Upgrading from a Radeon HD 4350

[jamiehoy]

Hey guys. I was just after a little help with upgrading my graphics card. My current graphics card is a Radeon HD 4350. I know that I have a PCIe 1.0 and that 2.0 etc are compatible. What my question is, what is the best graphics card I can get for my system? Not the best I can buy, but the best for my system without much wastage power (If 2.0 etc)

PC Specs
Motherboard: M2N68-LA (Narra6)
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 630 Processor 2.8 GHz
Ram: 8GB
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

If any more information is needed, I will happily find it and post it here. Let me say all help is much appreciated.

 

[welshmousepk]

what power supply do you have? and what's your budget?

you aren't really limited at all, at least not unless you get a high end GPU which will be bottlenecked. but a mid range 6770 or similar would play nicely with this setup and be a massive improvement.

 

[jamiehoy]

My PSU is pretty crap atm. Only at 250w, but thats no problem to upgrade. I just didnt want to get a graphics card 2.0 or something where its only using 60-70% of the potential, or less.

I heard there was a limit to the bandwidth? of a PCIe slot of 4GB or somthing? I could be completely off track here. Didn't want to get something that uses, just say, 16GB if thats the case.

 

[welshmousepk]

its not that simple. essentially, PCIe 1 has half the bandwidth of 2.0. but only the current highest power cards come close to saturating PCIe 2.0 so a mid range card will lose little to no performance.

the PSU will need to be upgraded if you want a decent enough GPU, but obviously it becomes about how much you want to spend and how much performance you need.

personally I would jsut build a new system, but if its not a choice. a new PSU and low-mid range GPU will certainly breathe new life into your system. without going as high as a 7770, even a 5670 would be a really nice jump. and cheap to boot.

 

[Badfinger]

Hello,

Did a little research, I'd get an Antec 550 PSU for around $60
and video card wise: depends on budget...
Around $80: Radeon 6670
Around $110: Radeon 7750
Around $150: Radeon 6850 or a Nvidia 550Ti

Used pcpartpicker.com for those prices, picking out the best for those figures.

All those will be nice boost.

 

[jamiehoy]

its not that simple. essentially, PCIe 1 has half the bandwidth of 2.0. but only the current highest power cards come close to saturating PCIe 2.0 so a mid range card will lose little to no performance.

the PSU will need to be upgraded if you want a decent enough GPU, but obviously it becomes about how much you want to spend and how much performance you need.

personally I would jsut build a new system, but if its not a choice. a new PSU and low-mid range GPU will certainly breathe new life into your system. without going as high as a 7770, even a 5670 would be a really nice jump. and cheap to boot.

One last question, I looked up the Radeon HD 7770 and I notice there are many different brands with this GPU. Any you recommend for that series?

I saw this: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19723
Bad choice? / waste of money?

 

[jamiehoy]

Best answer selected by jamiehoy.

 

[welshmousepk]

tbh, with the rest of that system its probably not worth putting so much money on the GPU.

by something more middle ground, and start saving for a new motherboard and CPU.

the directCU card is a good model, but i generally jsut go for whatever card is cheapest unless there's one with a very good cooler for a decent price. They all perform identically, its just overclocking that will be affected.

for now, i would say stick with the 6670. whatever brand you can get cheaply, and put the money saved aside until you have more cash. A cheap h61 motherboard and an i3 2100 will be a very nice and reasonably priced way to rebuild you PC.