I recently decided that I'm tired of running all my games on low settings and still having to deal with low frame rate, and decided to look into video cards. Long story short, I found this amazing deal: Sapphire 100292DDR3L Radeon HD 5450 Video Card - 1GB, DDR3, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), Dual-Link DVI, HDMI, VGA, DirectX 11, Single-Slot, Low Profile at TigerDirect.com

Now, I'm not looking for anything high-end, just something that will be a big improvement over no video card (or integrated graphics, however you prefer to say it). This card looks like an excellent fit for what I need, but I've never really messed with graphics cards before and can't be sure. Can someone put that card's power in simple terms for me? I'm guessing the 1GB is a LOT of memory, it supports DX 11, and OpenGL 3.2, all of which sound really, really impressive for a card that cheap. But again, I need someone who knows this stuff to confirm this for me

Next, I should point out that I have an Intel CPU. (FYI I'll be installing this on a different desktop computer; not the laptop that I have specs listed for on this site) I've heard that Radeon and Intel don't mix well, but couldn't find any sites confirming or denying it. Do I need an AMD processor to use this card well?



Finally, is this as good a deal as I think it is? I was comparing some of its stuff to an nVidia GeForce 8600 GT and it seemed to beat that card in about half of the specs, and that card costs several hundred dollars retail. But maybe I was misinterpreting.

If I need to post more specs about the computer I'm putting this in, let me know. I don't know what's important and don't want to go around the computer finding specs if I don't have to; it's a new (to me) computer so I don't know all the info like I do for my laptop.

Hi Slammer, I hate to say it, but, need more info, can you use speccy to get the motherboard info ? Speccy is what i use, it is free, and has pretty detailed info. Speccy - System Information - Free Download
Just watch for the download site wanting to install some toolbar , they get sneaky . Post back when able .

Firstly, its hard to compare amd/ati with nvidia just on specs. The way the 2 brands work are really different making that not work.

A 8600gt card may have been a hundred dollar card when it came out 4 or 5 yrs ago. But I bought one for 26 bucks 2 yrs ago or so.

The 5450 is a very entry card great for media servers and such, but games are meh.

I need to know 3 things... How fats your case? Do you have a pci-e x16 slot, and how big the power supply is.
Or What brand and model is your computer...

Ok, here we go. Specs based off Speccy and some of what I already know:

HP Pavillion a6500f (with a replaced hard drive, the old one went bad). Vista Home Premium 64 bit (up to date on everything), Intel Pentium E2220 @ 2.4 GHz (2 cores), 4gig ddr2 RAM, Foxconn Napa MOBO with NVIDIA GeForce 7100 chipset, Phoenix Technologies BIOS (on version 5.13; should I update that?) One PCIe x16 slot (not being used), GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i graphics (integrated), 150GB Samsung SP1604N hard drive (I may change out hard drives for a bigger one if I can find one sometime) CD/DVD read/write drive, Realtek High Definition Audio, NVIDIA nForce 10/100 Mbps Ethernet.

My case is 6.5 inches wide. I have a 250W PSU, but I have an older computer that isn't being used that has a 450W PSU I could probably switch out for if I needed to. Does a bigger PSU have a risk of frying my MOBO or anything? Or do MOBOs just take however much power they need so it's not an issue?

Did I say 8600 GT? I meant 8800 GT.

Basically, I'm looking for a card that will let me play something like Space Marine on low-medium graphics without stuttering. If that's too much to ask for a card under $50, then maybe same thing for Dawn of War 2 instead, or Assasin's Creed.

As a side note, when I go to Can You Run It? on my laptop it almost always tells me that my video card isn't good enough, but then always shows that I have more than enough video RAM, 3D support, Hardware T&L, Pixel Shader version, and Vertex Shader version for minimum and recommended specs for my video card (which is just my integrated chipset). But then I have to play new games on all low settings for it to run without issue, and even then sometimes it doesn't work. But when I go there on this other desktop, it tells me the video card passed, even though it has lower specs than it says my laptop has. And in actually playing games, my laptop handles them slightly better than the desktop. So what's the deal with that?


Thanks for taking the time to help me with all this. I know it's a lot

Also, I found this site for the card I'm looking at: ATI Radeon Now, this one is made by ATI instead of Sapphire, but does that matter? They should still be the same card, right? Because that site seems to say that it'll function as a fairly decent gaming card...

You can't have any card. 250W is to low for any dedicated video card.

For inf, ati/amd make the refence cards.. Then companies like saphire make the cards that you actually buy at the shop.

Ok let's say I swap it out for a 450W one. How about then?

What's a reference card?

450 WILL POWER almost 65% of the cards out there. So yha... 450Ws okay.

A reference card is what all the actual companies build their cards from.

Nvidia and ATI/AMD don't actually make any products for you to buy. They sell boards designs, aka the reference board, to the companies that make the final product you then buy.
If you've noticed, there are same card numbers but different fans, speeds and colors.

Ok cool.

So would that card make a decent upgrade for gaming on low settings or do I need to get a better one? What specs should I look for in a card like that?

How much, in total, do you want to spend?

If youre not looking for the latest and greatest, I'd look at this:
Newegg.com - XFX GT-240X-YAFA GeForce GT 240 512MB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
or
Newegg.com - PowerColor AX5570 1GBD3-H Radeon HD 5570 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card