You guys will laugh-need upgrade advice

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Fark_Maniac

2[H]4U
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Feb 21, 2002
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I built my machine back in '05. It was a nice system back then and I built it so I could upgrade it later in pieces. Shortly after I got my job, I had no time for games...so all I ever upgraded was the processor (3200+ single core to 3800+ dual core) and memory from 2GB to 3GB.

Recently I saw Alice 3 was being mulled around and didn't realize Alice 2 was out! Looking at specs, one guy said a 7800gt was just barely enough to play.

So...I know I have two x16 PCIe slots. I think they'd be 1.0...dating it back to purchase date. I looked around and saw that any new video card should be compatible, it will just be limited to data rate of 1.0 spec. I'm cheap as hell. I won't spend over $100 for a better card. I am not partial to ATI/AMD or nVidia...however I've been out of the loop so long, I don't know what product lines are the latest in either camp. :)
 
I believe Alice has gpu PhysX (Nvidia exclusive) so you might want to grab a used 460 GTX 1GB card. Those are usually well below $100.
 
Fark_Maniac said:
... I'm cheap as hell. I won't spend over $100 for a better card. I am not partial to ATI/AMD or nVidia...however I've been out of the loop so long, I don't know what product lines are the latest in either camp. :)
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Well, for the $100-ish price range, I would look at the AMD HD 7770. Those can usually be had for around $100 (a little less with a good sale and/or MIR). Obviously the rest of your system will hold back a modern gaming GPU, even an HD 7770, but it's cheap and will be a nice upgrade.

The HD 7770 will also work well paired with any modern low-end CPU's, such as an i3 SB/IB. So if you ever upgrade to a modern, inexpensive gaming rig, you'll be able to re-use the card. (Or just sell it when you build a new rig if you want to go higher spec)

Otherwise, look for a used card from 1/2 generations ago, as they can often be had for extremely good deals.
 
If you're willing to do a little work, you can get a 7850 for a hundred. They go on sale frequently lately for $150 after rebate, and they come with a card for bioshock/tomb raider. The card sells on ebay for $59 easily (then you've got fees, but no postage since you can just email the code off it).

I've upgraded from a 460 to dual 7850s this week doing exactly this :)
 
dboy said:
If you're willing to do a little work, you can get a 7850 for a hundred. They go on sale frequently lately for $150 after rebate, and they come with a card for bioshock/tomb raider. The card sells on ebay for $59 easily (then you've got fees, but no postage since you can just email the code off it).

I've upgraded from a 460 to dual 7850s this week doing exactly this :)
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he would never even get half of what a 7850 can do with his cpu. I doubt he would even get more than a third of what that card is capable of in most modern games. a 3800 X2 is not only a massive bottleneck for any modern card but its also playable limitation too. its not even going to meet minimum requirements for many games.
 
That's true, the 7850 is way overkill. On the other hand, he said he planned to (and hopefully will in the future) upgrade in pieces. So I'm just saying that if he's willing to spend $100, rather than getting a 7770, with a little effort he could get a 7850 that'll last him longer.
 
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