Which Nvidia GeForce graphics card would be best suited for my PC

[SwayamDas]

Hi Guys, I need your expertise in buying the BEST graphics card that would suit my needs. First let me give you a little detail about my present CPU -

Intel DH55TC Motherboard, 2GB DDR3 RAM. Intel Core i3 530 processor
OS= Windows XP Professional SP2 x86
Samsung Monitor Resolution: 1360x768
I am looking for a Nvidia GeForce Graphics card that runs latest games.

Also, my budget is around Rs4000. The less the better.

So what are your suggestions

 

[RussianSensation]

Hi Guys, I need your expertise in buying the BEST graphics card that would suit my needs. First let me give you a little detail about my present CPU -

Intel DH55TC Motherboard, 2GB RAM.
OS= Windows XP Professional SP2 x86

I am looking for a Nvidia GeForce Graphics card that runs latest games.

Also, my budget is around Rs4000. The less the better.

So what are your suggestions

Welcome to Anandtech!

1. You will want to upgrade your RAM to at least 4GBs for gaming. To run dual-channel, you'd need same sized RAM sticks (so 2x2GB or 2x4GB, etc.). If you are on a budget, grab another 2GBs. Otherwise, I suggest you just get rid of that 2GB stick and buy a 2x4GB kit right off the bat (get a kit with 1.5V or lower, spec DDR3-1333, DDR3-1600 recommended).

2. Can you please provide the resolution of your monitor?

3. What Power Supply do you have? (wattage and Amperage on 12V rail).

4. What graphics cards are available for RS4000 where you live? Also, please list NV and AMD alternatives. Based on the conversation rate, it appears to be around $90 USD. That's not a sufficient budget for a graphics card required to play the latest games with highest details and anti-aliasing. The best cards < $100 are probably going to be a GTS450 or an AMD HD5770. However, if you can stretch the budget a little, GTX460 768mb is the best card for gaming (assuming your monitor's resolution doesn't exceed 1080P). Again, it would be good to know the market prices of these cards in Kolkata.

5. If you have a dual core CPU, then be prepared to lose anywhere from 25-30&#37; in performance in certain games that take advantage of 4 cores (BF2:BC, probably more in BF3, Dirt 3 and Witcher 2).

6. Here is a comparison of top budget videocards under $150 USD (you can see HD3000 in there is unusable for modern games - that's the fastest Intel Integrated graphics, which is 2x faster than yours).

 

[nvidiaintelftw]

GTS450

/Thread

 

[toyota]

unless I am crazy, SP3 came out a LONG time ago for XP so you need to upgrade to that too.

 

[pantsaregood]

Windows XP doesn't even support anything above DX9 officially. A lot of the features newer GPUs offer will be wasted on your archaic operating system.

 

[Rifter]

Windows XP doesn't even support anything above DX9 officially. A lot of the features newer GPUs offer will be wasted on your archaic operating system.

this, dont bother with anything newer than a 4xxx series ATI card or a 8xxx series Nvidia card.

 

[FalseChristian]

Windows XP is hardly an archaic OS. Windows 7 has 3D...Whoooo! DirectX 9 can do everything DirectX 11 can do minus tesselation.

 

[Lonbjerg]

Windows XP is hardly an archaic OS. Windows 7 has 3D...Whoooo! DirectX 9 can do everything DirectX 11 can do minus tesselation.

False, try going multithreaded in the drivers...and that is just the start of it.

You are not one of those "DX10 and above could run under XP"-types I hope?

 

[crisium]

GTS 250 if you're Power Supply can run it. Usually it is cheaper than the GTS 450, yet offers very similar performance. If you can find them for the same price get the GTS 450, but at least on newegg the GTS 250 is much cheaper.

 

[toyota]

GTS 250 if you're Power Supply can run it. Usually it is cheaper than the GTS 450, yet offers very similar performance. If you can find them for the same price get the GTS 450, but at least on newegg the GTS 250 is much cheaper.

a gts450 is about 20&#37; faster and costs about 20% more than the gts250 1gb on newegg.

 

[crisium]

Hmm, at such a lower resolution the GTS 450 might indeed be up to 20&#37; faster than the GTS 250. At higher resolutions they perform within about 10-15% of each other.

 

[toyota]

Hmm, at such a lower resolution the GTS 450 might indeed be up to 20&#37; faster than the GTS 250. At higher resolutions they perform within about 10-15% of each other.

yeah the higher the res, the closer they get. the fermi cards do seem to get weaker quicker at higher res where there additional sp seem to be less important for some reason.