GPU suggestions for low-end

Hi all,

I’ve been asked by a chap at work about a GPU replacement, as his one is currently dying/dead. However, its in a segment that I’m not really familiar with tbh, as I know about mid-high end cards, and he would like one for web browsing/emails/youtube etc, so I’m guessing its a light user. I’ve asked him for the mobo model to determine the slot type and its a K8N-Neo4 which can be found here.

From the spec, it seems like PCIe will be ok, but its just a PCIe v1.0 slot, which I don’t think will make much difference as the throughput wont be that high (?). There aren’t any other major requirements, so I was just wondering if those of you who have more knowledge in this segment could put forward some recommendation please.

Thanks in advance for any replies. Maybe I should tell him to get a 5850 :)

First up, find out whether he plays any games at all. If he does, point him in the direction of a HD4650 (~£40) or HD4670 (~£50).

Otherwise, the cheapest recent gen card at the minute seems to be this 256MB HD4350 - £21.12 from ebuyer.

I dont think gaming is an requirement to be honest, though I have remembered that it will be pushing Windows 7, so it would need to be able to handle all the bells and whistles in there (I guess he means running the aero transparency effects etc...), will have a look to see if that 4350 can handle it. Cheers Jim

Do you know which card he had before? I think something like a 4350 mentioned above would definitely be fine as it's better than integrated HD4200 on the 785G motherboards and from personal experience HD4200 is absolutely fine for W7 and youtube.

Well, they previously had a 8600 GTS, which does seem a little bit overkill if you dont game, but i think it was a prebuilt evesham computer (or something as old). So if he really does want low end the 4350 seems ok, but lets say they want something at the same level is, what am i looking at comparatively... oh and i reckon he's wnat one that doesnt need a power adaptor, that would just complicate things incase their PSU is cack.

Thanks for the input so far - much appreciated. Keep it coming!!!

If he wants something around a 8600GTS then you're looking at the 4650 / 4670 I linked to earlier, or an NVidia GT220. They're all bus-powered (i.e. no additional power connectors). If you're looking for a GT220 he should aim for a DDR3 one like this Inno3D

From a quick cross-review comparison all those cards should outpace a 8600GTS - the 4650 / GT220 will be a small improvement, while the 4670 would be a pretty significant one. So at the point I guess it depends on his budget, really...

If video is of interest you might want something higher end than the really entry level stuff, so that would be another vote for 4650/GT220 sort of range. Low end stuff can't post-process video all that well, which I presume will be a factor at some point now we are moving to the GPU handling Flash content:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3734&p=4

Note that an Nvidia 9500GT with DDR3 ram is pretty much a direct replacement for the 8600GTS they previously had.

Well like I said, integrated graphics HD4200 runs Youtube videos and all other videos fine on 1280*1024 at least so a low end HD4350 will definitely be fine for processing video. Unfortunately I no longer have it so can't test it with 1920*1080.

Well, after speaking to my friend, I think that he would be happy with £50 outlay, so that seems to put 4650/GT220 cards into budget, which i think would offer a little bit of future proofing. If that was the budget though, is there a reason why there hasnt been mention of the 5450? Or is that just a card that despite being in a more recent generation is actually worse on a £ for £ comparison?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonathan_phang

Well, after speaking to my friend, I think that he would be happy with £50 outlay, so that seems to put 4650/GT220 cards into budget, which i think would offer a little bit of future proofing. If that was the budget though, is there a reason why there hasnt been mention of the 5450? Or is that just a card that despite being in a more recent generation is actually worse on a £ for £ comparison?

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The 5450 is a DX11 version of the 4350 (both have 80 streams), but is underpowered to really make any use of DX11.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3734

A 4650 has 320 stream processors (4 times the 5450) and twice the memory bus width for not much more money so it is a bit of a bargain really. Having said that, I think the 4670 is in price range as well.

Low/mid range graphics card benchies here:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3734&p=4

No 4650 on those graphs, but it has the 5450, 4670, GT210, GT220 and the 9500GT and as I said is the 9500GT is about the same performance as the previous 8600 card.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-G...-DL-DVI-I-HDMI

one of those

GT220

Make sure it's the 1 gig version so you get DDR3 ram.

I've jut installed one for a mate who got his off ebay and it plays CoD5 W@W realy well on a 19" screen, and doesn't need any additional power supply into it, is cool and quiet... and well worth the dough.

As DwU says the only advantage the 5450 offers over the 4350 is DX11, and that's going to be absolutely meaningless to your friend for the lifespan of the card if he's only using it for web browsing, iplayer and youtube. It's simply not worth the additional 75% outlay over the 4350.

Anyway, bargain of the century: novatech HD4650 @ £32 :o

It appears to have a dual slot cooler, but since your mate has a full ATX motherboard that shouldn't be an issue, and it's a remarkable price for a full spec 512MB 4650 with slightly faster memory than stock (1GHz effective rather than 800MHz). 36 in stock - grab one now!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

Anyway, bargain of the century: novatech HD4650 @ £32 :o

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Wow, thanks for that - seems like the 4650 is the way to go! Will ask about the dual slot space today otherwise even a single slot will be fine and within budget. One last thing - even though the board is PCIe v1.0 the card should be fine as the only real difference is max throughput right?

Looks like I messed up a link last time.
The benchmarks I meant to refer to start here:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3738&p=5

but I suspect that Novatech card is the end of thread anyway at that price :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonathan_phang

Wow, thanks for that - seems like the 4650 is the way to go! Will ask about the dual slot space today otherwise even a single slot will be fine and within budget. One last thing - even though the board is PCIe v1.0 the card should be fine as the only real difference is max throughput right?

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That should be fine, they are intended to be compatible and I ran a PCIe 2 card on PCIe 1 motherboard for ages.

The lack of PCIe 2 only matters with the very highest end graphics cards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix

... I suspect that Novatech card is the end of thread anyway at that price :)

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I had to triple check the speccs to make sure it wasn't one of the gimped ones with 64bit memory bus or something odd like that, but it seems to be a legit full-spec 4650. I was gob-smacked at the price though - brilliant value for money. I thought Gibbo had left novatech ;)