Please help a graphics cards newbie !

Just as an example : I had pressed ALT + PRINT for that :

By the way, a good friend of mine has offered to give me her unneeded graphics card (8800 GT) until I've got a new one.

You could buy a good used graphics card for 40-50 euros. I just sold my GTX280 for 50 euros and that could run any game and was way better than GeForce 9800 GT.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

By the way, a good friend of mine has offered to give me her unneeded graphics card (8800 GT) until I've got a new one.

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That's okay, a GT8800 is the same as a GT9800.

The story goes on.

Since my second graphics card died, I'm looking for buying a new one next month.

Suggestions were here and there.

Now a small IT-tech form has made a proposal : GTX 550 Ti for 120 €
or GTS 450 for 92 €

What do you think of this ?

What do you do to those graphic cards? I never got to have one die on me.

The GTS 450 is one generation older than the GTX 550 Ti. This mean it is a "freaking" old video card. It is also perform below the 550.

You might want to check for the 460 cards, they are slightly better, in term of performance, than the 550, but being older might cost less.

The second card was probably already faulty as well, told me my friend who gave it to me. So no wonder.

I'm currently feeling like a noob. I'm supposed to know everything about graphics cards - yet I don't. This is frustrating.

You are not alone. My learning on computer hardware and software is moderately high; and virtually all learned as a result of unexpected problems. Computer technology is still changing pretty fast, and in many cases even the various hardware manufacturers don't know about various problems until they happen (sounds like computer game companies).

On video cards, persistent and major problems include power supplies that are too small to properly power the video card, and overheating of the video card resulting in the infamous BSOD or computer rebooting. Se be sure your power supply is sufficient to power the video card, and try to have substantial ventilation into and out of your computer case.

Also be aware that not all video cards using the same video chip, are identical; i.e., a GTX 550 Ti chip, for example, might be found in numerous different cards by numerous different manufacturers.

Best bet is to find out all you can about the particular card you are considering buying (including manufacturer) and read all the reviews you can find. Newegg (www.newegg.com) is a great source for user reviews even if you don't plan to buy there. Each product listing includes a product feedback tab, which typically leads to numerous user reviews listing any problems encountered.

Hopefully you'll find great graphic payoffs at the end of your journey. (And you'll also be a near expert on a soon-to-be-yesterday's video card ) Good luck.

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Alrik Fassbauer said:

The story goes on.

Since my second graphics card died, I'm looking for buying a new one next month.

Suggestions were here and there.

Now a small IT-tech form has made a proposal : GTX 550 Ti for 120 €
or GTS 450 for 92 €

What do you think of this ?

Click to expand...

Both cards are too expensive for their performance.
Bookmark the 3DCenter website. No nonsense graphics card infos, news and analysis in German language.

Your CPU should do it for now, but you should start to put 300€ aside for new CPU, mainboard and 8-16 GB RAM.

And for a new OS as well ? Because Win XP can't handle more than 4 GB RAM if I remember right.

Correct. Win7 64bit is great, and you can get it online for ca. 30€ if you wait for a sale.

Okay, my power supply looks like the picture in this discussion : http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/334174-10-would-ocz600sxs-work-geforce-similar-gpus

I'm leaning towards the GeForce GTX 550 Ti now ... But I just found out about the GTX 650. Does anyone know about this card ?

The 650 is "this" gen card for the GTX 550 performance range. Will probably be a bit overpriced for a while, it was released last week.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

I'm leaning towards the GeForce GTX 550 Ti now … But I just found out about the GTX 650. Does anyone know about this card ?

Click to expand...

Why buy an entry level gaming card, do you want to upgrade again in 12 months?

And why not the Radeon 7770, which is faster and costs the same?

I'm not sure yet. What's also important to me is whether it is loud or not and the power consumption.

The GTX 650 appears to be very good in both ponts meanwhile lacking much in the others.

But over the time power consumption also generates cost. I could save money by buying a card that doesn't consume that much current.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

But over the time power consumption also generates cost. I could save money by buying a card that doesn't consume that much current.

Click to expand...

, video card don't eat that much electricity. You just need a good CPU (and yours is enough for a BIG video card that ask for 30A lines).

You seem to be asking the right questions and thoroughly exploring your options. Doesn't guarantee a successful outcome but does improve chances. A couple of other thoughts.

The improved power consumption of the new generation nvidia chips is a development long overdue and one that could be beneficial. Graphics chips have long been the hottest hot spot in our computer cases bringing associated problems of overheating and increased fan noise. Even if improved power consumption doesn't translate to major electricity savings, it could and should mean less heat thereby reducing cooling requirements and associated cooling noise, and increasing your video card's life span (heat greatly reduces lifespan of computer components and virtually everything else).

Second, get as much fast video memory as you can afford. Games can use this memory for graphics applications and thereby reduce the load on your system ram. Moreover the graphics memory is incredibly faster than system ram. Next generation games that will require lots of fast graphics memory are probably still at least one year, and more likely two years plus, in the future. Nevertheless your current games will likely benefit from availability of more video ram, rather than less.

Third, a typical motherboard includes several different PCIE slots (to accommodate multiple video cards). At least with some motherboards, (perhaps with all), one of those slots will be preferred and will work better for the installation of a single video card. Your online motherboard manual at your motherboard manufacturer's site should provide this info (even though the manual may be a less than optimized translation and the info you seek may be difficult to find).

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Well, I've been visiting two smaller shops today where I had once bought parts.

One employee indeed uses an ATI HD 7770 right now, he told me, but was favouring the GTX 650 for my budget.

There seem to exist at least 2 variants of the still very new GTX 650 : One with 1024 MB ( 116 € there and in the other shop, too) and one with 2048 MB (135 € there) RAM.

The HD7770 he listed for me costs 129 € there in in the other shop, too.

I still don't know enough about their capabilities, though.
Need more research.

I have just found out about a "GTX 650 Ti" card : http://www.extremetech.com/computin...omises-for-a-170-games-oriented-graphics-card

I wonder how good it would be, measured against an HD 7770 ?

October 9th is a couple of days away, still. And it'd be only the launch date ...

PC Games has interactive graphics card charts. The card under your mouse curser is used as 100% base value, the other cards' values are calculated relative to it.