Graphic card and CPU pairing.

What do you use your computer for?
Budget?
Power supply specs.?

This PC is going to be a back up in the end. I'm in the process of putting together a new computer, but would like this one for letting the GF use to get her into computer gaming.

I had an 8800GT in there before and it's an old S939 dual core processor. 2 GB of memory, 600watt psu that I stole from another old pc, the mobo is pretty nice as it allows for SLI, so that's an option of extending the life if need be. I was running things at the monitor's native resolution of 1680X1050 and it handled things fairly well. I don't need it to do anything super fancy, just work at decent enough detail so she can kill zombies in Left4Dead.  

9600GT 512MB

lol

Thanks for all the input so far all. Y'all have at least put me on the right track on finding something that'll work really close to what I want. I've been reading so many reviews and posts. I was thinking of getting the HD 5670 as it seemed to work better at native resolution of my monitor than the 5570 and it's newer tech than the 9600 GT and doesn't require the additional power input.

Some of the stuff I read though was saying that the 5670 wasn't worth a damn at that resolution (1650 x 1080) and it's not a good upgrade from an 8800GT that I had, so now I'm still a little hesitant. I would like to keep the price below $100 if I can, but don't want to waste money either.




It has taken me 29 yrs of life to find one that I'm interested in that is also interested in gaming. I have to paid my dues though, she's into the Twilight stuff.  

Once again, thanks all. I think I'm going to go with the HD5670 as I can't justify paying >$100 for a video card on a computer that won't get used as a main.

This'll be my first ATI card, ever.

For Left 4 Dead (or even L4D2) the 5670 should be fine @ 1680x1050 resolution. Although as other already stated, the CPU is going to hold things back with modern games. Thankfully, the Left 4 Dead games have a fairly basic game engine that doesn't require much CPU or GPU power to play smoothly. So you should be fine.

I lucked out with my wife. We met playing Asheron's Call back in the day (I think that game is still around too!). Though she doesn't game anymore now that we have kids (used to play WoW too!). Thankfully though, she dislikes Twilight as much as I do.

For all the suggestion only one isn't crap. A 5670 will be good as a 5570 may as well be to slow even for your cpu. Don't go any higher than a 57x0 series as it will be clear that your system will not be able to keep up.

Best answer selected by TheKeg.

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey