Recommend a good graphics card on a budget of 125-175 euro

2ndcoming

There's an Athlon X4 740 up on adverts http://www.adverts.ie/processors/amd-athlon-ii-x4-740-quad-core-cpu-fm2/11288569 that I should think you will be able to get for under 50e (or not, some people on adverts are insane...)

It will be double the chip you currently have for small money.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=1789&cmp%5B%5D=1960

Then I'd go back to adverts for whatever takes your fancy on this page http://www.adverts.ie/for-sale/computers/desktop-hardware/graphics-cards/499/price_50-100/ (There's a 3gb 7970 that looks very decent at first glance to me)

This is def the way to go and will get you surprisingly good results in general use and gaming for less than the price of one of those current gen budget cards you mentioned in the OP. If you can stretch an extra 20 pick up a cooler. Any cooler. Best of luck with it.

TerrorFirmer

The only problem really is that the HD7970 and similar cards like HD7950, HD7870, GTX670/680, etc would also need a new power supply, which makes them fairly uneconomical (and more hassle) - 2nd hand GTX750Ti goes for around €70 now, new GTX1050 is €120, etc, and these are just plug and play.

2ndcoming

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

The only problem really is that the HD7970 and similar cards like HD7950, HD7870, GTX670/680, etc would also need a new power supply, which makes them fairly uneconomical (and more hassle) - 2nd hand GTX750Ti goes for around €70 now, new GTX1050 is €120, etc, and these are just plug and play.

He said he'd a 500w, would that not do it? I ran those parts with the 7970 into partpicker and it came back 404w.

TerrorFirmer

Yes, if it was a good quality, branded unit. I would suspect though, that the power supply in the PC, given it's an pre-assembled A6 machine, is more likely to be a generic, low powered unit. Most of those supplies are 500w on paper but around 200w in practice.

B0jangles

Hi everyone, sorry for abandoning the thread, and thanks again for all the good advice; unfortunately returning the machine is not an option so I'm going to have to patch it up as best I can ; with that in mind, I came across this processor (used) for 40 euro -

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-870-Processor-Socket-LGA1156/dp/B002KQ5KEI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Decent or a pile of cack?

TerrorFirmer

The only CPU's you can buy are ones for the FM2 socket - it has to be an AMD A8/A10/860K or similar. The only problem is these are about €80+ new but a new Intel processor at the same price is almost twice as fast....

Even the 2nd hand i7-870 you've mentioned is quite good and a lot faster than the fastest FM2 processor.

If you can get something like this on adverts for €50 or so I'll call it quits at that, maybe add a 2nd hand GTX750/750Ti or something from adverts as well for around €60-70.

extra-ordinary_

B0jangles wrote: »

Hi everyone, sorry for abandoning the thread, and thanks again for all the good advice; unfortunately returning the machine is not an option so I'm going to have to patch it up as best I can ; with that in mind, I came across this processor (used) for 40 euro -

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-870-Processor-Socket-LGA1156/dp/B002KQ5KEI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Decent or a pile of cack?

Not at all suitable for your board - your board takes an AMD brand CPU with a FM2 socket.

B0jangles

extra-ordinary_ wrote: »

Not at all suitable for your board - your board takes an AMD brand CPU with a FM2 socket.

Bah, yeah just checked pcpartpicker now

2ndcoming

That Athlon that will work from my post above is still up on adverts.