New graphics card for old system advice?

[monkeypants]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a new graphics card and need some advice. I bought myself a 1440p monitor just before Christmas and my old ATI 4850 (512Mb) can't cope. The twist is that I'm running a Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz on an old Gigabyte 965 motherboard and I won't be upgrading for a while.

What kind of card should I be looking at? I've read threads about this sort of thing saying don't bother with anything better than a 7770 or 7850 at a push but I don't know if the resolution will change that for my situation.

Can anyone give any advice? I'll be looking for something second-hand with at least 2Gb RAM. Budget tops out at around £150.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ShivP]

Maybe try to pick up a GTX660 new or a 670 used for ~£150. New I'd go for a R9 270X or wait for the new GTX 750s/750 Ti's to land

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

When I was in your shoes, I had a Q6600 stock (Curse you Packard Bell) and 2x 8600GS, I then upgraded to a 6850 1gb, massive difference, I went from unable to play BF3 to playing it at High.

£150 a 270x would be a good shout, I dare say if your lucky you could pick up 7950 2nd somewhere for that price, but then you'll be bottlenecked by the CPU.

 

[Ripshod]

I have a general habit of upgrading stuff roughly every 3 years, one item at a time. This seems to see me through to the next upgrade with a fairly decent system. The better you get now the longer it'll last. Try to stick to the top-end of what you can afford. Used is definitely the way to go atm, tho not AMD (overpriced due to mining).

Bottlenecking may be a problem on my setup, tho I don't game so I don't see it. The 270X will fit the bill perfectly for you at that resolution, and will defo see you past your next mobo/cpu upgrade.

 

[monkeypants]

Thanks guys. I think I'll be looking to get something second hand. When I next upgrade it'll be the full system, so really I don't want to overspend on something that's wasted because of the old CPU. The less I spend now, the more I'll have to spend later - ideally I want to find a card that fits in with the rest of my parts. Is the 270 that card or is it too good? That was my assumption but it's hard to tell as everyone seems to have moved on from Core 2!

 

[Ripshod]

the 270-270X difference is not as large as made out from what I've seen tbh. May be better with a 270 with a mild OC??

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-270X-vs-Radeon-R9-270

Also consider later if you're a folder, keeping the 270 as a second card. I find that position quite an advantage as I still have my old HD5770 as a second card in my folding setup, just to run a second monitor while I max the 7950 folding.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

I've recommended the card to friends, one had an i7 750 stock and and old amd card, he could only play DayZ on Low, then he got the 270x he could play the game on high settings, now he's upgraded to a 4770k and he's playing BF4, DayZ and pretty much any other game he has on Ultra.

 

[Marine-RX179]

One thing I would like to point out is that the 965 chipset board is VERY old...it the chipset pre-date even the P31/P35 chipset. Even with the newest bios (must be many years old now), it might have compatibility issue with the modern cards, and the PC may be unable to boot.

 

[Ripshod]

v good point, but I have no experience with intel boards/cpu's.

A point of optomism tho, I had a HD7950 running with a 1090T in a GA-M56-S3 til the VRMs popped.

 

[monkeypants]

Oh dear, worms everywhere. So my motherboard is PCIe v1 (I assume) so perhaps I shouldn't be looking at stuff newer than 68xx cards? What is the nvidia equivalent and am I likely to get more for my money as they're not in demand for mining?

 

[Ripshod]

In theory one should be compatible with the other so theoretically a v2 card should still work fine in a v1 slot. You'll still be relying on the bios supporting the card I think. I think 68** were among the last of the v1 cards. I,ve not had an nvidia card since AGP days so I know nothing about them.

Just realised I had that on the tip of my tongue earlier. I had the HD5770 running on a GA-M56S-S3 which was only PCI-e v1 (Gigabyte emailed me a beta bios that got it working). May be worth giving the mobo's manufacturer in te morning see what they say regarding which v2 cards work. After all, they should know. You never know, they may bend over like Giga and slip a bios to you.