[Method]

Hello there.

I don't get my rig until two months from now and was wondering if It would be possible buy a cheap graphics card in the one hundred - one fifty price range to use as a placeholder until I get my PC.

My specs are:

AMD Athlon™ II X4 640
and I have ONLY 4.8 gigs of ram.

Is there anyway we can work with this for now so I can play GTA IV on at least high-ish settings with some midend ENB?

Thanks guys!

And just for the record the games have to be played at 1920x1080 as I'm using my TV as my monitor.

This post has been edited by Method on Monday, Aug 6 2012, 00:55

[yojo2]

What's your power supply (brand, model, wattage)?
Your budget is 100-150, but in which currency?

Also, 4,8GBs of RAM is quite a lot actually.

This post has been edited by yojo2 on Monday, Aug 6 2012, 12:17

[Method]

USD.

And I couldn't see the wattage but I wrote down the model number.

Its a Bestac ATX-280-122 Rev :: D7R. Doing a Google search it shows that its only 300 watts and thats not gonna' cut it, right?

I'll also be buying from BestBuy as the time it would ship I will not be home..

[yojo2]

It won't be enough (it has just 168W on 12V rail... that's something I'd expect from a 200W PSU), its build quality is also questionable.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/LEPA+-+N500-SA...5&skuId=5384945
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+AMD+Rad...1&skuId=5717131

That's the best what I could come up with in your budget.

[Method]

Thanks, man.

How good will I be in terms of FPS with IV? I just want to make sure its worth it if I should wait or not.

[yojo2]

It should be enough to run the game fluently on medium settings. If you want something better, you might consider buying HD7770:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/XFX+-+Graphic+...2&skuId=5525954
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/MSI+-+R7770-2P...7&skuId=5534219

[Method]

And with that? Sorry, I know I ask a lot of questions, haha.

[yojo2]

HD7770 might be capable of running the game on high or medium-high. It's hard to tell exactly, since GTA4 is very picky when it comes to hardware and in general it runs how it wants

[Method]

Alright, cool.

One last question.

If and when I plugged it in would the integrated graphics emulate it? Because I thought that GPUs aligned against the case so you could hook up things like your VGA cables and such, but it doesn't look like this case can do that. Sorry if you can't understand me as I'm a tad bad at explaining things...

[yojo2]

Erm... I have no idea what you mean. Maybe a picture would help.

[Warlord.]

QUOTE (Method @ Monday, Aug 6 2012, 18:12)

Alright, cool. One last question. If and when I plugged it in would the integrated graphics emulate it? Because I thought that GPUs aligned against the case so you could hook up things like your VGA cables and such, but it doesn't look like this case can do that. Sorry if you can't understand me as I'm a tad bad at explaining things...

If you're asking if once you add a video card, the intergrated graphics will 'take the card over' and control it, no. Once you disable onboard video and set it to the video card, the card will take over the processing completely.

If you have a PCI express slot in your board, then it will look like what you're thinking (). Once you install the card, you will have the VGA/DVI outputs sticking out of the back of the case where you'll connect your monitor/TV to.

Your case can do that, don't worry.

However, if I were you, I'd just save that money and wait for the new rig.

This post has been edited by Warlord. on Tuesday, Aug 7 2012, 08:04

[Stinky12]

Since you're getting a new machine in 2 months, it would not be wise to get a video card now. If you really want to get a card, then get the best one you can get, not some temporary card, and waste more money on another when you get your new computer.
The video card you get now can later be used with the new computer.