sub-$30 video cards

[Magic Carpet]

doesn't that suck.. that the choice is limited now. Kinda hard to upgrade old boxes with no IGP :/

5450/8400 cards do not count.

 

[Durvelle27]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102933

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130656

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500239

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130814

 

[TemjinGold]

Doesn't suck at all.

 

[tynopik]

5450/8400 cards do not count.

why not?

 

[Magic Carpet]

why not?

I want a "7000 Class" low-end option, rather than old re-branded tech. 7750 seems to be lowest, but that's a bit too expensive. Lowest Kepler is 640... and that's about 100 bucks as well.

 

[Red Hawk]

Yeah, latest generation will run you about $100 minimum. AMD and Nvidia aren't making the cheap ~$30 cards this generation because the GPU part of Intel and AMD's latest chips are enough to beat them.

 

[billyb0b]

I want a "7000 Class" low-end option, rather than old re-branded tech. 7750 seems to be lowest, but that's a bit too expensive. Lowest Kepler is 640... and that's about 100 bucks as well.

Look for a used one on ebay then. I had an old 7700gt that i got a few years back for $10 after rebates. it was passively cooled and worked well for what i needed it for

 

[Red Hawk]

I think he means "7000 class" AMD, not 7000 series Nvidia.

 

[A5]

Yeah, latest generation will run you about $100 minimum. AMD and Nvidia aren't making the cheap ~$30 cards this generation because the GPU part of Intel and AMD's latest chips are enough to beat them.

This. The new-chip $30 GPU market is dead due to the advances made in IGPs.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Yeah, latest generation will run you about $100 minimum. AMD and Nvidia aren't making the cheap ~$30 cards this generation because the GPU part of Intel and AMD's latest chips are enough to beat them.

This sucks, because... economically now it's better for me to do a complete system upgrade, rather than to re-use the components that I have. Thing is, Trinity and IB low-cost components haven't even reached the market yet.

 

[futurefields]

edit: nevermind.

 

[slackingoff7]

You could always get a low end 4 series from Nvidia such as the GT 430. I have been running GT 240s for a couple years on a couple computers. Good workhorse computer for light gaming and everyday use.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I know this is a computer forum and we should stay 100% on topic but you are saying you are upset because you cannot find a $30 video card using radeon 7000 tech.

Are you full time employed? Do your monthly expenses exceed your income? Are you struggling to make ends meet?

If so you should NOT be looking into a computer upgrade and you SHOULD be looking into someway to improve your financial situation for the future.

Sorry to be off-topic and preachy. I just think people are fundamentally misguided when it reaches this point (only can afford a $30 video card.. that is sad to the core) ...

Best of luck to you.

I'm sure it's possible he could afford a $100 video card if he wanted. Working for minimum wage (not saying he is making minimum wage) you could scrape together $100 pretty easily I imagine. Sometimes I'm the same way. I have plenty of money to do whatever I want but I only have X amount of dollars I'm going to spend for something. Doesn't matter if I have a million in the bank or whatever. X amount is set aside for said part and that's the limit. Plain and simple.
I could afford any computer part I wanted to put in my computer and not even notice the money honestly. Thing is though I'm not interested in buying the high end parts anymore. I picked up my gtx 460 for $85 and I'm happy with that. I don't need the e peen inflator anymore. Hell I just reset the bios on my motherboard and I'm not even bothering with overclocking my cpu.

 

[tynopik]

I want a "7000 Class" low-end option, rather than old re-branded tech.

I'll ask again, why?

what specifically does '7000 Class' do that you need?

 

[Red Hawk]

Yeah. You're obviously not going to be doing any heavy duty DirectX 11 gaming, so the graphics architecture advances won't matter much. The Radeon HD 6000 series/Geforce 500 series support the same APIs as the 7000 series (Direct3D 11, OpenGL 4, OpenCL, etc) and have much the same video processing features. What's keeping you from buying something like a Radeon HD 6450 or a Geforce 520 GT?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah. You're obviously not going to be doing any heavy duty DirectX 11 gaming, so the graphics architecture advances won't matter much. The Radeon HD 6000 series/Geforce 500 series support the same APIs as the 7000 series (Direct3D 11, OpenGL 4, OpenCL, etc) and have much the same video processing features. What's keeping you from buying something like a Radeon HD 6450 or a Geforce 520 GT?

The 7xxx series does have better thermals than the 6xxx series... but a 6450's TDP is <30w, so it's not exactly a heat problem.

 

[Jionix]

I'm pretty sure 7600/7500/7400 chips from AMD will be rebrands of previous generation chips.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Just got this card for $75 shipped. Should give enough boost for my ageing Conroe box (which I got for $50). Speaking of performance per dollar (I hate to spend much on electronics these days).

P.S. Geforce 610 (re-branded 520) just didn't look right to me in the end.