Need a good PCI-E x16 card

[seprintz]

My wife has an older 1st gen. Asus Crosshair mobo running an AMD Athlon X2 4400+ processor. She doesn't want to do a new build yet (I just recently built myself a new machine) but I was wanting to upgrade her video card.

What is left on the market that I could upgrade her to? What would be the best of the best in terms of cards that would work on her board?

I don't recall off the top of my head what she has installed, but I can look when I get home from work.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[apache_lives]

ATI 4650 perhaps?

 

[TheViper]

So long as it has a PCI-e x16 slot like I believe the Asus Crosshairs had, it should be able to handle any modern card. The CPU will bottleneck the newest cards though.

What resolution is your monitor?

 

[seprintz]

I am not sure what the resolution is on her monitor, but it is a 21" Samsung :-/

I would know the resolution if it were my machine, but it is my wife's

She currently has an old nvidia 7900GT.

So then, I guess the question I need to ask is can she use a PCI-E 2.0 card? You seem to think so, but is there any way to be sure?

**Edit**

I also plan on getting her some new RAM, and when I do, overclock the processor to the 5000+ like they did in the AGP graphics overclock review.

 

[hallowed_dragon]

I am not sure what the resolution is on her monitor, but it is a 21" Samsung :-/

I would know the resolution if it were my machine, but it is my wife's

She currently has an old nvidia 7900GT.

So then, I guess the question I need to ask is can she use a PCI-E 2.0 card? You seem to think so, but is there any way to be sure?

**Edit**

I also plan on getting her some new RAM, and when I do, overclock the processor to the 5000+ like they did in the AGP graphics overclock review.

1. Give us the PSU brand and wattage + your maximum budget for the upgrade.
2. A PCI-E 2.0 card will work on a PCI-E x16 no problem.

 

[seprintz]

2. A PCI-E 2.0 card will work on a PCI-E x16 no problem.

Yeah, I just read that when looking up the 2.0 specifications.

1. Give us the PSU brand and wattage + your maximum budget for the upgrade.

Her current power supply is on loan from a friend because he old one crapped out on us. I am planning on getting her a 680w power supply that should be viable when we wind up getting her a new mobo/processor in the future.

I also plan on getting her a 4GB DDR2 upgrade, not too sure which ram yet. She is currently running 2GB but the sticks aren't a matching pair, one of her original 1GB sticks died on us :-(

No real set budget on the video card, but would like to keep it as close to or under $100 as possible. I would also like to try and "match" the video card with the processor, if that makes any sense. What I mean by that is, I don't want to get her a 4870 because she won't be able to utilize all of that card's potential due to a bottleneck at the processor.

 

[seprintz]

Sorry, I forgot to give you the brand of the power supply.

I am looking at getting her the Hiper Type-R II Ultra 680w unit. Tom's gave them a good review a while back and she has been wanting more USB ports for a while now. I figured I would kill multiple birds with one PSU.
http://www.xoxide.com/hyper-type-rii-680w-black.html

 

[hallowed_dragon]

Yeah, I just read that when looking up the 2.0 specifications.



Her current power supply is on loan from a friend because he old one crapped out on us. I am planning on getting her a 680w power supply that should be viable when we wind up getting her a new mobo/processor in the future.

I also plan on getting her a 4GB DDR2 upgrade, not too sure which ram yet. She is currently running 2GB but the sticks aren't a matching pair, one of her original 1GB sticks died on us :-(

No real set budget on the video card, but would like to keep it as close to or under $100 as possible. I would also like to try and "match" the video card with the processor, if that makes any sense. What I mean by that is, I don't want to get her a 4870 because she won't be able to utilize all of that card's potential due to a bottleneck at the processor.

ATI 4770. Also a 680W PSU is a massive overkill for that system. Go for a 400-450W, unless you plan to upgrade in the future to crossfire or sli.

 

[jay2tall]

ATI cards tend to do better with older CPU's. They are more driver heavy but seem to do better. Are you looking to some gaming on this or just general stuff? If you had a 7900Gt i am assuming you did at least some light gaming.

I will throw this out there, if you are planning to get a 680w PSU. I am in the process of unloading my 4870 cards. I just sold the one on eBay and have the other on the chopping block. I is listing in this forum under classifieds, at $120 + shipping, but am entertaining offers.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/99464-8-asus-4870-dark-knight-cards-sale#t587143

 

[seprintz]

I understand that 680w is overkill for her current system, but want enough headroom for a future upgrade that may include SLI/Crossfire.

Its the same PSU that I just bought for my new rig and I like the way it looks, don't have any problems with it, and I can expand to Crossfire/SLI later if I like.

Also, I think its funny that you mention the 7900 as evidence of "light gaming". Back when I bought it the 7900 was at the top of the line for nvidia! LOL. We used to play A LOT of BF2, BF2142, WoW, CS:S and DOD:S.

Currently we just play a lot of WoW, but aare thinking about getting Left for Dead 2 when it comes out.

 

[jay2tall]

^ haha true. I just wasn't sure if you still used it for gaming. That card is about 3 generations old. Anyways, I'd suggest an ATI card, maybe a 4850 or 4870, 4890 if you want a moderatly priced card for gaming. The 5850 and 5870's are out but are twice the price.

 

[JofaMang]

And those suggestions are far above the $100 budget mentioned, lol.

Go for an ATI 4670, I recently upgraded 3 different WoW playing friends dual core, 2gb, Vista AMD boxes with them. With the settings on medium/high, they are getting 25-50fps in Dalaran, and have complete fluidity in large raids, at 1650x1080 resolution.

The first one I did, was about 2 months ago, my brother-in-laws AMD 4200+ dual core with 2gb of 667 ram, running vista 32. I was completely stunned by how nice such a low budget, PCI slot powered card was running. It was the sapphire 4670 512mb DDR3, the same model I have put in 2 of his WoW-mates computers (they all got into the game at the same time and built their computers together, heh). They had all bought pre-builts from a local shop that had 8500GT video cards. It was a truly massive increase in performance, so I imagine it would be a similarly big jump for you.

Upgrading the 4gb ram in my brother-in-laws box helped run vista faster, but had very little effect on the game itself, just as a point of interest.

 

[jay2tall]

Yeah, I just read that when looking up the 2.0 specifications.
No real set budget on the video card, but would like to keep it as close to or under $100 as possible. I would also like to try and "match" the video card with the processor, if that makes any sense. What I mean by that is, I don't want to get her a 4870 because she won't be able to utilize all of that card's potential due to a bottleneck at the processor.

My buddy has an old 4600+ X2 CPU and is running a 4850. It runs REALLY well. Like I said before ATI cards seem to perform better in older PC's. Nvidia cards love fast CPU's and are more lite on the drivers. Just a thought after your previous statement. A 48xx card would run great in your setup.

 

[seprintz]

And those suggestions are far above the $100 budget mentioned, lol.

Go for an ATI 4670, I recently upgraded 3 different WoW playing friends dual core, 2gb, Vista AMD boxes with them. With the settings on medium/high, they are getting 25-50fps in Dalaran, and have complete fluidity in large raids, at 1650x1080 resolution.

The first one I did, was about 2 months ago, my brother-in-laws AMD 4200+ dual core with 2gb of 667 ram, running vista 32. I was completely stunned by how nice such a low budget, PCI slot powered card was running. It was the sapphire 4670 512mb DDR3, the same model I have put in 2 of his WoW-mates computers (they all got into the game at the same time and built their computers together, heh). They had all bought pre-builts from a local shop that had 8500GT video cards. It was a truly massive increase in performance, so I imagine it would be a similarly big jump for you.

Upgrading the 4gb ram in my brother-in-laws box helped run vista faster, but had very little effect on the game itself, just as a point of interest.

Thanks for the help. I am going to get the 4GB because she wants to get Windows 7 on the new student price, and I don't want it to run like crap.

Would the 4670 run better in PCI-E than just regular PCI? I am assuming so, just curious.

 

[JofaMang]

It won't run at all on regular PCI. They are different slots, and a PCI-E card won't fit in a PCI slot. Sorry for the typo in my last post, the 4670 is indeed only PCI-E.

 

[seprintz]

My buddy has an old 4600+ X2 CPU and is running a 4850. It runs REALLY well. Like I said before ATI cards seem to perform better in older PC's. Nvidia cards love fast CPU's and are more lite on the drivers. Just a thought after your previous statement. A 48xx card would run great in your setup.

Sounds good too, but a 4850 may be a little more money than I am wanting to spend.

Also, who knows what prices will look like when the time to buy rolls around, I am looking at doing this as a Christmas gift, so I have some time between now and then.

 

[seprintz]

It won't run at all on regular PCI. They are different slots, and a PCI-E card won't fit in a PCI slot. Sorry for the typo in my last post, the 4670 is indeed only PCI-E.

Right on, I was a bit surprised when I read that. Makes more sense now. Kind of funny, if I went with the 4670, and it is powered by the MoBo, then I could go with a MUCH smaller power supply.

 

[seprintz]

Out of curiosity, did you get them the 1GB or 512MB 4670?

 

[JofaMang]

512mb. They all have 1650x1080 or lower displays, and the 1gb models would have been money wasted, especially since the card itself can't utilize 1gb of Vram anyhow.

Higher Ram on less than top end cards is rarely more than a marketting gimmick. Double the Ram for $5 production cost, charge $25 more at retail. Not actual numbers, but an example of why they exist.

 

[seprintz]

I just checked on newegg and the difference in price between the Sapphire 512MB and 1GB card was $3, so I would have a hard time deciding to NOT go with the 1GB version.

 

[JofaMang]

Oh ok hah, I had to buy their cards locally (they didn't want to wait for shipping time) so those were the choices I had to face.

Be careful though, as there are 4670 1gb DDR2 versions out there that will perform well under the 4670 512mb DDR3 versions. I only found one of them on newegg (an XFX model) but if that is what you are looking at, you are MUCH better off with the 512mb DDR3 version.