Graphic Card upgrade suggestions?

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rhansen01

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Jul 8, 2012
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Hello,

I am a gamer. I put my system together quite some time back and it has held up well but my GPU is getting beat on a lot with games like SWTOR and Skyrim - I can get the games to run fine but I have seen temps on SWTOR running over 95c at times. Even now, just watching a soccer match on espn3 on one monitor and typing this on the other my GPU is 63c (granted its been hot lately). I peg my fan to 100% always when playing any games. I am thinking I need an upgrade to the GTX 260 and would like any advice someone might have who has gone through a similar upgrade choice.

My current system:

~Windows 7 64bit OS
~Core Duo E8400 3GHz
~ EVGA nForce 750i SLI (122-YW-E173-TR) Motherboard
~8GB DDR PC2-6400 (according to the crucial scan)
~ GdForce GTX 260

I would like to get a card that will run these type of games at 1920x1080 or 1680x1060 at max without frying my gpu.

Ideally the upgrade would be between $100 and $200 but wish I could spend the $750 or so for one of the new 4gb cards!

Any thoughts? suggestion? ideas? etc. :)

I appreciate your consideration.
 
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coozie7

coozie7

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Jun 2, 2007
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@ Rhansen01: You could try cleaning out that long suffering GTX260 ;)
Sticking within a maximum of $200 (I'll assume US Dollars) the HD6870 class of cards are all within your reach, check out the link posted by jitpublisher to see how each, roughly, compares to the others.
As the resolution increases, the workload shifts away from the CPU towards the GPU, so even though your system has a (fairly) slow CPU by current standards if you're aiming at 1080 gaming, you'll still need to look for the most powerful card within your budget.
BTW for a little over budget the 1Gb HD6950 enters the fray, do n't be fooled by the 'small' 1Gb memory, it's more than enough for cards of this class (all of 'em) because by the time the card is using more than 1Gb (for AA mainly) it's already running out of steam.
 
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rhansen01

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Jul 8, 2012
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Thanks for the thoughtful response. Funny you mentioned cleaning it out. Normally i have been pretty good at shutting it all off cleaning out the cased and compressed air cleaning all the guts in place. Today, after I wrote this, I took the card out and took it apart - to some extent and blew out a lot of hidden dust... also i removed those decals from the unit (no sense in extra insulation) and low-and-behold my card went from idling at low to mid 60s to low fifties - sage words - clean out that graphics card.
 
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rhansen01

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Jul 8, 2012
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ATI has made quite a comeback in graphics cards I am gathering. Back when I had like a 256mb ati graphics card I recall it being mediocre and end up dying on me - but I will give you that was a long time ago.

So no one thinks there is a comparable GTX card as a good upgrade? Not that I wont get an ATI just curious if the GTXs are getting beaten by ATI these days.
 
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coozie7

coozie7

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Jun 2, 2007
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^ We're just AMD fanboys ;)
There's no other reason than bang-per-(fill in your local currency here), Nvidia tend to be a bit more expensive than their AMD counterparts in the mid range.
If you take a look at the article linked by Jitpublisher, the GTX 560s' would also be a viable choice. Just be careful of the specs, there are 4 versions: SE, 560, 560Ti and 560 448 core, the Ti and 448 core versions are the better choices.
Obviously, the choice is yours to make-it's your money after all-and if you are a little more comfortable with the Green Team, then go with them, we're not going to push you into a decision you may regret later.
 
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Toddcraft

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Feb 16, 2012
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I apologize for bumping this older thread but I have this same exact mobo, and want to replace my old 9600 GT card with something that can run Guild Wars 2 a bit better.

Based on what I've read in this thread it's not possible to run a PCI-E 3.0 card with this board, right?

If not, can anyone suggest a compatible card that would deliver good performance with my board? It doesn't have to be top of the line, but I'd prefer to get something that I can use for at least a year or two without needing to be upgraded.

Any help is extremely appreciated.

Edit: My resolution is 1920x1080. I would love to be able to play in full screen but I can live with windowed mode if I have to. Thanks
 
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asinausk

asinausk

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Jan 13, 2010
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what's your price range?
 
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Toddcraft

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Feb 16, 2012
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Thanks for replying asinausk!

I'd like to keep it in the $200-$300 range as I don't really think it's worth it to spend much more than that on a system I will probably be replacing in 2-3 years. I was looking at the GTX 670 Windforce and that thing looks amazing but sadly, it's PCI-E 3.0.
 
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SniperNoSnipeee

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Aug 7, 2012
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Id say the most powerful PCI 2.0 card that you can still find and is in the $200-$300 range is the Radeon 6950. It's quite a bit more powerful that the 6870, and if you are planning to play BF3 the 6950 meets the recommended system requirements, whereas the 6870 does not.

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DVI-I-SL-DVI-D-PCI-Express-100312-3L/dp/B005X64QAG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1345724114&sr=1-1&keywords=radeon+6950

Just saying, I thought 3.0 cards were backward-compatable and could be used in a 2.0 slot. But don't quote me on that, I'm not entirely sure.
 
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SniperNoSnipeee

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Yeah, most cards these days can't utilize the full potential of 3.0, so there's not much of a difference.

The 7850/70 would also be a good choice.
 
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Toddcraft

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Feb 16, 2012
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Thanks!
 
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rhansen01

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Jul 8, 2012
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So, sorry to re-bump my original thread about my GTX-260 but it just died the other day. I went out and some guy at Micro center said the GeForce 640 would be a great bump up in quality for cheap money.

Thing is, I think my old GTX-260 is better. I mainly use it for SKYRIM with mods and swear even on ultra the GeForce 640 is not as good. I am going to take it back.

Any suggestions - in this day and age what would be a good bump over the GTX-260 for around $100 or so? I am hoping to cheap out since the GTX-260 is so old now that there has to be something noticably better? Is Radeon owning the day lately?

I should have checked this link out before I bought the GeForce640 on some lame salesman's advice.
http://www.hwcompare.com/12901/geforce-gt-640-ddr3-vs-geforce-gtx-260/
 
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