The entry level video card hot deals thread

[cbn]

XFX R7 240 DDR3 2GB low profile, $39.99 AR free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150677

This one also has DDR3 1600 (128 bit) rather than the DDR3 1800 I normally see with the R7 cards.

 

[cbn]

XFX GT620 for $19.99 After rebate:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...271&CatId=7005

This deal would have been hotter if the shipping were free, but if a person is already ordering something from Tiger Direct total shipping should only increase by a very small amount (In my experience TD usually adds ~50 cents extra shipping for each additional item.)

With that mentioned, this video card is more powerful than the HD5450. (but keep in mind the memory system is still 64 bit DDR3 1000).

Another reason to choose this over HD5450 would be if the user is planning to use Linux. (re: Nvidia's proprietary drivers for Linux are much better than AMD's.)

Overall, I would say this is a good candidate for older boxes running Linux looking for a mild gaming upgrade or HTPC usage. (I figure this card is probably around the performance of my Athlon 5350's iGPU in Windows, and faster in Linux)

 

[Homerboy]

Say somebody wanted to find a good, cheap card to upgrade his 8800GT to pair with an AMD Phenom X4...

 

[cbn]

Say somebody wanted to find a good, cheap card to upgrade his 8800GT to pair with an AMD Phenom X4...

According to Tom's video card heirarchy a R7 250 DDR3 or GT 730 64 bit GDDR5 would be an upgrade over the 8800 GT 512MB:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

The video card listed in post #25 is the same thing as the GT730 64 bit GDDR5, but it happens to be a low profile card (so the noise could be more of an issue than with the full width version).

Another option would be to wait and see if a R7 250 GDDR5 drops below $50.

 

[Homerboy]

According to Tom's video card heirarchy a R7 250 DDR3 or GT 730 64 bit GDDR5 would be an upgrade over the 8800 GT 512MB:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

The video card listed in post #25 is the same thing as the GT730 64 bit GDDR5, but it happens to be a low profile card (so the noise could be more of an issue than with the full width version).

Another option would be to wait and see if a R7 250 GDDR5 drops below $50.

I'm willing to spend a little more...
the one you linked doesn't seem to be that big of a upgrade from the 8800GT though:

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GT-8800-vs-GeForce-GT-640

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Basically any video card that is low in cost (Somewhere around $50 and less after any rebate).

I got a winner here: MSI GT 640 1gb for $50.- AR

 

[cbn]

Here is another GT 640 64 bit GDDR5:

($49.99 After $20 rebate, free shipping)

http://www.frys.com/product/8087314?...%20date:101514

As mentioned earlier in the thread, these GT 640s with 64 bit GDDR5 have about ~38% more memory bandwidth than the 128 bit DDR3 1800 versions.

P.S. So far the best price I have seen on a GT640 GDDR5 was $39.99 AR free shipping (about 4 weeks ago).

 

[cbn]

Cooler height comparison of MSI GT640 64 GDDR5 (top image) to the ASUS GT 640 GDDR5 (bottom image):

So if space is a consideration (ie, you have a typical SFF pre-built with room for only a single slot cooler) go with the ASUS card.

 

[Bman123]

I'm willing to spend a little more...
the one you linked doesn't seem to be that big of a upgrade from the 8800GT though:

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GT-8800-vs-GeForce-GT-640

I'd buy a used card for 50 in the fs section and call it a day.

 

[cbn]

I was looking at a fanless low-profile ready Zotac GT630 the other day at Newegg. It was $34.99 at the time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500346

Edit: Decided to order. Needed some low-power yet CUDA-capable video cards. No gaming.

Edit: According to this, the card is rated at 25W:
http://www.dabs.com/products/zotac-...express-2-0x16-hdmi-zone-edition-lp-9KQ3.html

Edit: GPU-Z is reporting 400Mhz memory. Meaning, DDR3-800. According to Zotac's site, the card has DDR3-1600. I'm a little concerned.
http://www.zotac.com/products/graph...er/DESC/amount/10/section/specifications.html

I had thought it was clocked down, due to low memory controller load (0-20%) on PrimeGrid PPS cuda WUs. But my other Q9300 @ 3.0 w/GT630, is running at 100% memory controller load, and 97% GPU load, and GPU-Z is still reporting 400Mhz for the memory clock.

So this batch of cards, may have DDR3-800 memory on it. Can you get much cheaper? I'm a little upset, Zotac and Newegg's site both claim DDR3-1600. Is it possible, that it's not running at 3D clocks? Is there some way to boost clocks? I think that the cards come with overclocking software, I'll have to try installing it, I guess.

What does MSI Afterburner report the clocks as?

 

[VirtualLarry]

What does MSI Afterburner report the clocks as?

I just installed AfterBurner 4.00, and it reports memory clock as 800.

Guess it's OK then.

 

[cbn]

I was looking at a fanless low-profile ready Zotac GT630 the other day at Newegg. It was $34.99 at the time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500346

Edit: Now $59.99 and $3.99 shipping.

Newegg put another Zotac GT630 on sale:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...04&ignorebbr=1

Same form factor and passive sink, but 2GB of GDDR3 1800 rather than 1GB of DDR3 1600.

Price: $39.99 free shipping

NOTE: This particular card has a 64 bit memory system (which limits bandwidth if not coupled to GDDR5 memory), so unless a person needs Nvidia and/or fanless there will be faster cards for the money available.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Newegg put another Zotac GT630 on sale:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...04&ignorebbr=1
Same form factor and passive sink, but 2GB of GDDR3 1800 rather than 1GB of DDR3 1600.
Price: $39.99 free shipping

Not bad. Wondering if I should have waited. $5 more for twice the memory. Hmm.

 

[mikeford]

Not bad. Wondering if I should have waited. $5 more for twice the memory. Hmm.

Waiting always good, except you don't have anything until you stop waiting.

 

[cbn]

I was looking at a fanless low-profile ready Zotac GT630 the other day at Newegg. It was $34.99 at the time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500346


Edit: Now $59.99 and $3.99 shipping.

Back on sale for $34.99 free shipping, but now with a 10% off promo code making it $31.49 free shipping.

 

[cbn]

ASUS GT 630 $29.99 AR Free shipping:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D6KOU66/...xtension-kb-20

$30 rebate expires 11/30/2014 and must be postmarked 30 days or less after purchase.

2GB GDDR3 1800 (64 bit).

NOTE: Does not come with half height bracket.

 

[beekeeper]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131338

 

[mikeford]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131338

Nice low power, lots of dead in a few months.

 

[PingSpike]

Nice low power, lots of dead in a few months.

I was going to snatch this up but now I'm waffling. Despite the 4/5 egg reviews just the first couple pages have an alarmingly high number of failures within 6 months. Not sure what is up with that. Some sort of cooling design screw up?

 

[J30_Uwe]

I wouldn't get the 5450. I got one a while back and it had issues from day one. It seemed like it was getting too hot so I lapped the heatsink to get a better contact but it still didn't work. Even if it was free AR I wouldn't get it.

 

[cbn]

With Amazon no longer having the deal in post #41 here are two alternatives:

ASUS GT630 with 2GB GDDR 1800 (64 bit), $29.99 AR plus $3.58 shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...78&ignorebbr=1

($30 rebate expires 11/30/2014)

ASUS GT630 with 2GB GDDR 1800 (64 bit), $32.54 plus shipping

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=8245491

($30 rebate expires 11/30/2014)

 

[cbn]

On these Nvidia Kepler cards with 64 bit DDR3 or GDDR3, I wonder how much difference there is in gaming performance between the cards with 384 Kepler CUDA cores @ 902 Mhz (eg, GT 630 and GT 730) and 192 Kepler CUDA cores @ 792 MHz (eg, GT 720)?

This assuming they have the same memory speed (which they often do).

 

[PingSpike]

I wouldn't get the 5450. I got one a while back and it had issues from day one. It seemed like it was getting too hot so I lapped the heatsink to get a better contact but it still didn't work. Even if it was free AR I wouldn't get it.

Yeah, it looks like its back up to $20AR anyway.

 

[cbn]

Yesterday, I finally installed the XFX GT 620 that I bought for $19.99 AR --> http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36805596&postcount=27

MSI reports the Memory speed at 533 (So I have DDR3 1066 which is faster than the listed spec of DDR3 1000).

So far I have been very pleased with its performance under Windows 8.1 using the low end Core 2 duo that it is paired with. I also couldn't hear it over the existing fan noise of the Dell Pre-built I was using while gaming at 1080p (low) in TF2.

 

[cbn]

Another Gt630 on sale:

Zotac gt630 1GB GDDR3 1800 for $34.99 free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...05&ignorebbr=1