who offers better of old from AMD or Nvidia?

[ExoMale]

hello, i am building an old computer for older games which basically consists of a 775 build with a stock q6600, akasa K32, 2-4gb ddr2, 200gb hdd, 7200gs powered by a vs350w psu, there are also a wifi pci card and couple other cards, bit only the wireless is software installed the other 2 for the sake of it.

as you can see i have a terrible graphics card, i do have a 8600gt, but i question pushing the psu too much, but i am running windows 7 pro 32bit just fine however crysis barely runs with 0-3fps ha so if i want to start any gaming im going to need a decent graphics card and to keep costs down(spent just over £60 already) i am thinking 2nd hand because i doubt a r7 250/gt730 is going to cut it.


but since ive had mix from both parties for older they havent really been anything too fancy unless a 6670 is fancy and i dont know who offers the best and currently ive got my eyes on the 5770 because its under £30 and ssems a decent performer, but i dont know if it be wasted, my case is an atx and a reasonable size but dont really want a long card.


could anyone shed some light on this for me please?

many thanks

 

[Armageus]

Have a look at Toms GPU Hierarchy (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gpu-hierarchy,review-33383.html) if you haven't already, as this is a good way of depending different cards from different generations e.g. low end new vs older mid or high end.

In this case a r7 250 would be roughly equivalent to a 5770.

If you are upgrading the PSU then a 6850 or 6870 are good cards, which should be available cheaply. Anything older than a 5xxx series card isn't worth having, as there have been no driver updates for a while.

The 5770 would be a decent enough card, but I would still try and upgrade the PSU.

 

[ICDP]

hello, i am building an old computer for older games which basically consists of a 775 build with a stock q6600, akasa K32, 2-4gb ddr2, 200gb hdd, 7200gs powered by a vs350w psu, there are also a wifi pci card and couple other cards, bit only the wireless is software installed the other 2 for the sake of it.

as you can see i have a terrible graphics card, i do have a 8600gt, but i question pushing the psu too much, but i am running windows 7 pro 32bit just fine however crysis barely runs with 0-3fps ha so if i want to start any gaming im going to need a decent graphics card and to keep costs down(spent just over £60 already) i am thinking 2nd hand because i doubt a r7 250/gt730 is going to cut it.


but since ive had mix from both parties for older they havent really been anything too fancy unless a 6670 is fancy and i dont know who offers the best and currently ive got my eyes on the 5770 because its under £30 and ssems a decent performer, but i dont know if it be wasted, my case is an atx and a reasonable size but dont really want a long card.


could anyone shed some light on this for me please?

many thanks

A second hand GTX760 would be my recommendation, don't OC and the 350w PSU should cope. Around £60-£70 used on ebay.

 

[Confused Stu]

Some of the machines I use for LAN gaming weekends run 5770's and these run Crysis perfectly fine (Crysis Wars is one of the games we play). From memory, I think we run at "Best Quality" graphics settings, but I can't remember if we use no AA or only 2x.

Last night I was working on one of the machines (i3-540 @ stock, 2x2GB DDR3, 1 x HDD, 1 x ODD, XFX 5770 single slot, SuperFlower 300W PSU) and it was pulling about 200W under load from the plug socket, which also has the Dell 1709 monitor plugged into it, so you will be fine on your current PSU with a 5770 provided you don't start heavily overclocking the CPU or GPU.

 

[ExoMale]

thanks for the replies..

the psu will get upgraded as while its not a year old yet it is still a vs and was a spare as i figured the 80 + bronze would make it better than a antec 380w psu that came with the case which is also antec which actually has 336w on 12 rail and 6 pin so not too shabby, just not 80+..

no i wasnt thinking older than 5770 as while my 7200gs is running windows 7 i dont want to chance driver issues, so on the subject of the 5770, if i was to go for this instead over a 6/7 series would i be better going for it or the r7 250 which is newer?

oh and thanks for the link i do go on toms hardware usually from search results, but i never know what to trust of graphs compared to user comments.

ICDP - would that be my best bet for nvidia side regardless of 350w or 400w or would a cheaper 550ti/650ti be good instead? i do have a 750 to pass down as this build is my 2nd computer, but i would need to replace that first.

 

[ExoMale]

Some of the machines I use for LAN gaming weekends run 5770's and these run Crysis perfectly fine (Crysis Wars is one of the games we play). From memory, I think we run at "Best Quality" graphics settings, but I can't remember if we use no AA or only 2x.

Last night I was working on one of the machines (i3-540 @ stock, 2x2GB DDR3, 1 x HDD, 1 x ODD, XFX 5770 single slot, SuperFlower 300W PSU) and it was pulling about 200W under load from the plug socket, which also has the Dell 1709 monitor plugged into it, so you will be fine on your current PSU with a 5770 provided you don't start heavily overclocking the CPU or GPU.

you posted as i did ha.

thats some refreshing news, i would be in a better position to get a new gpu than a psu and would rather do that if my unit will manage and while i do like to overclock the graphics if the games run well enough then i wouldnt need to.

can i just ask what operating system you use as i wouldnt want to run in to driver issues?


many thanks

 

[Jamesyboyjim]

5770's are good little cards and don't get too hot! Be careful if you get tempted to chuck a few quid extra to go up a tier to a 5870 though, I did and was quite surprised at the difference! so much bigger, hotter and hungrier!

 

[Marine-RX179]

Imo it would probably be better to try and see if it would be possible to get a 2nd hand 6850...I wouldn't be surprised if it cost not much more than the 2nd hand 5770.

The 5770 has a max consumption of around 110-120W, and the 6850 has a 150W max consumption...but is it much faster card (around 90% of 5850's speed).

The 200GB HDD would probably be a slow tard drive and making the usage experience aweful, so see if you can may be find a 240GB SSD for around £40 instead.

 

[Confused Stu]

you posted as i did ha.

thats some refreshing news, i would be in a better position to get a new gpu than a psu and would rather do that if my unit will manage and while i do like to overclock the graphics if the games run well enough then i wouldnt need to.

can i just ask what operating system you use as i wouldnt want to run in to driver issues?


many thanks

The reason I had the PC out to work on it was to change from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Not found any driver issues with either at any point with the HD5xxx series and above. Just remember that the 5xxx and 6xxx series AMD cards have now gone into Legacy support, so don't expect many new drivers for these cards now (but then cards of this vintage aren't likely to still have any more improvements to give driver-wise).

5770's are good little cards and don't get too hot! Be careful if you get tempted to chuck a few quid extra to go up a tier to a 5870 though, I did and was quite surprised at the difference! so much bigger, hotter and hungrier!

As an ex-5870 and 5870 Crossfire owner - Amen! The 5770 was literally half a 5870 in terms of the chip itself, so it makes sense it draws pretty much double the power for double the performance.

 

[ExoMale]

Imo it would probably be better to try and see if it would be possible to get a 2nd hand 6850...I wouldn't be surprised if it cost not much more than the 2nd hand 5770.

The 5770 has a max consumption of around 110-120W, and the 6850 has a 150W max consumption...but is it much faster card.

The 200GB HDD would probably be a slow tard drive and making the usage experience aweful, so see if you can may be find a 240GB SSD for around £40 instead.

from where ive seen i think a 6850 is like an extra £20 or something, sadly one i brought many months ago for a different computer was a bud so had to return it otherwise it probably wouldve been a done deal and i get another, but its whether i need that much grunt.

as for the hdd yeah its the older 3gb/s ones as the board doesnt support faster and its what i had spare, ive got 2 in the machine actually the other has windows 10 on it, but an ssd could be an option for os.

my board is Gigabyte GA-G33-DS3R if that makes any difference, not sure if it has the ready boost or flash drive boot option..

 

[Marine-RX179]

as for the hdd yeah its the older 3gb/s ones as the board doesnt support faster and its what i had spare, ive got 2 in the machine actually the other has windows 10 on it, but an ssd could be an option for os.

my board is Gigabyte GA-G33-DS3R if that makes any difference, not sure if it has the ready boost or flash drive boot option..

It's not just about the SATA 3gb/s...what I was refering to is the HDD with only 200GB capacity is most likel one of those very old drive that would be slower than the 500/1TB HDD. Also SSD is backward compatable with the old SATA...even at half the speed, it is still significantly faster than HDD.

 

[ExoMale]

The reason I had the PC out to work on it was to change from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Not found any driver issues with either at any point with the HD5xxx series and above. Just remember that the 5xxx and 6xxx series AMD cards have now gone into Legacy support, so don't expect many new drivers for these cards now (but then cards of this vintage aren't likely to still have any more improvements to give driver-wise).



As an ex-5870 and 5870 Crossfire owner - Amen! The 5770 was literally half a 5870 in terms of the chip itself, so it makes sense it draws pretty much double the power for double the performance.

thanks for the response, as along as it can support windows 7 and 10 which my board actually does then im fine with that, mean i have a q6600 lol, wasnt my original choice but with a £17 between a c2d 6750 and the Q it made sense to pay extra.

these are probably the most demanding games i will run on this computer

crysis and the next versions, maybe not 3
Far cry 1 & 2, maybe not 3(max settings for 1)
BF3 , own 4 but wont install again lol
The Withcer, maybe 2, but not 3
GTA 4 & 5 when i buy them(5 is not set for this computer, but i might try)
Hitman blood money, contracts, absolution(max settings)
Sim4 maybe, yet to install on any computer yet

then benchmark software, any other games wont be anywhere near half demanding, so the card needs to be able to play these well on medium-max.

 

[ExoMale]

It's not just about the SATA 3gb/s...what I was refering to is the HDD with only 200GB capacity is most likel one of those very old drive that would be slower than the 500/1TB HDD. Also SSD is backward compatable with the old SATA...even at half the speed, it is still significantly faster than HDD.

yeah i get you, it is a slow drive, but i havent done much to put it to use to really notice,but i was thinking of a 500gb for storage for both operating systems i have on 2 separate drives.

the thing about the ssd's as i looked in to them before is with half the bandwidth interface they wont be getting the full potential and i just dont know how much of a difference one would actually make to warrant the cost, only plus i see is they not mechanical and you can fix or fit them loose anywhere in/on the case.

 

[Marine-RX179]

crysis and the next versions, maybe not 3
Far cry 1 & 2, maybe not 3(max settings for 1)
BF3 , own 4 but wont install again lol
The Withcer, maybe 2, but not 3
GTA 4 & 5 when i buy them(5 is not set for this computer, but i might try)
Hitman blood money, contracts, absolution(max settings)
Sim4 maybe, yet to install on any computer yet

then benchmark software, any other games wont be anywhere near half demanding, so the card needs to be able to play these well on medium-max.

Crysis 1 you gonna have to turn the settings down...I used to play on it with my Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz and a 5850...it can handle 1920 res ok ish as long as lay of the AA entirely and with some bits turned down. The CPU was a bottleneck at some places with the game physics of the game being fairly demanding on the CPU, and also being an old engine it doesn't use more than two threads/two CPU cores.

Hitman Absolution and GTX 5 should both use 4 CPUs fully, but the Q6600 even overclocked would probably dip down to 20fps, even when the graphic is not the limitation (i.e. you turn down the graphic settings).

 

[ExoMale]

hmm that is interesting, my main computer consist of a haswell 4th gen i3 and a no ti gtx 750 an can play crysis on max with or without AA with over 40/50 fps at 1080, is this because its a dual core or fact its newer tech?

mean i dont want this cheapo build to be better than my main lol, but i would be disappointed if i couldnt play crysis on high if i exceed the system requirements by a good amount or am i just being too optimistic?

how power hungry are those 5850's?

 

[bru]

If you have a NVidia 750 that you intend to pass down to this machine anyway, don't spend any money on it now, save the money and put it toward the 750 replacement card so that said replacement can happen sooner.
The 750 would be an ideal sort of card, as anything much faster would probably be bottlenecked by the stock Q6600 and it would run on the currant PSU.

 

[mahius]

I had an AMD HD6770 on my old Q6600 rig (back when it was alive). I had to upgrade the PSU from a measly 300-something watt to 400W for it though. You'd probably be looking at the GTX750, maybe even the Ti version? I don't know much about AMD's super low end cards: the R7 360/370, but I do know that the better R9 380 is pretty much the best thing in the next bunch of cards. Might be a bit too much for the old Q6600. OP is overclocking it right? It would be a shame if it's at stock.

 

[ExoMale]

thanks for replies.

yeah passing down the gtx 750 will be done, however money is tight right now and i wont be able to afford anything like a 950/960/370/380 or anything similar for a good while and this computer is downstairs to keep the peace lol plus my main computer dedicates my side of the bedroom, just i need a decent card as the 7200gs is not going to cut it and i question the 8600gt.


as for overclocking, no i dont plan on it, im not against it as i do overclock now and then, but first proper quad im going to see how it goes, but until i upgrade the psu i wont touch anything, i dont think i really need to do i

 

[Armageus]

how power hungry are those 5850's?

Not too bad, although bare in mind that a 6850 would only be marginally slower, tends to use less power, and can normally be picked up slightly cheaper.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6850/26.html
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/10/22/ati-radeon-hd-6850-review/9

just i need a decent card as the 7200gs is not going to cut it and i question the 8600gt.

Might have missed it rereading the thread, but can't see what resolution you are playing at. The 8600 was a good card for the price at the time, but the amount of VRAM will be a limitation today.

A 5770 or 6850 are likely the best AMD options. A 5830 might be an option, but they seemed to be fairly rare.

At a push a 4850 or 4870 would still be a better option than what you have. Although there have been no new drivers since Oct 2013, with the exception of GTA V and Witcher 3, wouldn't have thought you would encounter any issues (I still have a PC with a 4890 in regularly use, and in DX9 games it is still leagues ahead of any low end "new" card e.g. R7 240 etc)

 

[pandem0nium]

The 5000 and 6000 series are now legacy products and won't receive any more updates.

If I was you, gaming at 1080p I'd want 2gb of vram as a minimum. A used 7850 would be a good idea. about £50/60 on the bay. It'll support DX12 games coming this year.