PCI E 2.0 graphics card in PCI E 1.0 board, buying assistance

shijilt

Honorable
Jul 6, 2013
122
0
10,690
First of all let me tell you about myself, I am not living to play games.
So , I don't need 1000W SMPS , Core i7 processor or a 500$ graphics card.

What I need with my PC is
lot of internet browsing
lot of HD videos/Movies
and some high end gaming.

My current PC configuration
AMD Athlon 3000+ 1.8Ghz
ASRock N68C-GS FX MB
2GB DDR2 (1GB X 2)
500 GB SATA HDD
Viewsonic 18.5 inch LED Backlit LCD Monitor
Corsair 430 CX V2 430 W PSU

I will upgrade my Processor and RAM soon.
Processor will be
Phenom II X4 or Phenom II X6 series, as available in my area.

RAM will be
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 4 GB


My question is , my PC's current config is weak , I know.
But I wont do an update in a month.
I would like to buy a graphics card first , coz if I change my processor first , I will also have to change the RAM .It will cost me near 300$ in average.
But if I change the graphics card now , it can be done in less than 200$.
Please don't ask me to go for a PCI E 2.0 supported board, I just changed my board last week.

I know that If I use a PCI E 2.0 card in my PCI E 1.0 slot , it will bottleneck.
But as I said on top , I don't need ExTrEmE performance.

You guys don't have to suggest graphics card model numbers, just suggest me what to look for.
I wont make any monitor upgrades in near time, and even if I do , it will upgrade to a max of 22 inch - no more.

So you guys tell me ,
FOr a display of 18.5" , how much amount of Video RAM is required ?

If I use a
"EVGA NVIDIA 01G-P3-1302-LR 1 GB DDR3 Graphics Card" , is that gonna be less powered ?


and If I use
"ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 Synergy Edition 2 GB DDR3 Graphics Card"

is it gonna bottleneck ?

What about
"Asus NVIDIA GT 630 2 GB DDR3 Graphics Card" ,it will fit in my pocket .. :) , but is it will be a bottleneck ?

Some example will help me a lot.
Just remember, for a short time , I will use this graphics card with AMD Athlon 3000 processor and 2GB DDR2 RAM , but it will be followed by something better.
 
Solution
You say you want to do some gaming? The cheapest card you can get that will do light gaming is the HD 7750 GDDR5. I would not go with anything less then than. As for bottleneck, your CPU and your PCIe 1.0 slot will massively bottleneck any GPU. No modern games would be playable even if you included the most powerful GPU in the world. I know you said you want to upgrade your GPU, but if you keep using that MB with PCIe 1.0 your GPU will massively bottleneck. Even a cheap $50 AM3+ board will do better. Upgrading your GPU will essentially be money down the drain without a MB and CPU upgrade. Even with a FX-6300(the best CPU for that board), you will not have good performance. I hope this helps.

kirilmatthew

Honorable
Jul 24, 2013
1,377
1
11,660
You say you want to do some gaming? The cheapest card you can get that will do light gaming is the HD 7750 GDDR5. I would not go with anything less then than. As for bottleneck, your CPU and your PCIe 1.0 slot will massively bottleneck any GPU. No modern games would be playable even if you included the most powerful GPU in the world. I know you said you want to upgrade your GPU, but if you keep using that MB with PCIe 1.0 your GPU will massively bottleneck. Even a cheap $50 AM3+ board will do better. Upgrading your GPU will essentially be money down the drain without a MB and CPU upgrade. Even with a FX-6300(the best CPU for that board), you will not have good performance. I hope this helps.
 
Solution

shamsmu

Honorable
May 30, 2012
1,148
0
11,660
well, all the pci express 3.0 and 2.0 cards are backwards compatible so there shouldn't be any compatibility issues. However, the card would perform slower

gt610 is not a gaming friendly card but gt630 should be a worthy upgrade.
However, the best card I would recommend for that set up is either a hd6670 or a hd7750. Both should work okay with your cpu.

That set up should give you decent fps in mid level gaming.
 

kirilmatthew

Honorable
Jul 24, 2013
1,377
1
11,660


With the athlon? It will be a massive bottleneck. No modern games support the athlon. It is a very old single core CPU. PCIe 1.0 also massively bottlenecks cards, even though it is compatible.
 

shijilt

Honorable
Jul 6, 2013
122
0
10,690
Thanks for the reply guys.

So without a motherboard upgrade it cant perform well , right ?

I am already planing to change my CPU and RAM .
I have to change my motherboard too....

Then why should I stick to AMD ? I could think of Intel...

Thanks again for the reply..
 

shamsmu

Honorable
May 30, 2012
1,148
0
11,660


For some reason, I imagined it to be an AMD Opteron

in that case, OP shouldn't go any further than a gt220 or a hd6570




However, if OP decides to get a better cpu, then pci express 1.0 shouldn't be much of an issue since pci express 1.x stlll has 250mb/s data transfer rate(half of pcie 2.0) which shouldn't technically affect cards like hd7750 bandwidth wise. The performance difference should be marginal and 10% maximum. After all, there are only few cards that uses the full bandwidth of a pci express 2.0 slot like the gtx580,590 and hd 6990/7970 etc
 

shijilt

Honorable
Jul 6, 2013
122
0
10,690


So , if I have a powerful processor and enough RAM , with a hd7750, can I play games like GTA IV and GTA V in this board which has PCI E 1.0 ?
I am fan of GTA games...
 

kirilmatthew

Honorable
Jul 24, 2013
1,377
1
11,660


PCIe 1.0 will still bottleneck, just not as much as better cards. And just to clarify, GTA V is not coming to PC, only to Xbox and PlayStation.
 

shamsmu

Honorable
May 30, 2012
1,148
0
11,660


GTA V is coming for pc, only after a couple of years
 

kirilmatthew

Honorable
Jul 24, 2013
1,377
1
11,660


GTA V has been only announced for consoles. The Devs have not said anything about a PC game coming. Do you have any link to say it is? Because to all my knowledge it isn't.
 

shamsmu

Honorable
May 30, 2012
1,148
0
11,660


its the usual rockstar drama, nvidia devs have already claimed the game's on its way. It may take some time but it would be ported sooner or later. Always has been with GTA titles.
 

kirilmatthew

Honorable
Jul 24, 2013
1,377
1
11,660


There is no news that it is. Only that it isn't. I'd sure love it to come to PC, but I'm not holding my breath. Rockstar puts the absolute minimum effort into their PC "games"(ports) and I am not surprised they have said they've axed it for GTA V.
 

shamsmu

Honorable
May 30, 2012
1,148
0
11,660


well, the chances aren't that bad for pc tbh. Think about it, after the initial ps3/xbox360 release, they will have to recode the game for the next generation consoles(ps4/xbox one). The potential profit they can make off the new console is simply too tempting. I believe that's when they'd port it for pc as well. Its always been that way they make dramas to create suspense but eventually pc market gets it.
 

kirilmatthew

Honorable
Jul 24, 2013
1,377
1
11,660


It is coming to new consoles, but that is far from a guarantee it will come to PC. Anyways let's hope it does!