Low end GPU?

**GeorgeTheLion** · 17-04-12

I literally have no idea about low end GPU's so I felt I should get your guys help.

I am contemplating building my little brother a computer as the laptop he uses at the moment for flash games is far too slow. xD

It has a phenom II powered by a 430w Corsair builders series psu. What sort of low end card should I be looking at? or do you guys think I should just stick with the onboard and overclock it at tad.

ty in advance.

**pastyman** · 17-04-12

Onboard will be pretty poor so something like a Nvidia GT210 or AMD 5450, both around £24 would be miles better.

**joker3327** · 17-04-12

Surely a Phenom II and onboard should play flash games fine? what is the motherboard / onboard gfx you are thinking of using??

**GeorgeTheLion** · 17-04-12

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.as...80g%20extreme3

that is the motherboard. Just wondering whether or not onboard will be good or if it will be worth just getting a cheap £30-£50 new/used graphics card. Like I said flash games is all he really plays but I am thinking of a decentish low end gpu if he decides to play other games like sims 2 or anything like that.

**joker3327** · 17-04-12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKmJDspI0r4

Wow lol......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx36k_O2wnE

worth trying it before you shell out when it might but just fine..

useful site.....

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/

Can you run it...

**GeorgeTheLion** · 17-04-12

Yeah may just stick with onboard for now. Just as a general question for future possible reference, whats the max gpu a 430w psu can support atm, could it support a 6870?

**joker3327** · 17-04-12

http://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/...graphics-cards

Radeon HD 6870 - 28A and a 500W PSU minimum

**GeorgeTheLion** · 17-04-12

Originally Posted by joker3327

http://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/...graphics-cards

Radeon HD 6870 - 28A and a 500W PSU minimum

Knew I should have gotten the 500w version.

**dirtylarryuk** · 19-04-12

Originally Posted by GeorgeTheLion

Knew I should have gotten the 500w version.

The only issue with the onbaord GPU is driver errors vs the casual games. You might find even the cheap AMD and Nvidia cards £30-50 have better FPS and far less driver fubars. Even when a mobo has a 'real' AMD or Nvidia GPU built in it often shares VRAM with RAM and still has driver issues vs a real actual PCIE GPU. So let him test the games on the onboard if it's no good then you bil him the £25-50 for something better

It's often about the games more than anything and if they play nice with the onboard drivers.

**TheMadDutchDude** · 19-04-12

Just a heads up... The Sims will run fine on onboard graphics. You can play The Sims 3 on an Intel XMA4500 (close to four years old?) without issues. Obviously it isn't maxed or anything but it is playable. I expect the onboard to be more powerful than my laptops XMA4500 chip.

**dirtylarryuk** · 19-04-12

Originally Posted by TheMadDutchDude

Just a heads up... The Sims will run fine on onboard graphics. You can play The Sims 3 on an Intel XMA4500 (close to four years old?) without issues. Obviously it isn't maxed or anything but it is playable. I expect the onboard to be more powerful than my laptops XMA4500 chip.

GEORGE if you hunt on google there's a website with a list of games and how well or not they work with Intel on board may help you work out what to recommend to play or not.

**joker3327** · 20-04-12

Originally Posted by dirtylarryuk

GEORGE if you hunt on google there's a website with a list of games and how well or not they work with Intel on board may help you work out what to recommend to play or not.

Post #5 contains the link and his board has an AMD 4250 hd

**Mr. Grapes** · 20-04-12

a 6850 will run fine off a 430w PSU, I had my q6600 overclocked, and with a 6850, and the whole system never drew more than 300w from the wall. as long as the builder 430 has a 6-pin graphics power cable, It will handle it, especially if it isn't loaded up with 25 HDD's or other bonkers configs. the recommendations by the GPU companies for 500w min spec PSU's are based on rubbish PSU's that bend the wattage reporting and the fact that they have to cover their asses, so they build in a massive buffer to compensate. corsair builder are decent.

use this for a real-world power consumption estimate:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1140534/p...-final-release

it gives you a recommended PSU capacity with overhead

and it usually comes out lower than you expect...

that 430 will be fine for most cards that aren't a) stupidly high end, b) dual e.g. crossfire or SLI or c) massively overclocked CPU + watercooling

**dirtylarryuk** · 21-04-12

Originally Posted by joker3327

Post #5 contains the link and his board has an AMD 4250 hd

I think AMD fans have a site for the mobile onboard GPU's (often found in laptops as like Nvidia they do deviate* from the desktop products from time to time). *by that I mean driver support the old line of text found on many PC games Boxes or steam store pages 'may not work-been tested on laptop or mobile chipsets' often applies to on board GPUs as well.

Just remeber if you do go for a 'budget' even quality brand PSu be careful about OC on CPU or GPU as that is the thing that can push you over the 'edge' power wise so if you plug in a 6850 and it works do remeber not to mess with OC with it unless you get a even bigger PSU. Very Lite OC should be fine.

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