Which CHEAP video card will meet these basic requirements?

November 15, 2021 6:27 PM

I am trying to run beamng.drive and failing with intel integrated gpu. Can you please point to a specific card I can buy this week in Canada for under $100 to make this work?

I am not a gamer, but I am trying to run beamng drive on this computer.
The device specifications read: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-10100 CPU @ 3.60GHz 3.60 GHz
with 16 GB of RAM installed.

This works well for my normal purposes, but I'm trying to bribe a young person who is VERY interested in watching videos of cars crashing in this game. For a big bribe, I thought I'd install the game and he could crash them HIMSELF!!!

But it is giving me a warning that the intel integrated graphics card is not making it happy, and indeed it has crashed 3 times already (giving an error about graphics specifically).

I need: to be able to use dual HDMI monitors as normal for work
I want: to run this game at lowest settings without it crashing. In a window, at low res, doesn't matter as long as it works.

If it's possible to 'turn off' the card and go back to normal for 95% of the time, and just tell steam to use this new card, then the dual monitor thing shouldn't be an issue. Or use the existing two HDMI ports somehow with the new card (seems like that shouldn't work)?

I don't know (or care to know) about graphics cards in general, so advice like "anything better than the nvidia gremlin 3093423235 mk II" is useless to me.

"This linked model is good enough" is perfect
"you can't do what you want for $100CAD" is also useful to know.

Thanks for your help!

posted by Acari to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Their tech specs say an hd7750 is the low end
Some are around $109

https://www.techspot.com/review/498-amd-radeon-hd7770-hd7750/
posted by nickggully at 7:03 PM on November 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: It sounds like this is somewhat temporary, rather than you wanting to be able to game regularly on this machine.

If so, instead of buying a graphics card, you could consider trying the Nvidia Geforce cloud gaming service instead. This allows you to run the games you own on powerful cloud hardware.

I haven't tried it myself (it's not available in my region), but I believe there is a free tier for you to see if it works for you, and otherwise is US$10 a month.
posted by Gomez_in_the_South at 8:09 PM on November 15, 2021 [6 favorites]

Don’t buy the minimum spec and expect it to look good. Especially with something like beam.ng which IIRC was a crowdfunded and/or indie project that is likely not well optimized.

Here’s a 1650ti running it
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:10 PM on November 15, 2021

Best answer: I ran BeamNG just fine on a 750ti. One of the really cheap ones that didn't even have a power connector. It did have multiple monitor support, in the form of one HDMi and one DVI port. If your monitors are HDMI-only, a DVI-to-HDMI cable works fine except on really old cards that only have analog DVI. (Yes, that's a thing)
posted by wierdo at 11:55 PM on November 15, 2021

By the way, Windows is happy to use monitors from more than one GPU at a time. It renders using whatever GPU the monitor is connected with by default. It's possible to set it up to render using an add in card with the output on an iGPU connected monitor, but it's a bit complicated to get working, slightly slower, and almost always pointless.
posted by wierdo at 12:01 AM on November 16, 2021

Response by poster: I should have just listened to the geforce answer!

But an acquaintance told me to order this card because it was a very good deal. More than I wanted to spend, but I was lured in by the deal. I couldn't find any of the cards mentioned here for less than about $300 (most over $500), so I think I got a bit off track.

What I didn't check in advance was: can I use it? Of course I can, right? it plugs into a pcie port and... no. It also needs additional power! Opening the case showed that I didn't have the 8 pin power thingers. (Or 6 +2)
So I found these cable adaptors which should solve the problem, right?

Except the PSU on my computer (acer Aspire TC-895-UA91) is weird and small, so even though the power has a path, there just isnay enough.

This is exactly the kind of mess I was hoping to avoid. Now my next step is to... I don't know. Figure out if I can just replace the PSU. I gather that it is an odd size(?) from this guy's video, so...

maybe I can get a "normal" psu and just enlarge the hole in the case (I am happy to mangle metal with tin snips or a hacksaw or an angle grinder)? Maybe I find the exact size of this PSU and find a higher-wattage replacement?
Looking at PSU options is similarly maddening. So much variation, but what actually matters? I know I'm shooting for ~600W or more, but of course that doesn't narrow it down nearly enough.

I realize the scope of this question was smaller, so I'm not asking for handholding through cleaning up my mess. Just giving an update and venting a bit!
posted by Acari at 4:16 PM on November 16, 2021

Response by poster: second update - that order was cancelled ($140 CAD price turned into $999CAD price when I reloaded the link!), so I guess I have the chance to just do the geforce thing for now.

I really hope I never have to learn about GPUs again.
posted by Acari at 6:49 PM on November 16, 2021

Right now is basically the worst time to buy a GPU due to the chip shortage, among other things, so if you can make the GeForce cloud thing work for you, that's definitely your best bet for your budget.

Looking at the video of the guy unboxing your PC, it looks like it uses a proprietary connector for the power supply among other things that make it extremely difficult to do a GPU and PSU upgrade. You could in theory add a GPU card but it would definitely need to be one that can run off of motherboard power alone without needing an external power source, which severely limits your options.
posted by Aleyn at 10:07 PM on November 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks again, everyone.

As I clear out the mess of open tabs, I will add a link to this GPU hierarchy chart that seems to have 'fast/better' on top, and 'slow/old' on the bottom.

It may help anyone who is struggling to figure out which card to buy.

(Someone on kijiji messaged back a few days later and sold me a card that does not require power. I had to use a dvi-hdmi converter thing, but it works well. I also used the free version of geforce, and it was good, too!)
posted by Acari at 12:24 PM on November 23, 2021