Graphics Card < $100

[SYDE]

Hi, I'm gearing up to start my first build, and I'm trying to decide on a Graphics card to be used for video editing, graphic design, and some light gaming (Civ V, Sim City etc...).
Some cards I'm looking at are:

GIGABYTE GV-R667D3-1GI Radeon HD 6670

ASUS ENGT430/DI/1GD3(LP) GeForce GT 430

Does anybody have other suggestions? Or feedback on whether these are reliable cards?

Thanks

 

[MacBeef]

I'd get the GTX 650 Ti. It's at 150$, which is a little more than what you are looking for, but it will be worth it.

The GPUs you stated are really weak. Save up an extra 50$ and get the GTX 650 Ti, and I'm sure you won't regret it. It's a little beast.

 

[SYDE]

Does the manufacturer of the GTX 650 Ti matter? I noticed that Gigabyte, Asus, EVGA, MSI, and Galaxy all make their own variant.

 

[hmttony]

If you are just going to just do some light gaming , save some money and just use the integrated intel hd 4000 . Intel hd 4000 is perfectly capable of playing games at low/medium settings . By using hd 4000 you can save $100 and wait a while till you can afford a better discreet graphics card .

 

[Laminar]

Stay away from the GT430. I got mine because I wanted something fanless, but it's not totally 100% native and can cause headaches. Get a card that's supported out of the box.

 

[emaf]

i'd say that HD4000 should do ok with very light gaming. But if you want to buy one and your best shot is ebay. around $50-$60 you should be able to get some ATI 5770, wich works nice as long as i can tell, and is powerfull enough to drive current games at mid details, maybe some of them with some extras.

If you prefer to buy a new one, i'd recommend going for a safe bet, take the most compatible one, as for now i think that should be nVidia 650 / 660 isnt it?

 

[agrajag]

For under $100, the GT 640 would fit the bill. My son does Minecraft and Steam games and this worked fine. I upgraded to a GTX 650 Ti but that was $130 after rebate. It has quite a bit more power- I am driving two 24" monitors via DVI. The HD 4000 may well be good enough while you save up some $$ for the 650 Ti or more powerful GPU.

 

[MacBeef]

Does the manufacturer of the GTX 650 Ti matter? I noticed that Gigabyte, Asus, EVGA, MSI, and Galaxy all make their own variant.

I've always gone with EVGA since I can remember. They never let me down. Amazingly well built cards, and extremely stylish.

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Dual-Link-Graphics-01G-P4-3650-KR/dp/B009KUT322/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358810108&sr=8-1&keywords=gtx+650+ti

You won't find a bigger bang for you buck anywhere else in my opinion. I remember when I upgraded from an NVIDIA 9500 GS to a GTX 550 Ti. The upgrade was breathtaking to say the least.

The GTX 550 Ti costed me around 120$, and it was one of the best purchases I've ever made.


Although now I put together a completely new system, I will never forget the amazing bang for buck that the GTX 550 Ti offered. And I know for a fact that the GTX 650 Ti will offer you the same, and more than what the GTX 550 Ti offered to me.

 

[potemkin]

Considering all the advice you have got distilling it down is good.
A GT 430 has about twice the performance of HD 4000.
A $100 more spent on the CPU that runs HD 4000 is like money in the bank.
The CPU is OOB. Another way to look at it.
Get CPU with HD 4000 and try your games out.
You can always get a card later and just stick it in,if it is OOB.

I have a Galaxy GT 430 and it works well but I do very little gaming.
I just use Graphics Enabler = Yes. Galaxy is a reference card design and they build cards for other manufacturers.
"look under the sticker we built it" Galaxy motto. I also have a Galaxy GT 640. I got it for $70 or less.
It is OOB. Apple makes native drivers for it and they are in the system. Not a fan of ATI because there is less support. Check articles for latest on NVIDIA .

I bought a cheaper CPU and had to buy a card. I do have some regrets. This was before HD 4000.
HD 3000 was much weaker so economically it made sense at time. If I had to do over at this time I would go
with better CPU.

The cards above GT 640 do sometimes need tweaks to get them to work. Usually this means an install with onboard graphics and then card is installed. This includes some OOB cards.

Many cards have a mini HDMI port do to poor layout so you may need to buy adapter.
EVGA needs adapter

 

[SYDE]

I'll be using an Intel i7 3770k processor, which has HD 4000. I might see how that does for me and if I think I need more I might check out the GTX 650 Ti, or Galaxy GT 640. Also, if possible, I'd like to use a card that only takes up one PCI space.

I will be doing a lot of video and VFX (Final cut and AE CS5). Would the HD 4000 in the i7 3770k be fast enough, or am I still looking at eternal render times? (I'm currently using a mid-2011 MBP [4GB RAM, i7 2GHz, Radeon 6490M 256MB VRAM]).