31 replies to this topic

[Tiger 6]

I've been out of the hardware loop for 3 or 4 years, so bear with me on this

I have a Asus Crossfire mainboard (nforce 590 chipset) with 4 GB and an Athlon FX-62, running WinXP 64bit. I know the long term solution is to scrap the lot and start over, but I don't have that kind of cash right now.

So: What is the most powerful gfx card I can fit to something this old?
(I'm assuming I'd have to upgrade to Windows 7 to get DX11 support?)

Thx in advance

[Vulpesveritas]

The most powerful that you can?
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130790 $1049.99
The most powerful that makes sense?
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814131472 $259.99

[Tiger 6]

So there's no backward compatability problems like there used to be in the days of AGP? I don't really want to lash out several hundred pounds on a card that will go pop the first time I put it under a little bit of load

[Vulpesveritas]

Tiger 6, on 16 June 2012 - 07:31 AM, said:

So there's no backward compatability problems like there used to be in the days of AGP? I don't really want to lash out several hundred pounds on a card that will go pop the first time I put it under a little bit of load

PCI-e is PCi-e is Pci-e
full backwards compatibility from 3.0 to 1.0
lol

From a quick glance on Amazon, this looks like your best deal from there on a 7850, unless you can find that powercolor version elsewhere; http://www.amazon.co...39860797&sr=1-7

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 16 June 2012 - 07:37 AM.

[Tiger 6]

I just remember the "DOH!" moment I had once plugging my shiny new AGP4x card into an AGP2x mainboard...

[Vulpesveritas]

lol... yeah those days are over luckily.

I recommend looking at my guide here for what you are looking at for your price point and such;
http://mwomercs.com/...eral-gpu-guide/

[Tiger 6]

That looks like some good stuff - thanks for your help

[Vulpesveritas]

No problem. Best of luck to you.

[razorkill12]

what size power supply do you have? that 7850 looks good. Also check out the 560ti.

[Barbaric Soul]

MAN, can you say bottleneck?

Don't put a 7800 card with that CPU unless your going to do a full system rebuild within the next couple months. You won't even get half the performance the card is capable of because your CPU will not be able to feed it information fast enough(the definition of "bottleneck" in computer performance). I personally wouldn't put anything more than a GTS250/HD4850 with a old FX62. It may have been THE POOP when you got it, but now it's just POOP.

[Tiger 6]

Barbaric Soul, on 16 June 2012 - 10:07 AM, said:

MAN, can you say bottleneck?

Don't put a 7800 card with that CPU unless your going to do a full system rebuild within the next couple months.

Thats my plan between now and October I have 2 lots of car insurance, 2 lots of Car tax and a MOT test to pay for - best part of a months pay assuming that the Audi passes the test and doesn't need any work... (and then there's the NFL network web subs to pay for too when the season starts )

All I want right now is something to get me going, that I can roll into a better rig later in the year. I figure on spending 1000 GBP on new mainboard, Core i7 cpu, gfx, 8GB ram and video card - life is much easier if I can do the 250 GBP card now and delay the rest for 3 or 4 moths

Edited by Tiger 6, 16 June 2012 - 11:14 AM.

[Barbaric Soul]

Tiger 6, on 16 June 2012 - 11:11 AM, said:

Thats my plan between now and October I have 2 lots of car insurance, 2 lots of Car tax and a MOT test to pay for - best part of a months pay assuming that the Audi passes the test and doesn't need any work... (and then there's the NFL network web subs to pay for too when the season starts )

All I want right now is something to get me going, that I can roll into a better rig later in the year. I figure on spending 1000 GBP on new mainboard, Core i7 cpu, gfx, 8GB ram and video card - life is much easier if I can do the 250 GBP card now and delay the rest for 3 or 4 moths

Then I suggest going all out and getting atleast a HD7950 or GTX670, Especailly if your going to pair it with an i7.

But just remember, any video card you buy today(barring the top 4 single GPU cards, ie. 7950/7970/gtx670/gtx680), you'll be able to buy for considerably less in October(4 months is an eternity for computer hardware). I suggest finding something like a used GTX460 or HD4890 for around the sub $100 mark for now. That 250GBP video card will probably require a PSU upgrade aswell, depending on what your current PSU is.

Edited by Barbaric Soul, 16 June 2012 - 11:37 AM.

[Tiger 6]

I'm looking at a 680 - just want to be sure that I don't blow it up the first time I power on

[Barbaric Soul]

Tiger 6, on 16 June 2012 - 11:38 AM, said:

I'm looking at a 680 - just want to be sure that I don't blow it up the first time I power on

What PSU do you have, because if anything, THAT is what will blow it up.

[Tiger 6]

700W OCZ - good for SLi

[Barbaric Soul]

plenty for a single GTX680

[Tiger 6]

"The form has been chosen" - my credit card is melting at the prospect

[razorkill12]

lol, good choice.

[Tiger 6]

lol

[tucker147]

do you think that this is a good deal? its from futureshop.ca $600 CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra AMD FX-4100