8800GT vs <$150 dollar card for second gaming PC

[Nvidiaguy07]

Im upgrading my current system soon, which will mean ill be sending my current parts to my pc hooked up to my TV.

Im getting a 2500k or the IVB equal for myself, and sending the Q6600 to the living room PC. Right now it has a 8800GT in it, and im considering upgrading it, since its pretty dated.

Right now i just turn everything down to 720p in the living room, but with a Q6600 and a decent GPU, 1080p is doable for most games. My question is: is my 8800GT considered decent, or is it worth it to upgrade?

My current rig has a 560ti in it, so im debating moving that in the living room PC, and getting myself a new GPU.

If you were in my position, what would you do?

1. keep the 8800GT
2. sell 8800GT and get a budget GPU
3. sell 8800GT and spend 200-300 on my main pc - 560ti moved to living room pc

the 8800gt has been paired with a really crappy CPU, so maybe im underestimating how much life it has left.

 

[mv2devnull]

Tom's hardware has a rough "Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart". There are probably better charts out here, but generally 200-300 will hardly improve upon 560 Ti.

Is the 8800gt hot and noisy? If not, then I would keep it. If yes, then cool, quiet, and better on budget sounds nice.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Tom's hardware has a rough "Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart". There are probably better charts out here, but generally 200-300 will hardly improve upon 560 Ti.

Is the 8800gt hot and noisy? If not, then I would keep it. If yes, then cool, quiet, and better on budget sounds nice.

I was just checkin that out, the 560ti is definitely good enough for my main PC, so im just gonna try the 8800GT out with the Q6600 and see how it goes. Its not that loud currently, so that's not a problem.

If i do end up selling the 8800GT and upgrading - what should i go for? GTX 460 for like 150?

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Even a 4850 is faster so even a 6670 should compete or beat it. I recommend a 6850

 

[Termie]

You need to ask yourself what you'd like to do with a living room computer. Your title says 8800gt or cheaper equivalent, but that's not really what your post says at all. You're talking about getting a higher-end card. Selling it to buy an equivalent card doesn't make sense at all unless you need something quieter or with HDMI. You already have the 8800gt hooked up in the living room, so you basically know how it performs. In only a few games would a weak CPU limit it.

An 8800gt on the used market isn't worth much, maybe $30-40, so selling it to buy a new card isn't going to get you very far. Therefore, my default recommendation is to hold onto the cards you have and see if you really need to get new ones based on your use of the new gaming computer and living room computer.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

You need to ask yourself what you'd like to do with a living room computer. Your title says 8800gt or cheaper equivalent, but that's not really what your post says at all. You're talking about getting a higher-end card. Selling it to buy an equivalent card doesn't make sense at all unless you need something quieter or with HDMI. You already have the 8800gt hooked up in the living room, so you basically know how it performs. In only a few games would a weak CPU limit it.

An 8800gt on the used market isn't worth much, maybe $30-40, so selling it to buy a new card isn't going to get you very far. Therefore, my default recommendation is to hold onto the cards you have and see if you really need to get new ones based on your use of the new gaming computer and living room computer.

yea i guess i screwed up on that. I havent really used to it game over 720p, so i was half expecting people to just say jesus christ that card is old - its time for an upgrade.

The 6850 could be an option, since i found it for cheap enough. Even if i were to sell the 8800GT for 30-40, it would take some off the price of the new card.

I basically want to be able to play at full 1080p, and im currently unable to do that. Im pretty sure most of my problem is my ancient CPU paired with the GPU, but i was wondering how much a Q6600 would help.

Right now even games like nba 2k12 i need to turn everything off and play at 720p to make it work.

 

[lehtv]

Tom's hardware has a rough "Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart". There are probably better charts out here

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/ is pretty good.

 

[bryanW1995]

Have you tried playing anything on the q6600/8800gt rig yet? Are your games still unplayable at 1080p? How often do you intend to game on this rig?

For $150 you should be able to grab a 6870 btw.

 

[kalrith]

What cpu do you have? Do you already have the Q6600? I'd be very surprised if you could get $30-40 for your 8800GT. It's not impossible, but $20 is probably more realistic, and then you're looking at about $12 profit after shipping costs.

If you want to go really cheap, then $50-$60 for a used 4870 1GB would be a decent upgrade. It's about 35% slower than a 6850 but probably 50% (or more) cheaper. A GTX 460 1GB is about the same speed as the 6850, so that's another option. A 5850 is faster than both of them.

The above assumes you don't mind going used. If you're set on new, then a 6850 might be the best option under $150.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I would think the q6600 with the 8800gt could help games out alot versus the old x2 4200+ i saw you posted was in that current pc rig.

If the t.v is 720p,i do feel the 8800gt will be fine for the t.v,i know a friend who games on a 9800gt and he seems to do fine and during the bf3 beta i was rocking a 9800gtx being a overclocked 9800gt and had no issues at 1440x900 and that's one of the more demanding game titles right now.

But if the t.v is 1080p you could downscale it to 720p and it wouldn't be to bad still as i did that with my 9800gtx when i gamed on my t.v before i got my 1080p monitor.

 

[superccs]

Just lurk over at Slickdeals.net and grab whatever GPU gets frontpaged that is in your price range.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Have you tried playing anything on the q6600/8800gt rig yet? Are your games still unplayable at 1080p? How often do you intend to game on this rig?

For $150 you should be able to grab a 6870 btw.

Not in a long time (i had that combo over a year ago, but by then it was starting to lag behind).

Its really a secondary rig so when i want to play something in the living room, its out there. Its pretty limited right now, but i think I'm not considering how slow that CPU actually is.

I would think the q6600 with the 8800gt could help games out alot versus the old x2 4200+ i saw you posted was in that current pc rig.

If the t.v is 720p,i do feel the 8800gt will be fine for the t.v,i know a friend who games on a 9800gt and he seems to do fine and during the bf3 beta i was rocking a 9800gtx being a overclocked 9800gt and had no issues at 1440x900 and that's one of the more demanding game titles right now.

But if the t.v is 1080p you could downscale it to 720p and it wouldn't be to bad still as i did that with my 9800gtx when i gamed on my t.v before i got my 1080p monitor.

The TV is 1080p, and i have been scaling down. To actually even less because the desktop is something like 1165x691. Its a DLP set, pretty old.

We plan on upgrading to a newer 1080P plasma pretty soon, which is why i want to try and game at 1080p if its possible - to really experience 1080p gaming on a nice big set.

Im sure it will be fine for every game at 720p with the Q6600, but i kinda wanted to play newer games @ 1080p, so if it doesnt perform, i might consider upgrading.

Do people use 3dmark anymore? If so, should there be a certain score i should shoot for if i want to play newer games at 1080p at a decent frame rate? That work make it a lot easier for me to gauge performance without having to test out a bunch of games at different settings.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/ is pretty good.

Just looked at this:http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/521?vs=540
really makes me want to upgrade now

 

[Termie]

If you're willing to go AMD, and based on the bench you just linked to you are, there simply isn't a better deal than this HD6870 for $145AR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150561

Actually, you could also go for this one for $144AR/Code(PINCH): http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=AT-6870_1G

 

[T_Yamamoto]

you know you could use the 8800gt as your phyx card in your primary build

 

[frozentundra123456]

Are you overclocking the Q6600? If so, a better GPU would definitely help gaming performance. I am running a 9800GT(rebadged 8800GT) with an E4500 which is only slightly slower clocked than the 6600 at stock, although it is dual core. I think I am CPU limited in a fair number of games. So even though the Q6600 is quad core, I doubt that a better graphics card would be that much improvement unless you overclock. (Edit: Or unless you plan on playing one of the few games that can use more that 2 cores.)

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

you know you could use the 8800gt as your phyx card in your primary build

Whats that? (sorry i dont know how this works) and is it worth it? how much of an improvement can i get over using just a 560ti?

 

[skipsneeky2]

Think i am with Termie on this,if your looking for a decent card for 1080p on the big t.v,its gonna have to be the 6870 and with the q6600,its gonna be sweet for moderate gaming.

the 2500k with the gtx560 ti is gonna be a sweet combo,i had a q6600 right before the original i7 900 series came out,was a good cpu but i remember the i7 940 i purchased just blast pass it and the 2500k for gaming is only gonna get better.

Enjoy that 2500k rig.