• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Basic graphics card recommendations

DublinDude

DublinDude

DublinDude

Associate
Joined
1 Oct 2007
Posts
325
Hi there,

I'm looking for a basic inexpensive card for the moment. Something for just casual usage. I won't be gaming with it just Netflix etc on a 27" 2560x1440 basic monitor

I will be investing in a gaming card/monitor may be next year.

Thanks in advance.
 
www.overclockers.co.uk

MSI NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 LP OC 2048MB DDR4 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Order MSI NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 LP OC 2048MB DDR4 PCI-Express Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

It's pre-order and a fairly garbage tier card but if you just want it for netflix it should do the job and it's about as cheap as it gets brand new. You might find cheaper similar cards second hand.
 
Lightnix said:
www.overclockers.co.uk

MSI NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 LP OC 2048MB DDR4 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Order MSI NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 LP OC 2048MB DDR4 PCI-Express Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

It's pre-order and a fairly garbage tier card but if you just want it for netflix it should do the job and it's about as cheap as it gets brand new. You might find cheaper similar cards second hand.
Click to expand...

That's rubbish.

Not your suggestion I mean, no way getting at you, but it's rubbish Nvidia want £75 for that.

For not much more money at all you could buy a g version AMD CPU which will have as much if not more graphics capability and also run your entire pc as well.
 
DublinDude said:
The motherboard is MSI MAG X570. It will fresh windows install with a Ryzen 5600x graphics card
Click to expand...

I think MAG is part of a brand name rather than a model, is it a Tomahawk? I had a look here (scroll down to the profiles).

The lowest-end cards being used were:
- GT 730, 710, 210
- HD 5450
- R7 250, 350

I think this suggests you can use pretty old cards, but I would assume they're using CSM/Legacy mode to boot Windows, for at least some of those.

I can find UEFI compatible BIOS (on TPU) for R7 250, 350 and GT 710, depending on model, but if you google it there are mixed reports of success.

Quite a few R5 230 models list UEFI compatible BIOS, e.g. this one, but all these cards are similar prices (< £30).

You'd also need to check what max resolution/refresh they can support out of their ports.
 
Last edited:
Tetras said:
I think MAG is part of a brand name rather than a model, is it a Tomahawk? I had a look here (scroll down to the profiles).

The lowest-end cards being used were:
- GT 730, 710, 210
- HD 5450
- R7 250, 350

I think this suggests you can use pretty old cards, but I would assume they're using CSM/Legacy mode to boot Windows, for at least some of those.

I can find UEFI compatible BIOS (on TPU) for R7 250, 350 and GT 710, depending on model, but if you google it there are mixed reports of success.

Quite a few R5 230 models list UEFI compatible BIOS, e.g. this one, but all these cards are similar prices (< £30).

You'd also need to check what max resolution/refresh they can support out of their ports.
Click to expand...
Yes it's the tomahawk. I'm not sure I fully understand all that your saying but I appreciate the informative input.

I just assumed any cheap and oldish card would work.
 
DublinDude said:
Yes it's the tomahawk. I'm not sure I fully understand all that your saying but I appreciate the informative input.

I just assumed any cheap and oldish card would work.
Click to expand...

If you still have the PC in your sig, why not reuse the HD7950 for the time being? If you need your old intel system operational then 2500K will have an IGP for video output.

The £70 odd quid (of that 1030) can be put it towards more ram/better cpu or something.
 
Last edited:
eddyr said:
If you still have the PC in your sig, why not reuse the HD7950 for the time being? If you need your old intel system operational then 2500K will have an IGP for video output.

The £70 odd quid (of that 1030) can be put it towards more ram/better cpu or something.
Click to expand...
That's a fair point. I thought the current card was on the blink a couple months ago as the screen was skipping kinda. Hence I considered a cheap new card to keep me going.

I've the Tomahawk x570, Ryzen 5600, new memory and storage, psu and case all ready to set up. (Have to figure out how to update bios and install windows from mem stick).

As I said a gaming monitor and gpu can wait until next year.
 
If you don't mind used you could have a look at an RX560 on the famous market place, seem to go for about £35 or so, and the rx550/gt1030 for about £25.
Edit: At least that is what shows for completed items, as usual there are some trying it on asking silly prices.
 
Last edited:
DublinDude said:
Yes it's the tomahawk. I'm not sure I fully understand all that your saying but I appreciate the informative input.

I just assumed any cheap and oldish card would work.
Click to expand...

I'll try to be more specific:

If you only use SATA drives and are happy to enable CSM/Legacy mode for your Windows installation, then any of those cards I listed should be fine.
OR
If you need UEFI, for example: if your primary SSD is a PCI-E/NVME M.2 drive, or it is larger than 2TB, then you can't enable CSM/Legacy mode.

I believe Windows 11 also (officially, at least) requires UEFI.

Anything older than GT/GTX 700 (if Kepler), or Radeon Rx/RX (if GCN) is unlikely to support UEFI.

2560x1440 should be alright with cards that age or newer, but I would definitely double check, because monitors higher than 1080p weren't super common 10 years ago.
 
also worth making sure you are using a decent cable as I thought I had a faulty 4k monitor as the screen kept going blank for a fraction of a second, replaced the mini DP cable with a decent one and it worked fine after that. That was using a 7870 on a 4k display but on an older 3770k CPU so no issues with UEFI.

My son had a RX570 on his B450M working fine together with windows 10 with a NVME M.2 drive so something like that could do the trick for very few pounds.
 
I would look at getting a 2nd hand RX560 for about £40/£50. Given how bad the value is on new cards these days it's no wonder older cards like the 560 (based on technology from 2016) is still holding up in value on the 2nd hand market.
 
Freddie1980 said:
I would look at getting a 2nd hand RX560 for about £40/£50. Given how bad the value is on new cards these days it's no wonder older cards like the 560 (based on technology from 2016) is still holding up in value on the 2nd hand market.
Click to expand...
The downside being that an RX560 (and any of the other low end cards mentioned so far - including the 1030), are all slower than his existing 7950.

Thanks to recent price cuts, some of the lower end cards are now more attractive, and the OP already has a PCI-E 4.0 compatible board and processor, that negates one of the main issues with the lower end cards (PCI-E 4.0 requirement as they have reduced lanes).

Best value of the below is the RX6600, which is a decent budget gaming card and will even be okay at 2560x1440 60fps with reasonable settings.



My basket at OcUK:

Total: £464.96 (includes delivery: £7.99)​



​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom