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Upgrade from GTS 250, MoBo supports PCIe 1.1x16

Hey all,

I have some specific questions. I'm a casual gamer, currently playing Diablo 3 primarily. To get it to run well, I have to play it on essentially the lowest settings. I wanted to upgrade my video card (not looking for top-of-the-line, blazing fast, just something that will run D3 well and moderate settings). I currently have the following set-up (suggested template from "How to ask for GPU advice" post incoming):

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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This week to 1 month
BUDGET RANGE: $50-$100 After Rebates

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Casual gaming, currently playing
Diablo 3, Portal 2, Defense Grid

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: Galaxy GeForce GTS 250 512 MB.

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: ASUS M2N68-AM SE2 MoBo, AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+, 4 GB RAM

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: NewEgg or Tiger Direct
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

PARTS PREFERENCES: Prefer NVidia, I tend to avoid XFX

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1280x1024
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I'm looking at replacing it with something like this:
EVGA GeForce GT 610 02G-P3-2617-KR Video Card - 2GB, GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), 2x Dual-link DVI, Mini-HDMI, DirectX 11

I hope to upgrade the motherboard, processor and increase the RAM to 8gb in the future, but that's not in the budget right now.

I could have sworn when I bought the current video card that it said it was PCIe 1.0, but it apparently supports PCIe 2.0, per all the product information I've been able to find. My Motherboard does not support PCIe 2.0, GPU-Z has it as PCIe 1.1x16.

So, I have $50-$100 in the budget, and my questions (finally) are:

1. Can I expect to see much performance increase upgrading the card, given that I'm already running a PCIe 2.0 card on a PCIe 1.0x16 MoBo?

2. Is this a reasonable approach? My thought is that if I upgrade the card now, when I have the money in the budget to spend $200-300 on the rest of the system, I can update that, too and enjoy further improvement in my video performance at that time.

3. Any other thoughts or recommendations?
10 answers Last reply
More about upgrade mobo supports pcie 1x16
  1. Missed this: I have a Rocket Fish 750 W PSU
  2. i want to say grab a good gpu for gaming wise diablo u can play it on ultra here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
  3. Thanks for the recommendation!

    Anyone have any input for question 1?
  4. The GT 610 is a weak card. It is weaker than your current graphic card.

    Since you prefer to stick with nVidia, then I recommend on of the following cards; a GT 440, GT 640 and the GT 450. The GT 450 is the most powerful of the three, and since it is a slightly older card it has also come down in price, but it still might be slightly above your budget.

    See below for benchmarks of those cards. Note the following:

    - No benchmarks for Diablo 3, but StarCraft 2 is a similar game.

    -The test rig uses a core i7 -3770k @ 4.7GHz since Diablo 3 and Star Creaft 2 are CPU bound games, your benchmarks will less. How much depends on your current CPU; even then it would be hard to say. 20% perhaps 30% less?

    - Your resolution is not used in the benchmarks, but it is roughly half way between 1280x800 and 1680x1050. So... add the FPS for both resolution and divide by 2 to get a rough estimate.



  5. Here is a GTS 450 card for $100

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127605
  6. then go for gtx 560 if uwant a n nvidia card check here a guy playing it on max on dual core cpu with gtx560 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdK65KNpvvg
  7. Thanks for the card recommendations. I'm assuming from the fact that you've given me recommendations for a few cards now that I'm still likely to see some performance improvement by upgrading the card, even though the MoBo doesn't support PCIe 2.0 and that even though I'm hitting a bottle-neck there to some extent, the card itself is a bigger bottle-neck than the bus at the moment, does that sound right?
  8. ahhh not that much since to run a gpu u need pciex16 atleast one it dosent matter that u have 2.0 or 3.0slot the card requires just x16 for performance wise just 2 or 3 fps more not a big difference it is
  9. GTS 450 is only slightly faster than GTS 250... GT 440 & GT 640 is a downgrade.

    GTS 250 vs 450 Thread

    Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart - GTS 250 & 450 on Same Level

    You can google for more "GTS 250 vs GTS 450".

    You better get GTX 560 like monu_08 said above.

    ______________
    The Fastest Card you can get for $100 is AMD Radeon HD 7750 which is on the same level with GTS 250 in Tom's GPU Hierarchy Chart.

    But i'm sure 7750 is slighty is faster than GTS 250/450, much efficient, runs cooler and it doesn't need a 6-Pin Connector (Note: There are 2 types of 7750, the other one has a Power Connector).

  10. this one is cheaper and good one for ur system to play enough anything on ultra
    at 160 bucks http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130664
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