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Video Card suggestions

P

pdinc

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 19, 2006
Messages
425
Hi all,

Its been a while since I've posted, but you guys were invaluable in your advice the last time around so I decided to ask here first :)

Here's my situation. I have a tower that has been lying unused since last summer, and I bought a bunch of games from the latest steam sale that I now want to play. Here is my rig as it stands:

Q6600 (not-OCed)
Intel Bad Axe 2
4GB (4x1GB) DDR2-667 memory
Geforce 8800GTS 320MB (G80)

Now, I have a budget of about $500 to spend on upgrades (it's a gift). My guess is that getting a better video card is probably the #1 priority, but I also wanted to make sure I wasn't going to bottleneck anything. What would be the best video card to get in this price range, and if I am bottlenecking my system, what would be the best price/performance upgrades to get this system back up to speed?

Thanks once again!
 
at the $500 mark you would probably be interested in the GTX480, or HD5870

if you OC that Q6600 you should not be much of a bottleneck on the card, though i'm not 100% sure
 
1. What power supply do you currently have? You will need sufficient power for your new video card.
2. What monitor do you have - resolution and size? Your resolution determines the optimal video card for your setup. Also, if you don't like your current monitor, getting a new one may increase your enjoyment just as much as a new video card.
3. What is your intended computer usage? If you're just going to be surfing the net, or using this for htpc/media usage, you won't need as powerful of a card or you might even prefer a power efficient yet weaker card.

4. According to a review of your motherboard - it supports CrossfireX but NOT SLI. So if you ever have plans to go multi-gpu in the future on the same motherboard, ATI brand video card is the only upgrade path that will allow that.
"Expansion ports on the board resemble what you would expect to find on a high-end board. There are a total of 3 PCI Express x16 slots - the top 2 are used for ATI Crossfire graphics cards, nVidia SLI isn’t supported as both companies haven’t come to any arrangements but don’t count on that happening anytime soon. "
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/994/intel_joins_the_overclockers_bad_axe_2_motherboard/index3.html
 
Fairly sure you can actually get SLI working on older (P35/P45/X38/X48) Intel chipsets now with a hacked driver, though I don't recommend that. Not sure if the P965 works for that. A single GPU should be plenty, regardless.

I'd recommend a 5870 (buy second-hand, you should be able to get one on the forums here from a respectable seller for ~$300 shipped, maybe a little more). Depending on your PSU, you may need a new one to support the card. if you have a quality 650 watt or better, it should be fine. If not, pick up a 750 watt from a good brand (Silverstone, Seasonic, Antec TruePower, Thermaltake Toughpower, Enermax Revolution, etc).
 
vjcsmoke said:
1. What power supply do you currently have? You will need sufficient power for your new video card.
2. What monitor do you have - resolution and size? Your resolution determines the optimal video card for your setup. Also, if you don't like your current monitor, getting a new one may increase your enjoyment just as much as a new video card.
3. What is your intended computer usage? If you're just going to be surfing the net, or using this for htpc/media usage, you won't need as powerful of a card or you might even prefer a power efficient yet weaker card.

4. According to a review of your motherboard - it supports CrossfireX but NOT SLI. So if you ever have plans to go multi-gpu in the future on the same motherboard, ATI brand video card is the only upgrade path that will allow that.
"Expansion ports on the board resemble what you would expect to find on a high-end board. There are a total of 3 PCI Express x16 slots - the top 2 are used for ATI Crossfire graphics cards, nVidia SLI isn’t supported as both companies haven’t come to any arrangements but don’t count on that happening anytime soon. "
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/994/intel_joins_the_overclockers_bad_axe_2_motherboard/index3.html
Click to expand...

I think you need to answer the questions that vjcsmoke just listed in order for us to make any recommendations.
 
HardwareGuru said:
I think you need to answer the questions that vjcsmoke just listed in order for us to make any recommendations.
Click to expand...

Sure; here are the answers.

vjcsmoke said:
1. What power supply do you currently have? You will need sufficient power for your new video card.
Click to expand...
I have a Corsair HX620W. I'm running 3 HDDs and 2 optical drives in addition to the above, but I don't think that should be an issue for a single GPU system.

vjcsmoke said:
2. What monitor do you have - resolution and size? Your resolution determines the optimal video card for your setup. Also, if you don't like your current monitor, getting a new one may increase your enjoyment just as much as a new video card.
Click to expand...
I have a dual monitor setup - a 21.5" NEC widescreen and a 20" Dell Ultrasharp. Both are good monitors, though I can't really get bigger ones due to space limitations. I guess I could go upto a 24", but I was expecting a graphics card to be a better buy for my money. I generally play at 1440x900.

vjcsmoke said:
3. What is your intended computer usage? If you're just going to be surfing the net, or using this for htpc/media usage, you won't need as powerful of a card or you might even prefer a power efficient yet weaker card.
Click to expand...
I have another computer I'm building for HTPC/media usage that I will be chucking an old E6400 / 8600GTS into. The rig I'm asking for advice on will be used primarily for gaming.

vjcsmoke said:
4. According to a review of your motherboard - it supports CrossfireX but NOT SLI. So if you ever have plans to go multi-gpu in the future on the same motherboard, ATI brand video card is the only upgrade path that will allow that.
Click to expand...
It does support Crossfire, but I would rather stick to single GPU since not every game gets a Crossfire/SLI benefit (although my only real experience with SLI/Crossfire is from the days of 6600s, has that changed much since then?). Also, I'd rather stick to one GPU for heat/noise/power supply issues.

Any further rec's based on this info? Also, I'm running Win 7 Professional x64, and was also toying with the idea of putting my old 8600GT in here as a PhysX card.
 
Last edited:
The Corsair HX620 with 50A on the +12v is enough to run easily power a Radeon HD 5770, 5830, 5850 video cards.

Hmm... if you're playing at 1440x900 res, it looks like you're not playing games at the monitors native resolution. 21.5" monitors native res, most of them now are 1080p or 1920x1080 res. As far as the Dell 20", I'm assuming you have a Dell 2007WFP 20.1 " with 1680x1050 res.

Since this rig is primarily used for gaming, I would just O/C the Q6600 cpu and slap in a Radeon HD 5770 video card or maybe a Radeon HD 5830. This will be an enormous upgrade to your 8800GTS 320MB. If you're gaming on your Dell 20.1" Ultrasharp lcd, you should be able to run most games at its native res of 1680x1050.
 
What's the max res of those two monitors?

Assuming it's 1600x1050 or something similar for either monitor, a HD 5770 would be enough of an upgrade. You do have a budget for the HD 5850 but a stock Q6600 would bottleneck that card.

With that said, if you really want to spend all $500 and don't want to OC, here's what I'd do:
$160 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 CPU
$65 - Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H AM2+ AMD 785G mATX Motherboard
$290 - XFX HD-585X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB PCI-E Video Card
--
Total: $515 shipped plus tax.

You can reuse your current PSU and RAM in the above setup. Yes the HD 5850 is more than likely overkill for a 21.5" or 20" monitor. You could always drop the HD 5850 and go with the HD 5770 or HD 5830 and it still would be enough for those size monitors.
 
HardwareGuru said:
Hmm... if you're playing at 1440x900 res, it looks like you're not playing games at the monitors native resolution. 21.5" monitors native res, most of them now are 1080p or 1920x1080 res. As far as the Dell 20", I'm assuming you have a Dell 2007WFP 20.1 " with 1680x1050 res.
Click to expand...

I actually stand corrected - I have a 19.5" widescreen, and I believe the 19" Dell, although I'm not sure about that right now. I'll double check when I get back from work.
 
Danny Bui said:
What's the max res of those two monitors?

Assuming it's 1600x1050 or something similar for either monitor, a HD 5770 would be enough of an upgrade. You do have a budget for the HD 5850 but a stock Q6600 would bottleneck that card.

With that said, if you really want to spend all $500 and don't want to OC, here's what I'd do:
$160 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 CPU
$65 - Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H AM2+ AMD 785G mATX Motherboard
$290 - XFX HD-585X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB PCI-E Video Card
--
Total: $515 shipped plus tax.

You can reuse your current PSU and RAM in the above setup. Yes the HD 5850 is more than likely overkill for a 21.5" or 20" monitor. You could always drop the HD 5850 and go with the HD 5770 or HD 5830 and it still would be enough for those size monitors.
Click to expand...

Solid advise here.

With your LCD's 1440x900 resolution the HD5770 probably the way to go.

I definitely recommend a CPU upgrade if you don't plan to overclock. 2.4ghz will hold back current video card's performance. You could just pop in a video card though and see how you like the preformance. Spending ~$150 is a lot better than spending ~$500. Plus, replacing the motherboard usually requires a fresh operating system install, which can be a pain for some.
 
I'd rather not have to go through the ordeal of setting up a new mobo - I just got my dual boot configs and my apps installed. I could, however, get a new heatsink and OC my processor. The only reason I havent OCed so far is because the Ninja is a POS heatsink thats doesnt make adequate contact with the processor to deliver decent temps.

Would it make more sense to get a better monitor and the 5850s?
 
I'd get the 5850 and keep the proc you've got now. It's a great proc and you'll have to move up to an i5 or i7 to get an improvement worth spending the money over what you've got now.

I'm not a big believer in CPUs being a bottleneck unless you're talking about a single core or something. When youre talking about a Core 2 quad, which is still a very stout proc, I wouldn't worry about it. An i7 will definitely give you more frames but that doesn't mean you should use a lesser card. A Core 2 with a 5850 will still be faster than an i7 and 5770.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying don't upgrade your CPU, just that if you can only afford 1 and you're wanting better gaming, get the mack daddy GPU now and save up for the faster CPU later.
 
Yep - I don't have the cash to shell out for a new mobo/Proc/DDR3 right now, and I'd rather spend it on a new card. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't creating a bottleneck given how long I've been out of this scene. Also, correct if if I'm wrong, but the Phenom 955 seems like a little bit of a sidegrade.

So how about this for an upgrade:

$160 - Samsung Syncmaster 23.6" widescreen
$290 - XFX 5850

For a total of $450. I can spend the remaining on a new heatsink.
 
I was just about to post that as an add on. Get the 5850 and then use the rest for a bigger monitor. Try to find a 1680x1050 22" instead of a 23". The 22 is actually taller and only a little more narrow and the lower resolution will mean faster framerates.
 
22" LCD, new HSF(to overclock that CPU) and a 5850. Sure the 5850 is a bit over the Q6600, but thats the way i'd go.
 
Sorry to bump up - but should I just get 2 more Dell 19"s and set up an Eyefinity system? Anyone have any experience with this?
 
pdinc said:
Sorry to bump up - but should I just get 2 more Dell 19"s and set up an Eyefinity system? Anyone have any experience with this?
Click to expand...

You can set up an Eyefinity system, just be aware that in addition to a possible need to buy an active Displayport-DVI adapter ($100), your video card has to work a lot harder to power those 3 displays, so you would have to dial back some settings to make it work on a single video card.
 
Yeah ignore that post - I don't know what I was smoking.

Thanks a lot - I think I know what I'm going to do now! New monitor + 5850 + HS :)
 
pdinc said:
Yeah ignore that post - I don't know what I was smoking.

Thanks a lot - I think I know what I'm going to do now! New monitor + 5850 + HS :)
Click to expand...

Sounds like a solid plan. Let us know how your upgrades work out! :)
 
Was just in my local Office Depot today, so I don't know if this is just the one store or a more widespread thing, but they had a 23.6" 1080P Viewsonic for $132, so you might consider that too if there's one close by.
 
pdinc said:
I'd rather not have to go through the ordeal of setting up a new mobo - I just got my dual boot configs and my apps installed. I could, however, get a new heatsink and OC my processor. The only reason I havent OCed so far is because the Ninja is a POS heatsink thats doesnt make adequate contact with the processor to deliver decent temps.
Click to expand...

You can always just sand it down to get better contact.
 
Upgrade your CPU cooler, I recommend the Corsair H50. Make sure you have a good power supply and over-clock your CPU. Then spend the rest of your money on a graphics card. I would stick to ATI they seem to have the best card for the money. Look into getting a 5830, 5850 or 5870 depending on how much you have left. Enjoy.
 
Keep in mind you can pick up some real steals on newegg by buying an open box item. You will still get the Newegg 30 day return policy on that card for a full money refund if you don't like it.

For example there's a 5870 open box on Newegg for $319 now and a GTX 465 open box for $210.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...s-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3891137&SID=194r

Keep refreshing it each day, you might find a bargain.
 
5850 hands down plus whatever monitor you can afford :)
And crank that CPU up to 3.2 - 3.4ghz and you should be set!
 
Danny Bui said:
You can always just sand it down to get better contact.
Click to expand...

It's already been sanded. I think the problem is more the fact that it doesn't have a back plate and so it not pressing down hard enough (yes thats what she said).

daveloft said:
Upgrade your CPU cooler, I recommend the Corsair H50.
Click to expand...

Er, a heatsink that brings hot air *into* your case? That sounds terrible.
 
pdinc said:
Er, a heatsink that brings hot air *into* your case? That sounds terrible.
Click to expand...

No different than any other HSF. You can have it pull air out or pull air in (always pull through a radiator or HSF if using only one fan). You get better CPU temps and worse case temps if you pull air in. You get better case temps and worse CPU temps if you pull air out. It doesn't matter if there's water in the loop or you're using heatpipes, it's the same principle in the end. The hot has to go somewhere.
 
I agree with most of the others. Get the 5850 and a new monitor.
 
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