LAN Box video card recommendation

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jbltecnicspro

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Alright - I have a LAN box, and I'm going to probably get a second one to replace my old Pentium 4 box that finally seems to be crapping out on me.

First box's specs are Athlon X2 3800+, 2GB RAM, Windows XP
Second box's specs are likely going to be a Dell Core 2 duo system likely rocking Windows XP also.

Games played are Unreal Tournament 2004, Age of Empires 3, Age of Empires 2, Medal of Honor AA, Halo PC, Team Fortress 2, and Unreal Tournament 3 - among others. The list isn't complete yet, and while we're focusing on older games I want to have some headroom for some of the more intense games.

Resolutions used will vary from as high as 1920x1080 to as low as 1280x960.

My knee-jerk reaction is to just get a couple of Radeon HD-6570's or GeForce GT-640's. Thoughts?
 
Wouldn't go any faster than a 7770, Those games shouldn't be hard to run so I'd just grab the 6570's if they are cheap and roll with it.
 
ITSTHINKING said:
Wouldn't go any faster than a 7770, Those games shouldn't be hard to run so I'd just grab the 6570's if they are cheap and roll with it.
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I agree. I was going to suggest some mid ranged used cards but you will probably run into power issues with hardware that old. I would stick with a 7750 or 6570 to avoid power supply issues.
 
I have used the 6850 in a cheap lan box and it was a perfect mid range card. Plenty fast for the games you mention, plus not a large power draw. The 6870 would also work if you have a decent PSU.
 
MrC4 said:
I have used the 6850 in a cheap lan box and it was a perfect mid range card. Plenty fast for the games you mention, plus not a large power draw. The 6870 would also work if you have a decent PSU.
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If the price is right, I'll look out for it. Currently, the AMD-64 system has a Corsair 430 watt PSU.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
If the price is right, I'll look out for it. Currently, the AMD-64 system has a Corsair 430 watt PSU.
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That should be a solid enough PSU to run a 6850. In regards to pricing, they run about $75 on the for sale forum.
 
A GT-620 is pretty much garbage. It'll run videos fine, but I guess for old ass games you may be OK.
 
ITSTHINKING said:
A GT-620 is pretty much garbage. It'll run videos fine, but I guess for old ass games you may be OK.
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Thanks for the input - going for the HD-6570. It's only like 10 dollars more than the GT-620.

EDIT: Rebrands can be so frustrating sometimes. Apparently the 620 has 96 shader cores, so it may or may not compare to like a 8800GT or something? I was on PC gaming hiatus from 2007 - 2012 so most of the cards are a little foreign to me, at least relative to today's cards.
 
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jbltecnicspro said:
Thanks for the input - going for the HD-6570. It's only like 10 dollars more than the GT-620.

EDIT: Rebrands can be so frustrating sometimes. Apparently the 620 has 96 shader cores, so it may or may not compare to like a 8800GT or something? I was on PC gaming hiatus from 2007 - 2012 so most of the cards are a little foreign to me, at least relative to today's cards.
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http://gpuboss.com/graphics-card/Radeon-HD-6570

I'll have to keep this card in mind for cheap builds, it's just as fast as a gt-640 and costs the same as the 620.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Thanks for the input - going for the HD-6570. It's only like 10 dollars more than the GT-620.

EDIT: Rebrands can be so frustrating sometimes. Apparently the 620 has 96 shader cores, so it may or may not compare to like a 8800GT or something? I was on PC gaming hiatus from 2007 - 2012 so most of the cards are a little foreign to me, at least relative to today's cards.
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Don't be fooled by the numbers. The GT620 is a sidegrade replacement for onboard video. Its not even comparable to an 8800gt. Its like saying "A Lotus Elise has 4 cylinders and so do this Honda Civic... so the Honda Civic is as fast as the Lotus Elise".
 
lloose said:
Don't be fooled by the numbers. The GT620 is a sidegrade replacement for onboard video. Its not even comparable to an 8800gt. Its like saying "A Lotus Elise has 4 cylinders and so do this Honda Civic... so the Honda Civic is as fast as the Lotus Elise".
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Good analogy. I figured that the 64-bit bus likely cripples this thing.
 
And I swear - buying lower-end video cards is probably harder than the upper-end. With all of the rebrands, different architectures (for example, a GT-630 can be both Fermi AND Kepler based - WTF?!!) and all that other non-sense, it's hard to know exactly what you're getting.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
And I swear - buying lower-end video cards is probably harder than the upper-end. With all of the rebrands, different architectures (for example, a GT-630 can be both Fermi AND Kepler based - WTF?!!) and all that other non-sense, it's hard to know exactly what you're getting.
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Not to mention benchmark numbers are much more scarce. I'd love to see more comparative benchmarks for entry to mid level hardware.
 
How much do you want to spend? I had a 8600GT and I played all the games you listed except AoE3.

BTW I have tried a 620 and 640 and are both garbage.
 
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