Upgrade help needed!

[jrb363]

I need help selecting the best GPU to match with my system. Due to the overall age of my system (~3 years old) my fear is the cpu holding back performance if I go too high end on the card.


My specs:
- AMD Athlon II x4 3.0 Ghz
- 8GB 1333Mhz ram (4x2 layout)
- 1TB WD Caviar Black
- 2TB WD Caviar Green
- Biostar 785 G3 HD motherboard
- PCI 2.0 ready
- 500 watt power supply

My budget is $150 but cheaper is better.

Let me know if you need any more info. I'm currently running off of the 4200HD integrated graphics which leave a lot to be desired.

 

[OcelotRex]

I suggest this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127728

$134.99 after MIR. Great card that will play games on 1080p resolutions, sometimes with AA enabled.

 

[jrb363]

Well the main type of games I play are older RTS and FPS due to current hardware limitations. (Unreal 2004, Halo, Rise of Nations, Star Wars Jedi Knight, etc.) I also am big on emulation so I would love something that could help run Dolphin or PCSX2. I know my CPU is the bottleneck for such heavy emulation but I don't mind since it's all I've got right now. Mainly I just want something to get me up to speed so I can enjoy the newer games.

 

[jrb363]

Just curious but since I'm running an ATI mobo/cpu would I be better off looking at an ATI card? Also, how does the GTX 650 Ti compare to the ATI 7770? Thanks!

 

[OcelotRex]

With your budget of $150, the card I suggested (and it's counterparts with aftermarket cooling solutions) retail for 169.99-179.99. In this case you are getting a $180 card for $135 or roughly the cost of the 1GB version. It's a steal!

That being said your games list doesn't seem to be too demanding, This card should give you plenty of headroom in the future. If you do find your 3 year old machine to bottleneck the card you can always bring it forward into your next build.

Your one limiting factor may be that your PSU may not have a 6-pin PCI-express dedicated for the GPU. There are workarounds though they are not suggested around here. If that's the case here's a AMD 7750 that needs no external power that's cheaper:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121633&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

However, if you can swing the 650 Ti boost you can see that it's roughly twice the card -

 

[OcelotRex]

Just curious but since I'm running an ATI mobo/cpu would I be better off looking at an ATI card? Also, how does the GTX 650 Ti compare to the ATI 7770? Thanks!

If you refer to the chart I posted above the 650 Ti boost reference card has 39% more relative performance than the 7770. The 7770's are selling from $99-149 in the US.

 

[jrb363]

Just curious but since I'm running an ATI mobo/cpu would I be better off looking at an ATI card? Also, how does the GTX 650 Ti compare to the ATI 7770? Thanks!

If you refer to the chart I posted above the 650 Ti boost reference card has 39% more relative performance than the 7770. The 7770's are selling from $99-149 in the US.

Thank you so much! Your posts have been very helpful! I'll let you know how things turn out with my old rig. Believe it or not a few months ago my rig was running 2GB of ram and an old single-core Sempron processor. This has been quite the upgrade for me!