nVidia GT 710 for Core 2 Duo E7500

craigdt

craigdt

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I got a used Dell Optiplex 380 with a Core 2 Duo E7500 from work and my wife wants to use it to play SWTOR with me.

It currently has a GeForce 9300 GE, which barely is able to run the game at the very lowest settings.

I need a (cheap) low profile card that isnt power hungry to enhance her gaming experience slightly, and it looked this this was about the only card that fit the bill.


Building/buying a new machine is out of the question and she doesnt need 60+fps- just enough to enjoy herself.

It looks like you can get them for about $40 at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Passive-Prof...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1WRH718FSJ3VY760V4DT
https://www.amazon.com/Passive-Prof...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1WRH718FSJ3VY760V4DT

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-64bit-S...ie=UTF8&qid=1485132752&sr=1-1&keywords=gt+710

My concerns are:

Will this card be a noticeable upgrade from the 9300 GE?

Will the GT 710 overpower the processor to a point where the processor is now the bottleneck?
 
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A GT 710 is pure garbage and only on par with 3 year old Intel HD4600 graphics. It is around SEVEN times faster than the 9300 GE graphics though.
 
GT710 is a pretty weak gpu, even for a c2d. Unless DX11/12 is a must, I'd suggest a GTX 260 (DX10 only). It will be faster overall.

Or if you can luck out and find one for cheap, a GTX 670 is really nice. That's what I use with my E8500.

Given the right game, resolution, settings, etc. the cpu will be a bottleneck regardless of the gpu. Most modern games today expect quad core. Since I've never played SWTOR, I can't confirm if it's worth it or not. But I was able to play Borderlands and Borderlands 2 with a GTX 260. Far Cry 3 was miserable, until I upgraded to a GTX 670.

YMMV.
 
Absalom said:
GT710 is a pretty weak gpu, even for a c2d. Unless DX11/12 is a must, I'd suggest a GTX 260 (DX10 only). It will be faster overall.

Or if you can luck out and find one for cheap, a GTX 670 is really nice. That's what I use with my E8500.

Given the right game, resolution, settings, etc. the cpu will be a bottleneck regardless of the gpu. Most modern games today expect quad core. Since I've never played SWTOR, I can't confirm if it's worth it or not. But I was able to play Borderlands and Borderlands 2 with a GTX 260. Far Cry 3 was miserable, until I upgraded to a GTX 670.

YMMV.
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He said "I need a (cheap) low profile card that isnt power hungry".
 
misterbobby said:
He said "I need a (cheap) low profile card that isnt power hungry".
Click to expand...

Well, I missed the "low profile" part.

An Optiplex 380's psu doesn't even have a PCI-e power connector. So unless there's a PSU upgrade on the table, then he's stuck with GPUs that are powered by the PCI-e slot.
 
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Heh- I knew I'd catch some flak for asking about this card since it's old and basically the bottom of the product range. But practically anything would be an upgrade at this point. I just need something to make SWTOR playable for her.
 
I wouldn't say flak, so much as your options are extremely limited. Annoyingly so...

If all you want is for your wife to play SWTOR, and that's it, then I say go for it. Just don't expect night and day results.

You are in a much better position to determine if it's worth $40 for just one game.
 
The 710 is an ok card to get for a C2D system if you're looking for a media playback card. I think you'll end up being disappointed with the gaming performance though. But like the guy above said, your options appear to be quite limited.
 
misterbobby said:
There is no logic at all for spending 120 bucks on a gpu to pair with an E7500.
Click to expand...

I agree with you in principle, but the decision about what is "worth it" is really up to the OP. I'm not the one who has to tell his wife that she can't play games.

Unfortunately, there isn't much in between the 1050 and the 710 that fits a low profile case.
 
That's more like it. Make sure you get the 2GB version. There are two 1GB versions, and one of them is even slower than the 710.
 
Looks like the 750ti requires a lot more power than I can safely afford.
 
ReaperX22 said:
The GTX 750 Ti low profile from gigabyte doesn't come with any PCIE connection requirement. It only pulls like 60w. What's the power concern?

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GeForce-...e=UTF8&qid=1485145296&sr=1-4&keywords=gtx+730
may be better than the zotac? 1gb vs 2gb is relevant at this price point, but the MSI is GDDR5 vs GDDR3
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Well, this is where I'll have to rely on your guys' expertise and ask:
Is quantity of memory or type of memory more important?

I saw that MSI too, but just assumed more memory is better.

And I'm sure the power supply is all of 180w. You don't think a 60w card is too much? Again, I'm just making assumptions...
 
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craigdt said:
Well, this is where I'll have to rely on your guys' expertise and ask:
Is quantity of memory or type of memory more important?

I saw that MSI too, but just assumed more memory is better.

And I'm sure the power supply is all of 180w. You don't think a 60w card is too much? Again, I'm just making assumptions...
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Well in this particular case you are screwed either way. You either get super slow 2gb which will kill the already poor performance of that card or you get fast 1gb which is not enough capacity for anything half way modern.
 
GDDR5 smashes GDDR3, so I imagine the 1GB will still perform better than the 2GB. The GT 730 hasn't got enough horses frankly to even try to utilise more than 1GB of VRAM anyway. I feel it'd be the faster choice. But it depends on resolution she's trying to game at? If say 1600x900 or less it may be just fine. The fact your current card plays the game at lowest settings suggests you might be on a lower res anyway?
 
ReaperX22 said:
GDDR5 smashes GDDR3, so I imagine the 1GB will still perform better than the 2GB. The GT 730 hasn't got enough horses frankly to even try to utilise more than 1GB of VRAM anyway. I feel it'd be the faster choice. But it depends on resolution she's trying to game at? If say 1600x900 or less it may be just fine. The fact your current card plays the game at lowest settings suggests you might be on a lower res anyway?
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Sure a few years ago that would have made more sense but at this point 1gb will not even run some games smoothly even on low if it runs at all. That said I know nothing about SWTOR.
 
With the cards we are discussing, there's no way you're going to be able to run settings high enough or games high end enough to fill 2GB and maintain FPS higher than 6 anyway, so you're better off getting the faster 1GB card.
 
There's the R7 240 but most of them are DDR3 based so not sure if a R7 240 ddr3 is better than a GDDR5 GT 730. Hard to find proper comparisons. They're both around 50 bucks
 
RamonGTP said:
With the cards we are discussing, there's no way you're going to be able to run settings high enough or games high end enough to fill 2GB and maintain FPS higher than 6 anyway, so you're better off getting the faster 1GB card.
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Think about how silly that sounds. You dont buy a 2gb card over a 1gb only because you will use all 2gb, you buy a 2gb card because you can surpass 1gb.
 
You know if you want some cheap power you could install a xeon e5420 with a 771 to 775 mod for about $15 off ebay. Then the 750ti would not really be under powered. I would maybe look at the gt 520 as an option as it's about on par with the 710, and maybe that would get the game playable and fun.
 
If your concern is to have a GPU that uses only PCI-e power draw , without any additional pci-e cable & being able to play SWTOR, then anything among a 730 , a 750 , even some 750TI s, as was already mentioned, would be the GPUs to look for.
I have a 750 (non-Ti )and its performance is close to an older GTX460, so i'd say is powerfull enough while not being power hungry.
 
misterbobby said:
Think about how silly that sounds. You dont buy a 2gb card over a 1gb only because you will use all 2gb, you buy a 2gb card because you can surpass 1gb.
Click to expand...

Great, with that GPU, using between 1-2GB will get you 8fps instead of 6... I'd still get the GDDR5 card.
 
RazorWind said:
Too big just means you haven't applied the Dremel yet. Allow me to suggest a visit to the case mod forum... :D
Click to expand...


Oh is that right? I briefly considered modifying *something* but wasn't sure what.

I do have a dremel collecting dust...
 
cybereality said:
Just as reference, this game can be played on Low settings 1080p and get playable FPS from a GT 240. So a GT 710 should be enough, no?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/star-wars-gaming-tests-review,3087-4.html
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http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=1556&gid2=328&compare=geforce-gt-710-vs-geforce-gt-240

the gt 710 is actually slower than the gt 240. I would aim for a gt 730 or 740, those are significantly faster. Also make sure its the gddr5 model, not ddr3.
 
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Look also at getting a faster CPU, you can get E8400s for about 5, E8500 for about 7 bucks on eBay. Spend a bit more, get an LGA 771 ->775 adapter and drop in a Xeon E5450 or such. Not sure how CPU-bound SWTOR is, but I know the higher the clock speed you had, the higher your framerate would be in WoW.
 
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