Athlon xp 2700+ graphics card

[Spryguy87]

Hello,
My pc recently blew up in a fantastic shower of sparks and I have been relegated to my old build due to my very tight financial situation. I have an Athlon XP 2700+ on an FIC AU13 motherboard with 2gb of DDR 400 on there and my question is this:
What is the best gpu that i can get before bottlenecking occurs? Feel free to express brand loyalty, as I do not mind one way or the other (I have had used a fair share of both over the years.) Oh, and all i really want to do is play StarCraft 2 (obviously it will need to be at minimum specs).

 

[jaguarskx]

An AGP HD 4670 is the best you can hope for with your mobo. You may have a little bottlenecking issue.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131329


You can opt for the less powerful HD 4650, you should not have any bottlenecking issues, but you will also have power performance.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150433

 

[4745454b]

The point of the word bottleneck is that he wouldn't see the extra power that the 4670 provides. I vote for the 4650.

 

[jaguarskx]

While the HD 4670 may be bottlenecked, it would still be faster than the HD 4650 for the OP's system.

He will have to determine if spending the extra money is worth it. It's difficult to gauge how much "bottlenecking" there will be with the Athlon XP 2700+. I would assume a 10% performance hit, but it would still be more powerful than the HD 4650.

 

[megamanx00]

I say 3650 if you have a weak PSU. The Radeon 3650 uses less power, and because of your CPU you really shouldn't loose much over the 4650 or 4670. On the other hand if your PSU is decent then you may as well pay a little more for the 4670. If you can overclock your CPU that would help even more. Of course if it's the Thoroughbred then squeezing more out of it may be a bit difficult compared to the Thorton version ^_^.

 

[4745454b]

Your talking about a slow single core FSB based Athlon. Pretty sure it would be more then 10%.