New GPU

[Affly]

So recently my Radeon 4650 HD completely died. I expected it to last longer but since it´s useless at the moment I need to get a new one. After reading some threads on this forum I got a general idea of the current GPUs but I'm not sure what to buy. Preferably I'd want a equivalent or better card with a good performance/cost. However I have no idea if I should to replace my PSU as well. Right now I have a 450W PSU (or at least so it says) and I wonder if I get a Radeon from the 7000 series would need an upgrade and if so, what would be the best choice. I plan to not do any further upgrades for the next few years. The casing is a Aspire M5810 with a i5 750 CPU, 8GB RAM and a 1TB drive. I'm not sure what the motherboard model is.

[Biernot]

If you intend on gaming, then there is really no reason to get a card for less than 100.-, especially if you don't want to upgrade again in the next few years. So depending on the budget and the targeted games, these would be my suggestions:

A. $100 range
The Radeon 7750 should be the no-brainer here. It has about the same performance as the Geforce GTX 550ti and costs about as much, but uses way less power. (does not need an PCIe power connector, typical load is about 60W)

B. $130-150 range
Here you can either get the Radeon 7770 or 6850. They both cost about the same and have roughly the same performance. But depending on the game there can be differences up to 20% (e.g. in Crysis Warhead the 6850 has the upper hand, but in Dirt3 the 7770 wins). Also the 6850 has a slightly higher power draw.

C. $160-180 range
Here you have the Radeon 7850 1GB or the 6870 or the 6950. In most cases the 7850 1GB should be the better choice. It uses less power than both the other cards, but has better performance than the 6870 and about equal to the 6950.

D. $200-250 range
Here you have these choices: Radeon 7850 2GB ($200-220), Geforce GTX 660 ($230-240), Radeon 7870 ($240-260)
Price/Performance is about equal with these cards, as are they roughly in same ball park with the power consumption (obviously, power raises with performance)

For your system i would not recommend anything above the $250 mark, because then in a lot of games, your cpu would become the bottleneck.
You should not have to upgrade your psu with any card, that only has one PCIe connector. (If memory serves, this would be: 7750, 7770, 6850, 7850) For the more power hungry cards (read: 2x6P connector or more), a better psu might be appropriate, as the psu in your computer is most likely not one of high quality. If you had a good psu, then 450W should be enough for all cards mentioned here (maybe except the 6950).

Last but not least, about the size:
- No size problem should be expected from: 7750, 7770, 7850, 6850
- Could be tight: 6870, 7870, GTX 660
- Most likely will not fit: 6950

[Xuvial]

With that "450w" OEM PSU I wouldn't put in anything higher than an HD7770...HD6850 would probably be pushing it. Really.

Mobo supports PCIe 2.0 16x so it should fit in fine.

What games do you play by the way, and at what resolution?

[jmacphee9]

biernot put together a great list, my only thing i would change is the a 650 over a 7750. at least in the benchmarks i saw the gt 650 was faster. i wouldnt personally shop at this price range though the improvements for just 20-50$ more is massive, especially for someone that wants to use this for several years. buy once so you dont have to buy twice.

[Biernot]

biernot put together a great list, my only thing i would change is the a 650 over a 7750. at least in the benchmarks i saw the gt 650 was faster. i wouldnt personally shop at this price range though the improvements for just 20-50$ more is massive, especially for someone that wants to use this for several years. buy once so you dont have to buy twice.

You realize, that the GTX 650 is in the $120-150 range, and thus would be a competitor to the 7770 or 6850, and not the 7750? The benchmarks i have seen so far make it about equal to the 7750, at the cost of a 7770... so it would be a bad choice in my opinion. (The 7770 is faster in every benchmark i have seen. Depending on the game, it looks to be 5-20% faster.)