Project Reality Forums

I can't stand not having a gaming rig so I am giving in and putting in a chunk of my money towards a new PC.

As of now I have decided upon every aspect except the video card.

The budget allocated to this is $120.

I have been looking around and at first this sounded good:

Customer Reviews Of ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/1GD3/A Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

However upon further review I hear it has problems with running games like UT3, and overheats, or runs hot a lot of the time. This is a major downer for me since I have had many overheat issues before and it really ticks me, so I don't think I am interested in this card any longer...

I would appreciate some second/third/fourth opinions on this :]

So, the mission:

Best video card for under $150 [I figure $30 is much more.]

The GTS 250 is a good option for your budget, too. It performs roughly equal to the HD4850. (sometimes the HD4850 is faster, sometimes the GTS 250 is)

However, if you had heat issues before, I think it not only has to do with your previous graphics card, but also with airflow in your case. If you don't got a proper airflow in your *clean* case, it can have a negative impact on the temps.

I have gotten a new case to go along with the new build. And I have replaced all my fans with 120mm fans with higher CFM so I think that issue has been dealt with. The HD4850 just doesn't sound too great, the reviews said it ran hot on idle, and personally I don't run my machine at idle for more than 10 minutes before I'm into a game or making a map.


And I don't know much about hardware so when I look at these cards and compare I go straight to specs and look at the differences...

I can't tell which one is better if I want to play a game like PR/MW/Arma etc.


The things that come to mind:

................ASUS....GTS
Strm Proc: 800......128
Core Clck: 625......720
Mem Clck: 1989.....2200
Mem Size: 1G........512MB


Everything else is the same, except the reviews, the GTS has better reviews.