[Enak101]

Hey all i was wondering what gpu was cheap, i live in Australia and prefer 200$ at the most. I wouldn't be playing on a massive monitor with highest resolution, i would be playing low to medium resolution probably. It seems the cards that are cheap have terrible reviews. Anyone have a good gpu in my price range.

[Digerati]

Check this out. It is in US dollars but should give you a good idea. And by the way, even a cheap graphics card can display on large monitors in high resolutions. The difference has to do with how fast the card can update the display and unless you are doing serious 3D animated gaming, you don't need a high-end card.

Toms Hardware Best Graphics Cards for the Money August 2010

[Enak101]

well yeah i just want to run the latest games with no lag or problems, i know i might need some more ram then my 2gb for that also but onboard graphics card atm isnt very good, will the under 90 us dollar ones be fine for that, i dont mind playing on medium or no AA etc.

[Digerati]

Quote

well yeah i just want to run the latest games with no lag or problems

Well, a $90 card will certainly be a big improvement over your on-board graphics. It will likely have a better GPU, and it will contain dedicated RAM tweaked for graphics. And once the on-board is disabled, that will free up any system RAM that was being used by the on-board GPU giving you a little RAM boost at the same time. That said, since your desire is to play the latest games with no lag, depending on the game, you may still have some lag issues. Spending more on a better card will yield better gaming performance.

WARNING: A graphics card can easily require more power than many of the latest powerful CPUs - certainly more than the on-board graphics solution. You MUST ensure your power supply has enough horsepower (and necessary connections) to support any new card you buy.

[Enak101]

yeah, i see what you mean, thanks i have been looking around and seems some good 1gb cards that are under 200 Australian might get that

[Digerati]

A 1Gb board would likely be a good choice. So from there, you need to look at connections. The best solution to carry you the furthest into the future is HDMI. But only the newest monitors have HDMI ports. Next best is DVI, which carries the exact same digital video as HDMI, but in a larger connection. Most monitors that support digital support DVI. And while not a big issue with computers, DVI does not carry audio while HDMI supports video and 6 channel (5.1) audio.

Last, and least desirable is analog using D-Sub (standard VGA) 15-pin connections. Analog LCD and all CRT monitors use D-Sub.

That said, because many people still prefer CRT monitors, cards with HDMI or DVI connections can use adapters to feed analog only monitors.

You need to look at your current monitor, but plan for the future.

[Enak101]

umm ok... . Umm nah heh my monitor atm is a cheap acer one and it is really wide and not that tall, well not really wide but compared to how high it is. Will the gpu work with any monitor pretty much, its a newer like lcd monitor or well its not the chunky one .

[Digerati]

Note, to ensure proper use of terminology, thus avoiding confusion, the "GPU" is the graphics processor unit. A computer "chip", "IC" or "integrated circuit" and it is mounted on the "graphics card" or the motherboard for integrated graphics. Like the CPU (central processing unit) the GPU doesn't know squat, and must rely on the components, and programming of those components, on the board it is mounted on.

A new graphics card (also called video card) will work with just about any monitor. It may require an inexpensive adapter, which often comes in the graphics card box. We will need to know specific models numbers of your monitor and the card you are considering to be sure. You can also look at your monitor, or better yet, its manual, to see what it supports. If you don't have the manual, you can download it from Acer.

[Enak101]

hmm cant seem to figure out what model it is, i know we have the book somewhere so i will look around, i was hoping to get the ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 gpu, on ebay brand new it is about 207 Australian dollars, its 249 in one of the local pc stores, darn they are always expensive. Getting that gpu would seem like an excuse to get windows 7 for directX11 heh. Well i will let you know what monitor i have.

[Digerati]

Again, not "GPU", but graphics card.

There should be a model number on the back or under the base of the monitor.

Do make sure your current motherboard supports PCIe.

[Welshhobo]

For $200, the best card you can buy is an MSI Nvidia 460GTX, which is currently the best card to use in SLI.

If you only want a $90, i would suggest a ATI Radeon HD 4850