• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

A small challenge: Graphics for an older gaming pc

lofz

lofz

lofz

Associate
Joined
2 Aug 2006
Posts
532
Location
Leicester, UK
Hi All,

I've just built an older PC based around a 300 watt PSU, Core 2 Duo E8400 with 8gb ram. I'm dual booting Windows XP (x86) and Windows 7 (x64). The aim of this machine is to play older games such as Neverwinter Nights, Fallout 3, and Rome Total War. It will also serve as the last remaining windows 7 box in the flat.

I'm after a graphics card around the £50 that will run these games whilst avoiding having to replace the PSU.

I have a modern gaming rig with all the bells and whistles hence not wanting to splash the cash too far.

Cheers

Ian
 
I'd just get a used AMD 7750. No external power needed, so no need to worry about connections, and probably about £30.

Wouldn't cope with new games, but neither would the CPU. Be fine anything pre-2014.
 
Thanks for the replies. Both those graphics cards suggested still fetch a fair old chunk.

I used to run Neverwinter Nights and Rome TW on a 6600GT which worked brilliantly many moons ago.

This is all about resurrecting my non-steam games I have collecting dust on the shelf, the most graphically advanced being Fallout 3 / New Vegas. Most of my gaming on this rig will be in XP. I have quite a collection of games that don't like Windows 7 and newer.

If I want full throttle I have my main rig (GTX 970, 24gb Ram, watercooled AMD FX 8350)

With this is mind, could I have some opinions on the Gigabyte GT 730 2GB.
 
Anything lower than x50 (nvidia; eg 650, 750, etc) is a waste of money. Keep looking for used cards imo.

eg found a 6950 for 55 on a popular auction site.
 
Last edited:
honestly 7750 or 7770 would be best or if you can snag decent 7850........those would all fall around 50 or less.....

honestly if you don't want to deal with external power grab 7750
 
Wrinkly said:
Before spending any money you should consider a virtual machine using software such as VMWare or Virtual Box.
Click to expand...

I've used these solutions in the past, they are not really made for gaming though. I associate them with corporate server farms, I have used hyper v extensively at work.
 
lofz said:
I've used these solutions in the past, they are not really made for gaming though. I associate them with corporate server farms, I have used hyper v extensively at work.
Click to expand...

They are much better than they used to be. VMware Workstation Player is free for non commercial use.
 
5770 might work depending what psu you have, can get those for under £30, you can even get gtx 550/660 or 6870 for under £50 or maybe just find a 6670, not really a gaming card, but can be had for under £35 and still a decent allrounder..

these are 2nd might add, you will only get like a gt730, maybe 740 or a r7 240 for around 40-50 brand new that would be decent otherwise gt 210/610/hd5450 are the cheaper new options


edit: or maybe look at the dx10 cards like 8600gt/9600gt and similar.
 
pandem0nium said:
Nwn should still play on whatever gpu and os. I think I ran it on win 8 with a 7970 last time. Bard/BG/RDD ftw :)
Click to expand...

I've always encountered crashing on anything non XP.

I went for the GTX 730 in the end, I considered older graphics cards ie 9600gt, 8800gt but the power requirements are too high and I don't have the connectors on the PSU.

I'll do some testing over the weekend, if it doesn't do as I want I'll send it back and go for something with a bit more beef.
 
Apologies, I didn't remember the 8800 needed extra power! you could always get a molex to pcie adaptor if you found something that needed a bit more juice.

Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy shows GT 730 on a higher tier than 8800gt. Did not know that. Let us know how it holds up.
 
jonclark said:
Apologies, I didn't remember the 8800 needed extra power! you could always get a molex to pcie adaptor if you found something that needed a bit more juice.
Click to expand...
The 8800GT that was bus-powered had lower clock than the standard 8800GT I think, and without the extra external power, it goes without saying that it limited the overclocking headroom as well.
 
Last edited:
Just look at what cards were around in the e8400 days as it used to be a good gaming chip in the day. Something like a 2nd hand hd5859 or 5870 would be ideal if you put a new PSU in too.
 
lofz said:
Hi All,

I've just built an older PC based around a 300 watt PSU, Core 2 Duo E8400 with 8gb ram. I'm dual booting Windows XP (x86) and Windows 7 (x64). The aim of this machine is to play older games such as Neverwinter Nights, Fallout 3, and Rome Total War. It will also serve as the last remaining windows 7 box in the flat.

I'm after a graphics card around the £50 that will run these games whilst avoiding having to replace the PSU.

I have a modern gaming rig with all the bells and whistles hence not wanting to splash the cash too far.

Cheers

Ian
Click to expand...

Cheap secondhand cards that would manage okay and not require a psu that I've owned in the past include a 5570, 5770 and 6770. They had no issue with those games and even ran newer dx10/11 games like STALKER COP fine at 1600x900, You don't mention what res it'll be running which is a very important factor.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom