB DDR2 (wow, so old school), slow 7200 RPM HD (need an SSD soon), and my monitor runs at 1920x1200 (I need a 16:9 resolution for better recording, hehe). I was running a Radeon HD 6850 1 GB, but the fan died. The card itself is fine, but I don't really trust the RMA process of Sapphire. So with that said, I need something around $140-160 that will run well. I don't really play anything too new, but would like to try PlanetSide 2 at more than 12 FPS, lol. Most of my bottleneck has nothing to do with the video card. My machine is really old now. I will do a full upgrade in about a year. I have to worry about moving first.

I was thinking a 650 Ti Boost (1 GB) or a 7790 (1 GB). Would that do?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

What is your wattage on you PSU?

[Yorak]

1000 W. I am thinking a GTX 650 Ti SuperClocked, though I unfortunately not afford a 2 GB at this point.

[YounGMessiah]

Save up for the superclocked or wait a lil longer?

[TheLegendOfMart]

I don't get the superclocked cards, surely you can just buy the base one and do it yourself?

I have 7850 and clocked from 860/1200 to 1050/1400 which is faster than the highest clocked 7850 available for ?50 less.

The 7790 is a little faster than 650Ti but from my experience AMD drivers are GARBAGE. I'd gladly swap for nVidia equivalent if I had the chance.

[Vvo]

@ op, 1000 watts psu? :o that's an overkill for your setup, a 550-750 watts should be sufficient for the gfx card that you intend to use, but that's just me. Everyone's entitled to their own taste and preference............

[fusi0n]

Geforce 660.. bought one for my linux box for emulators.. rocks! Also plays CSGO Linux Beta awesome ;)

[threetonesun]

$160 should get you a 7850 of some sort. I'd take that over the 7790 or the 650 Ti.

[Athlonite]

from newegg : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161406

HIS HD7850 2GB + you get a 10% off code which brings it down to your price level

[Yorak]

@ op, 1000 watts psu? :o that's an overkill for your setup, a 550-750 watts should be sufficient for the gfx card that you intend to use, but that's just me. Everyone's entitled to their own taste and preference............

I had a 4870x2 when I first built this, and was planning on more upgrades. So in its current configuration, it is overkill a bit.

Just wanted to update and say that I went with a 2 GB 650 Ti SuperClocked. This rig will only be my primary one for a few more months until I build a new system. Thanks everyone for the input! Sorry I forgot to update until now.