Hi All, I am going to donate my old PC to my nephew but it will need a GPU upgrade. I'm looking for the cheapest GPU that will play modern games, luckily he only has a 17" monitor so it wont need to be too powerful. Current spec below. Q6600 4GB RAM 8800GT Thanks, DRB
A 8800GT will be able to play anything at that resolution, and a lot of games on max. A 450GTS will easily be enough at that resolution, if you want a DX11 card. Or you could a second hand 260GTX.
Cheapest meaning how much? A preowned 4870 is pretty much the best value GPU you can get currently, costing about £35 if you know where to look. As for DX11, don't bother with cheap GPUs as they simply won't handle the tessellation.
personally I would keep the 8800GT, I've been playing games with it on 1920x1080 resolution and they still looked fairly good
I had an 8800GT briefly and Test Drive Unlimied (first one from 2006) crippled it at 1920x1080. It's a good card, but definitely showing its age now.
my 8800GTS 640MB plays BF3 at low-med settings at 1680x1050. u should check with ur nephew and see what games he like to play first IMHO. but yeah, a 275 would wipe the floor at 1280x1024.
At the moment he doesn't really play anything as he is a console gamer. I have gifted him L4D over steam so I could play that with him but he complained he needed a gamepad. Kids today. I'll stick with whats there and see how he gets on.
At that res the 8800GT should do fine I would have thought, if not, the 260/275 are both fantastic cards.
I suggest you buy nothing, as the 8800GT will be more than adequate for such a low resolution. If it still works then there is no reason to look elsewhere unless he finds he wants to take PC gaming more seriously and buy a new monitor. No point spending money before you need to.
