Choosing the right GPU for my mobo

[tanenui76]

Hello,
I am not sure about choosing the right graphic card for my system.
My system components are:
ASUS P5KPL-CM, Intel E5200 CPU, 2GB DDR2 800, 420W PSU and Windows XP 32bit.
Most of the time I am working with AutoCAD 2010 and play games like CIV IV.
I read PCIe 2.0 cards are not compatible with PCIe 1.0 boards and if they are is it worth it to buy a PCIe 2.0 card if the board does not support a memory bandwidth of more then 8.0GB/s anyway?
Or is it maybe worth it to look into upgrading the mobo from G31 chipset to G45 or any other so my CPU and ram would still fit?
My budget is $75 to $150
Thank you for your help!!!

 

[iam2thecrowe]

its pcie2.1 cards that are sometimes not compatable. 2.0 cards should be ok. An ati 5770 or 5750 should be in your price range. or even a nvidia gts450.

 

[tanenui76]

Thank you for your quick reply.
Regards your suggestions, I am a little worried about the power usage of those cards you mentioned above. My PSU provides only 420W and it is not a known brand neither. What do your reckon of 5570 or 5670, they use less power.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

5670 should be ok, what exact power supply do you have? brand? any specs written on the side of the unit?

 

[tanenui76]

420W ATX ISO-500PP Power Supply
Specifications: 420Watt
1x SATA
1x 20+4 Pins
4x 4 Pin Molex
1x Floppy Drive
1x 12V Processor
+3.3V 22.0A
+5V 36.0A
+12V 18.0 A
-12V 0.5A
-5V 0.5A
+5sb 2.0A

I also find this review which states that the specs of my PSU are inadequate:
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3410909.php

 

[iam2thecrowe]

yeah, that is not a 420w continuous rating. Its more like a 420w peak rating. Not enough amps on the 12v rail. 5670 should work ok. anything more and you will want a new psu with 400w CONTINUOUS power.

 

[tanenui76]

Thank you very much for your help, I really appreciate it.

One more question:
My board has only a PCI-e 1.0 slot as you already know and accordingly to Intel diagram and specs the Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 on my board provides a bandwidth of 12.8 GB/s and the PCIe slot 8 GB/s only. What does it mean if I buy a 5670 card which has a bandwidth of 64 GB/s? Is it important or shall I ignore it because all other specs of a graphic card are far better then what I have right now anyway? I just do not want to buy a graphic card which has huge potential but because of my board I am not able to use it.

By the way, I installed a GeForce 8500 GT PCI-E card a while ago just to see the differences and I had better textures in AutoCAD and my games, but otherwise everything was slower. Was it because of the memory bandwidth or because the card had only a memory clock of 333MHz only?

http://www.intel.com/Assets/Image/diagram/G31_Bloc.gif

Thank you again!!!

 

[kikireeki]

The slower performance is most likely due to the use of Opengl to render the viewports, and switching to D3d should fix the problem, and if it persists then switch to the default (software renderer)
These settings could be found in AutoCAD under (customize>preferences> viewports> display driver) or so.

 

[tanenui76]

ok...
at the end whatever card I choose nvidia GT220/GT240/GTS450 or amd 5570/5670, my next question would be 512MB or 1GB?
If you have to choose between exactly the same cards and the only difference would be the amount of memory which one would you choose? Logically you would choose that one with more memory, but in IT it's not always the case or is it?

 

[tanenui76]

Best answer selected by tanenui76.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar