What's a good GPU match for Intel E7500?

[ryneisme]

My system currently has an Intel core2 duo E7500 CPU. I'm looking to upgrade my video card, but I don't want to waste money on a card that will just be slowed down by my processor. How good of a video card could this processor handle?

System Specs:

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E7500
RAM: 4.00 GB
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series

 

[Overclocked Toaster]

it really all depends on the game, in some games you wont even bottleneck a gtx 580. but I would not get more than a 6950 at the max.

you may look into OCing your cpu to get some more life out of it.

 

[4745454b]

A stock 7500? I say no higher then a 5770 or 6850. 6950 will be much more then a 7500 can handle. I do agree it depends on the game however.

 

[mactronix]

Just finished crunching the numbers for this on a different thread, i think 4745454b is being a little conservative. Toms has shown that you don't need as much horsepower as people think to max out a 5850 at a decent resolution of 1920 X 1080.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i3-gaming,2588.html
The E7500 is of a very similar performance to the X3 720 and the 13 530 BUT that is very dependent on the game played.
Given a decent Over clock i see no reason for a E7500 to be an issue to a 6950 given that an over clocked E 6300 ( no thats not a typo) can keep an Over clocked 5870 (still no typo) happy at decent resolution and settings.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/balanced-gaming-pc-overclock,2625.html

Mactronix

 

[iam2thecrowe]

i think either a 5850, 6850/6870 or gtx460/gtx560 would be a good match running 1080p resolution. if running lower resolution than that then you dont need more than a 6850 or gtx460. Many games run much better on quad cores although a fast dual core is still enough for 99% of games.

 

[4745454b]

I said stock. I never said what an OC'd 7500 could do. Once your at 1920x1080 most of the burden is on the GPU no matter what. If your still on 1680x1050 then the CPU will matter more.

 

[mactronix]

I said stock. I never said what an OC'd 7500 could do. Once your at 1920x1080 most of the burden is on the GPU no matter what. If your still on 1680x1050 then the CPU will matter more.

You asked Stock ? as the OP never mentioned if there was an OC present or not same as the OP never mentioned what resolution was being used.
Given the card being used now we can guess at a lower resolution and we can guess that as no OC was mentioned then there isn't one.
However the op asked "How good of a video card could this processor handle?" I'm just answering the question is all.
Given the facts at my disposal i think a 5770 is well on the low side and probably a 6850 would be a good balance but as the question was "How good of a video card could this processor handle?" and not what would be the best balanced card .......
Answer as already posted, given a decent Over clock i see no reason for a E7500 to be an issue to a 6950.
The main issue will be games that like more than two cores, there you will see the real difference.

Mactronix