Building a good gaming computer, without a doubt, requires a lot of money. For running newest games with the best quality settings on 720p , you need at least GT 1030 DDR5. So, what good video cards can you get around and under 50 dollars??
Unfortunately, with such a low budget, your options are limited to a weak 64-bit graphics card like HD 5450, GeForce 210, GT 610 and HD 6450. Well, this article aims to show you the review of those cards, keep reading...
What you need to do in order to get the optimal performance from weak gaming cards below:
* Turn off the shadow, v sinc, anti aliasing or lower the resolution.
* Overclock the video card by using software like MSI afterburner, well this is the most effective way to increase the performance of the GPU, note that this method can shorten the lifespan of the card and void its warranty.
Note:
- Good dual core processor with four thread is enough to run the video cards below.
- The video cards below do not consume a lot of power and can run properly with good 300W power supply.
- To be honest, the graphics cards in this list, beside HD 5450 and GT 210, are pretty good to run most modern games with medium settings, on 720p resolutions of course (DDR5 version).
A. GeForce 210
Power consumption: 31 Watts
Memory bandwidth: 8 GB/sec
Recommended manufacturer: EVGA, ASUS
If you are fine playing new games with low or medium quality settings, then you should look at this video card. Powered with only 16 CUDA Cores and memory bandwidth around 8 GB/sec, technically, it's even hard for GeForce 210 to compete against HD 5450.
Unfortunately, unlike Radeon HD 5450, one of the biggest problem with GeForce 210 is it doesn't support the DirectX 11 games.
B. Radeon HD 5450
Power consumption: 20 Watts
Memory bandwidth: 12.8 GB/sec
Recommended manufacturer: Sapphire, XFX
Quick overview
ATI Radeon HD 5450 presents the best HD multimedia and gaming experience at an affordable price with important features like you can find on Radeon HD 5800 series and supports DirectX®11, ATI Eyefinity multi display technology and ATI Stream technology.
HD 5450 is one of the best cheap video card from HD 5000 series powered by Cedar GPU, and it's intended to replace HD 4350. Technically, with standard memory bandwidth around 12.8 GB/sec (DDR3), the Radeon HD 5450 is not made for intense gaming. So, obviously, you can't run modern games like GTA IV or Battlefield 3 with the best quality settings with this low end card.
My personal experience with this video card:
HD 5450 is the card i once used before i replaced it with HD 6570. I must say if i'm quite satisfied with the performance of this Radeon card, and i could run any games from low to high settings on my small monitor (HP 15-inch LCD).
See also: Top 5 Best Graphics Card Under 100 Dollars For Gaming
Here are some games i tested:
Super Street Fighter IV AE: high with anti aliasing off and low shadow
Mafia 2: high with no shadow
Crysis: medium without AA
My specs when i tested the games:
AMD Athlon dual core 2,3 Ghz
XFX HD 5450
1024 x 768 Resolution
2 GB Kingston RAM
Overall, HD 5450 is a good graphics card for the price, just make sure you get 1 GB version instead of 512 MB for better performance.
Click here to buy Radeon HD 5450 from amazon
C. GT 610
Power consumption: 29 Watts
Memory bandwidth: 14.4 GB/sec
Recommended manufacturer: EVGA, MSI, PNY
On may 2012 Nvidia introduced several variants of the GeForce 600 Series for the Entry Level market. They are GT 630, GT 620 and GT 610 which are intended for OEM (Original Equipment Manufacture) and media centers (HTPC)PC. One thing for sure is, those graphics card are not designed to run "heavy games" like Battlefield 4.
Along with GT 620 and 630, the GeForce 610 is made to strengthen Nvidia 600 series and replace GT 520. Well, GeForce GT 610 itself is the best video card in this list beside HD 6450, since it's powered with 48 CUDA Cores and 14.4 GB/sec memory bandwidth.
Click here to buy GT 610 from amazon
D. Radeon HD 6450
Power consumption: 18 Watts
Memory bandwidth: 25.6 GB/sec(DDR5)
Recommended manufacturer: Sapphire, XFX, Asus, MSI
And the last, the strongest video card for gaming in this article. Powered by "Caicos" codenamed chip , the AMD HD 6450 is targeted to computer users who want to build a HTPC or those who want a better graphics card than the onboard GPU in their system with the cheapest price.
HD 6450 is weaker if compared to its closest variant, the Radeon HD 6570. technically, this video card has been equipped with 160 Stream Processors, 8 Texture Units, and 4 ROP Units.
When talking about performance in gaming, the AMD HD 6450 is quite strong to handle "heavy" games with high settings on 720p resolutions. According to benchmark by tomshardware.com, the HD 6450 can reach 24,7 average FPS when they tested the Crysis 2 games (high settings on 720p res). Obviously, for larger resolutions, you need to get more powerful graphics card.
Click here to buy Radeon HD 6450 from amazon
E. GT 710
NVIDIA launched this GT 710 early on 2016 for entry level class. The
intelligent brain behind this graphics card is a GK208 GPU chip based on
Kepler architecture powered by 192 CUDA Cores, 16 Texture Units and 8
ROP Units.
The GK208 GPU inside the GT 710 comes with a clock of 954 MHz without
Boost GPU technology and is accompanied by DDR3 memory running at speeds
up to 1800 MHz for standard configuration. The GPU and DDR 3 memory of
the GT 710 are connected by 64-bit memory bus.
Well, if judging from the specifications of GT 710, we can clearly see
if this graphic card is not designed to run new released AAA games.
Furthermore, GeForce GT 710 is more intended for gamers who are still
stuck with their old computer with dual core processor or computer users
who want to get better video card than their integrated GPU.
Video test
Even though GT 710 is not designed for intense gaming, let's see what this GT graphics card can do in video test below:
GT 710 can run Saint Row IV with low-med settings at 45fps (720p) and CS
Go, also with low settings(720p). Unsurprisingly, GT 710 is struggle to
run games on 1080p resolutions.
Click here to buy GT 710 from amazon
Thanks for reading the article...
