Video card on older system?

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Whipsmack

Gawd
Joined
Oct 17, 2005
Messages
675
Here is my system

1.8 GHz E4300 C2D
4GB Patriot
7900 GS
GA-965P-DS3

I'm finding with modern games i'm having some trouble mostly due to the GPU. What video card would you recommend on my system?

Is PCI-E 2.0 backwards compatible with my PCI-E 1 slot? At what point will there be a bottle neck from the slot?

I don't have the funds to buy a new computer.

Thanks so much!

Oh and I want to see atleast a 25% increase in performance :)
 
PCIe 2.0 will work in a PCIe 1.0 slot, but it will operate at the speed that 1.0 operates at.
 
just a 25% increase over a 7900gs would be quite lame. your cpu is pretty slow too and is going to severally limit any decent gpu in most modern games. I would get something like a gt240.
 
cannondale06 said:
just a 25% increase over a 7900gs would be quite lame. your cpu is pretty slow too and is going to severally limit any decent gpu in most modern games. I would get something like a gt240.
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Well I have been observing my CPU while gaming and it's around 65%, so the bottleneck is definitely the video card here. And you're right 25% increase would be lame, i'd love to double my performance :) I think a GT240 just might do that eh?
 
Thanks isom. At what point do you think the PCI-E slot is maxed out with a PCI-E 2.0 card?
 
Whipsmack said:
Thanks isom. At what point do you think the PCI-E slot is maxed out with a PCI-E 2.0 card?
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Not anytime soon. PCIe 1.0 is plenty to power even the latest video cards, so long as you're only running a single card. You only need more bandwidth with multi-card setups.

For example, I'm running A GTX 460 on my P35 motherboard, and there's no performance hit. PCIe x16 was such a huge performance leap over AGP, we still haven't maxed it out!
 
I made a vid card upgrade in January this year from a system similar to yours. I went from the 7900GS and a 19" monitor at 1440x900 to an XFX 4850 1GB and a 25" monitor at 1920x1200. I don't play a lot of the latest and greatest games, but ME2 and Dragons Age run great despite maxing my two cores. Never did any benchmarking to quantify the performance increase, but it's felt like a pretty good upgrade for $120 or so. Back then the 57XX and 58XX series were more than I wanted to pay, but could be an option for you.
 
You might want to read the general information about video cards at http://www.upgradevideocards.com/ It includes a table showing the speeds of the different generations of PCIe slots. I don't beleive that todays top end video cards can run at 100% in PCIe 1.0, but for the range you are looking at it should not be an issue.
 
An ATI HD3870 is roughly twice the speed of a 7900GS.

And an Nvidia GTS250 or ATI HD4850 is roughly double the speed again.

This is all provided you have a fast enough CPU to power the GPU.
 
I would most liekly purchase a cheaper Quad core CPu of ebay and get something like a gts 250.

That would easily quadruple frames, and most likely only be like 150$ or so total.
 
Unfortunately the prices right now on GTS 250 and HD 5770 are too high to make any jumps. I know that the GTS 250 would be better for my computer at this moment but it's $90-$110 (I missed all the deals on black friday) And the HD 5770 is $140ish, way overpriced IMO.

If I got the 5770 yes my CPU would bottleneck, however it would be future proofing my next system if I decide to upgrade sometime in a few years.

I'd go for the 5750 if it was priced fairly $70ish, but it's almost the same price as 5770, blehh
 
Whipsmack said:
Unfortunately the prices right now on GTS 250 and HD 5770 are too high to make any jumps. I know that the GTS 250 would be better for my computer at this moment but it's $90-$110 (I missed all the deals on black friday) And the HD 5770 is $140ish, way overpriced IMO.

If I got the 5770 yes my CPU would bottleneck, however it would be future proofing my next system if I decide to upgrade sometime in a few years.

I'd go for the 5750 if it was priced fairly $70ish, but it's almost the same price as 5770, blehh
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future proof is silly. by the time you get a new system that card will have been surpassed by something costing half the price. I dont understand why you cant oc your current cpu because that would change everything. a stock E4300 is very slow by today's standards and is only about as fast as my E8500 lowered to 1.5. if I put my cpu at 1.5 I would not even get 50% of what my gtx260 is capable of in many games.

did you ever mention what res you want to play at? and remember even a wimpy gt240 gddr5 would be a massive upgrade over what you have now.
 
cannondale06 said:
future proof is silly. by the time you get a new system that card will have been surpassed by something costing half the price. I dont understand why you cant oc your current cpu because that would change everything. a stock E4300 is very slow by today's standards and is only about as fast as my E8500 lowered to 1.5. if I put my cpu at 1.5 I would not even get 50% of what my gtx260 is capable of in many games.

did you ever mention what res you want to play at? and remember even a wimpy gt240 gddr5 would be a massive upgrade over what you have now.
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I play at 1024 x 768 or 1440 x 900 :)
 
GTS250 would be a "blow your socks off" upgrade. You'd see even bigger gains if you OC your cpu a little. Even with stock heatsink and voltage you'd get around 15%-20% overclock on your cpu.

As others have said, PCI-e 1.0 won't get saturated until you hit much higher levels (GTX480 or higher or indeed multi-gpu setups).

My last gpu was a GTS250 and I run that in a P35 albeit with a Q6600 at 3.8Ghz 18/7.......and that saw no issues from bottlenecking whatsoever.
 
Whipsmack said:
I play at 1024 x 768 or 1440 x 900 :)
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so is 1440x900 the max res your monitor can do? that is a pretty low res and even something like a gt240 or 5670 is fine for that res in your situation. but again an overclock on that cpu will really be needed for the best improvement.
 
cannondale06 said:
so is 1440x900 the max res your monitor can do? that is a pretty low res and even something like a gt240 or 5670 is fine for that res in your situation. but again an overclock on that cpu will really be needed for the best improvement.
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Yes thats the max res, but I like to multi client games, so I run things lower sometimes. I am already overcloking it to 2ghz, and could easily go higher with a better heatsink.
 
:):) said:
I would most liekly purchase a cheaper Quad core CPu of ebay and get something like a gts 250.

That would easily quadruple frames, and most likely only be like 150$ or so total.
Click to expand...

His motherboard doesn't support the Quads so he would have to buy a new mobo, cpu, and a gpu if he went that route.
 
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