Onboard Radeon or 4250 or a £30'ish VGA card?

[Gimpymoo]

Am building a new rig for basic use (Keep the Mrs away from mine) who will use it for web browsing, iPlayer and the odd game of Sims 3.

There is a Gigabyte board for £58 which has onboard Radeon 4200, I think this would be sufficient, or would a standalone VGA card in the £30 bracket be any better?

If so, I can go for a cheaper motherboard you see.

Would a 5450 for £35 be worthwhile or stick with the onboard 4200?

I could turn down the resolution and I dont think she would notice and she does not play a lot.

Many Thanks.

 

[MeatLoaf]

Well you could get a cheapo board and get something like a used 8800GT for £30

 

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

Sims 3 is reasonably demanding. Probably best to check the minimum specs.

 

[tommybhoy]

I have a Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H, and it plays 1080p no problems with the onboard 4200, no need for dedicated gpu.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Thanks Tommybhoy.

When you say 1080p, do you mean films or games?

 

[tommybhoy]

When you say 1080p, do you mean films or games?

Just films, I use it for a media centre in the bedroom with wmc7.

 

[[WU-TANG]GZA]

I would buy this tbh:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-232-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

 

[MonkeykingZX]

i've got an hd3450 in my laptop and it runs the sims 3 just fine, so as said a second hand 8800 or a new 5450 or something would do the job with no issues, the onboard would run it but it wouldn't look particularly great and in larger scenes might start to struggle, there's really no need to spend more than 30-40 quid for this

 

[Gimpymoo]

Thanks Monkeyking.

I have gone with the better spec motherboard in the end.

I will try the 4200, if it is not upto scratch, then I will purchase a seperate VGA card.

I have an x1950 PRO around, would that offer much improvement over the 4200 IGP?

 

[MeatLoaf]

Thanks Monkeyking.

I have gone with the better spec motherboard in the end.

I will try the 4200, if it is not upto scratch, then I will purchase a seperate VGA card.

I have an x1950 PRO around, would that offer much improvement over the 4200 IGP?

Id imagine the X1950 would be better than the IGP tho its only a DX9 card.

 

[3dcandy]

Id imagine the X1950 would be better than the IGP tho its only a DX9 card.

+1 though I guess that Sims wouldn't really care. I'd imagine the framerates would be considerably faster though