cheap gpu needed

[CU]

I am building a new computer in about 30 days for my son. My other son runs an Ivy Bridge Pentium or Celeron with a XFX R7-250E-ZNP4. I want to build something pretty much equivalent to that. I am thinking about a G4400, and another R7 250. Seems you can find R7 250's with DDR3 for around $50-$60 after rebate from time to time. Is there anything else around that price I should be looking at, AMD or Nvidia?

Gaming consists of Minecraft, lego games, and some Planetary Annihilation from time to time all at 1024 x 1280. Turning details to low / med is not a problem for them. One crazy though was since the resolution is low what about something like an old 6950 1gig? It would use way more power, but way faster than a R7 250 right? The PSU is a cx430.

 

[Arachnotronic]

CX430 only has a single six pin connector, no go for the 6950 (unless you use like a molex to PCIe adapter, but that could be risky given the PSU's capabilities).

EDIT: I like this R7 250 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127763&cm_re=r7_250-_-14-127-763-_-Product

 

[R0H1T]

I am building a new computer in about 30 days for my son. My other son runs an Ivy Bridge Pentium or Celeron with a XFX R7-250E-ZNP4. I want to build something pretty much equivalent to that. I am thinking about a G4400, and another R7 250. Seems you can find R7 250's with DDR3 for around $50-$60 after rebate from time to time. Is there anything else around that price I should be looking at, AMD or Nvidia?

Gaming consists of Minecraft, lego games, and some Planetary Annihilation from time to time all at 1024 x 1280. Turning details to low / med is not a problem for them. One crazy though was since the resolution is low what about something like an old 6950 1gig? It would use way more power, but way faster than a R7 250 right? The PSU is a cx430.

Better spend 15~30$ more & get one of these, the R7 360 is also a much better card for the given price ~ www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompa...$$$$$$$;14-131-669:$$$$$$$;14-202-196:$$$$$$$

 

[CU]

CX430 only has a single six pin connector, no go for the 6950 (unless you use like a molex to PCIe adapter, but that could be risky given the PSU's capabilities).

EDIT: I like this R7 250 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127763&cm_re=r7_250-_-14-127-763-_-Product

Thanks. I hadn't thought about the six pin connector. Is the GT 730 faster than the R7 250 DDR3? Tom's hardware gpu charts have the GT 730 one sport lower.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Thanks. I hadn't thought about the six pin connector. Is the GT 730 faster than the R7 250 DDR3? Tom's hardware gpu charts have the GT 730 one sport lower.

Not sure, TBH. Very hard to find good benchmarks for lower-tier GPUs.

Hey, that being said, have you considered just buying the G4400 and using the iGPU on it? HD 530 is probably powerful enough for those games that you mentioned.

If it turns out to not be enough, then buy a separate dGPU. No need to spend more than you have to...

 

[LTC8K6]

Sounds like an AMD APU based system may be the way to go?

7860K with some 2133 ram

 

[CU]

Not sure, TBH. Very hard to find good benchmarks for lower-tier GPUs.

Hey, that being said, have you considered just buying the G4400 and using the iGPU on it? HD 530 is probably powerful enough for those games that you mentioned.

If it turns out to not be enough, then buy a separate dGPU. No need to spend more than you have to...

The G4400 has the HD 510. I would need to get the G4500 to get the HD 530. Although I don't really know what the difference is. But, yes I have thought about putting the GPU money into the CPU and using the iGPU. I need to find some benchmarks of iGPU vs some low end dGPU's.

 

[LTC8K6]

With the 7860K you get a 4 core CPU and a R7 512SP GPU in one. It should do much better in games than HD530 graphics.

 

[CU]

Better spend 15~30$ more & get one of these, the R7 360 is also a much better card for the given price ~ www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompa...$$$$$$$;14-131-669:$$$$$$$;14-202-196:$$$$$$$

Unfortunately that is out of the price range. Mainly because my other son would probably want an upgrade also then. Also I just found a R7 250 DDR3 for $45 after rebate. So, that R7 360 would almost be double and they really don't need the extra power.

 

[LTC8K6]

IIRC, the 7860K will do hybrid crossfire with an r7-250, but you really wouldn't need another video card?

 

[R0H1T]

Unfortunately that is out of the price range. Mainly because my other son would probably want an upgrade also then. Also I just found a R7 250 DDR3 for $45 after rebate. So, that R7 360 would almost be double and they really don't need the extra power.

In which case the 7860K is the better choice, paired with decently quick RAM it'll beat R7 250 DDR3 handily, & has a TDP of just 65W so more room for OC.

 

[CU]

That 7860K looks pretty good for around $100. I don't see how I can hit that price and performance with a dGPU solution.

 

[tweakboy]

Grab a 760 or 660

 

[CU]

I don't like how much the 7860K downclocks once the iGPU is used.

7890K drops to 3.0ghz
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-a10-7890k-gaming-performance-benchmark,4491-2.html

7860K drops to 2.5ghz
http://www.jagatoc.com/2016/03/hand...-a10-7860k-godavari-65w-dengan-cooler-baru/2/

 

[CU]

Looks like two choices.

$100 for a 7860K
$80 R7 360 (cheaper than 250 ddr 5) + $60 Pentium

Save $40 and get a better cpu, and use iGPU or get the much better GPU and slower two core CPU. Not sure which is better. Leaning toward saving the $40 and getting the 7860K.

 

[gorion]

Take a look at A8-7650k as well. usually the A8 series has the better price/performance ratio in Amd Apus.

 

[MrTeal]

I actually have a CX430 with a 1GB 6950 running in my HTPC. It's flashed to 6970 shaders and has an Arctic Twin Turbo 2 cooler on it, but it runs fine using a molex to PCIe adapter.

 

[Silverforce11]

You're playing at low resolution. Get an AMD A8 APU.

It will chew through those games at that resolution, no need to spend anymore on a dGPU that will be obsolete when your son upgrades later anyway.

If he upgrades a in a year or two, with 1080p, you can plug in a dGPU then and the quad core A8 will still power it fine. Don't go with cheap 2 core CPUs + cheap dGPU combo, they will both be obsolete.

 

[frozentundra123456]

As Gorian said, the second tier APUs (A8xxxx) are a much better value than the A10 series. And due to thermal and bandwidth limitations, the performance is not that far apart. Prices of the top line APUs are simply too close to an Athlon x4 plus a discrete card. Dont know where you can find a 100.00 A10-7850k, but using newegg prices:

Athlon X4 860k (no igpu) = 70.00, A8-7600 = 80.00, 7850K = 115.00, and that R7-360 Rohit linked is 75.00 after rebate.

IMO, the two best options are:

1. Absolute cheapest, good enough for the games you mentioned, A8-7600 for 80.00.

2. Much better performance, probably close to twice that of either of the APUs, Athlon x4 860k plus R7 360, for 145.00 after rebate for the gpu. This is only 30.00 more that the 7850k, and will give close to twice the perfomance with no throttling issues. It will also make the system much more capable in the future, should you want to play more demanding games at a decent resolution like 1080p.

I would not go Intel unless you are willing to move up to an i3 (around 120.00) plus a dgpu like the 75.00 R7 mentioned earlier.

 

[LTC8K6]

I don't like how much the 7860K downclocks once the iGPU is used.

7890K drops to 3.0ghz
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-a10-7890k-gaming-performance-benchmark,4491-2.html

7860K drops to 2.5ghz
http://www.jagatoc.com/2016/03/hand...-a10-7860k-godavari-65w-dengan-cooler-baru/2/

The throttling only occurs if the GPU is pushed hard, which you won't be doing?

Plus, it's still a 4 thread CPU vs a 2 thread Pentium.

 

[CU]

Ordered the A10-7860K for $105 at Newegg. They had a $10 off code. I picked it over the A8-7600 because it is just a little faster and I can overclock the iGPU now when he needs it and the CPU later if he ever gets a dGPU. I didn't go with the 860K and R7 360 because I just don't think he needs that much GPU power right now. He would need a new monitor to do 1080p and with new AMD cards coming out soon'ish they are only going to get cheaper. But, it was really hard not to go the faster route.

Any MB or ram recommendations? The MB would need to support the Godavari cpu out of the box as I couldn't flash it.

 

[Spanners]

ASRock A88M-G/3.1 FM2+
+
F3-2133C10D-8GSR

Too pricey?

 

[gorion]

Ordered the A10-7860K for $105 at Newegg. They had a $10 off code. I picked it over the A8-7600 because it is just a little faster and I can overclock the iGPU now when he needs it and the CPU later if he ever gets a dGPU. I didn't go with the 860K and R7 360 because I just don't think he needs that much GPU power right now. He would need a new monitor to do 1080p and with new AMD cards coming out soon'ish they are only going to get cheaper. But, it was really hard not to go the faster route.

Any MB or ram recommendations? The MB would need to support the Godavari cpu out of the box as I couldn't flash it.

It's more important to have fast ram that an overcloked GPU in the APU. Usually APUs are bandwidth starved.

Be sure to get 2133mhz RAM

 

[PingSpike]

Unfortunately that is out of the price range. Mainly because my other son would probably want an upgrade also then. Also I just found a R7 250 DDR3 for $45 after rebate. So, that R7 360 would almost be double and they really don't need the extra power.

Don't buy that R7 250. I have it and the lack of memory bandwidth from DDR3 means it's pretty much the same performance as my old HD4850, albeit with much better power consumption. It fits my niche use case alright, but if I had to do it over again I think I would have saved my pennies. That R7 360 is an interesting option, but once you get up to ~$80 there are occasionally $85AR deals on 750ti that might be worth looking at.

 

[frozentundra123456]

The OP already ordered the 7860K, so I am assuming he is not going to get a discrete card, since he would have been better off with an Athlon x4 if he were.

If you are talking about crossfire, I agree. Usually not a good solution, better to just buy a stronger dgpu.