Choosing a graphics card

[XDLMAO]

Hey everyone, my geforce 860 gt died so I need a new graphics card.

Here's my computer's specs:
Intel Q6600 2.40GHz
P5N E SLI motherboard
Ultra X-Finity 600-Watt power supply
OCZ Platinum Revision-2 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 x 1024MB)
Windows xp 32 bit


I'm looking for something under $100, but I'm willing to go a little over $100.

The games I usually play are TF2, league of legends, and starcraft 2.

Also just out of curiosity, how do you determine if your power supply is enough for a graphics card?

Thanks for all the help.

 

[benski]

There is going to be a GTX 460 on sale from EVGA.COM for 90 bucks after rebates this weekend.

 

[benski]

^If he's going to spend that much at least recommend a 6850, the 6790 is worse and uses more power and costs more than the 6850 after rebates.

As far as power supply you won't find any 100 dollar cards that need more than what you've got. The manufacturers make there reccomendations based on low end PSUs, yours isn't great but if it's working properly it should be fine for anything other than a 480/580/590/6990.

 

[benski]

Yeah but the XFX 6850 on newegg is only 129.99 after rebate, 5 bucks less than the 6790.

 

[XDLMAO]

So if the XFX 6850 is a little bit cheaper (after rebates), would that be a better choice?

Also it seems like benski recommends a much cheaper card, how does it compare to the 6850 and 6790?

One last thing I read somewhere that the P5N E has issues sometimes with PCI express 2.1, do you know anything about that?

 

[benski]

The 460 and 6850 are about the same performance level, the 460 overclocks better, stock the 6850 is a little faster in most games, the 460 is faster in DX11 heavy games.

The 6790 isn't a very good choice, it's a little slower than either the 6850 or 460 at stock, but has basically no overclocking headroom and uses more power than either of those cards.

I misread the add though, it's a 450 that's on sale for 90 bucks this weekend, the 460s are still between 110 and 130 after rebates. If it were me I would still go with the 460, if you are comfortable with overclocking it's easily the best performer of the 3 and often beats the 6870 as well. You should overclock your CPU as well if possible.

I doubt your board would have any problem with a 2.1 card, if so a bios update would probably cure it.

 

[benski]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130565

It's a little over your budget but that's what I would go for. There's also a zotac for 110 after rebates, but I don't know if zotac actually honors there MIR requests.

 

[XDLMAO]

Sounds good, I'm going to go with the 460 then.

Thanks for the advice benski!

 

[XDLMAO]

Best answer selected by XDLMAO.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey