GPU help

[sideofthebox]

My EVGA 8800 GT 512mb recently died and now I'm looking for a new graphics card.

I know it's an ancient system but it's all I have till I can save money to build a current system later in the year.

Specs:

CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
Brisbane 65nm Technology
RAM
4.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 300MHz (5-5-5-15)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. M2A-VM (Socket AM2)

My budget is $100-$150. Thanks!

 

[ViRGE]

Wow, an oldschool X2. That has to be pretty badly CPU limited in most games.

I'm very tempted to tell you to grab an R7 250 and call it a day. Even spending $100 on a video card for a system like that is overkill, and is better saved for your future computer upgrade.

 

[ScoobMaster]

I concur with Virge. I may be able to help you though. I just replaced my EVGA 8800GS with a Radeon HD 7790. I was going to try to eBay the 8800GS and hope to get 10-20 bucks out of it, but if it will help you save up some dough and limp your current setup along until you save up some to replace more major components, it is yours for just the cost to ship it.

 

[sideofthebox]

Yea I know it's an old cpu but it's been holding strong. I picked up this home built from a friend and been able to play most games on decent settings without choppiness.

I actually have tried the R7 240 and just had the Radeon HD6570 in it. None of them could keep up with the games I was playing with the 8800GT. And I'm wondering if it was because of the GDDR memory in it. I was thinking about Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 and when I do upgrade, I will have that ready to go into it.

 

[ViRGE]

I can't speak for the 240 since it uses DDR3, but the GDDR5 250 will certainly be faster than your 8800GT. Not immensely so, but it certainly won't be slower on average. R7 250 ~= 5770, which should be around 50% faster than an 8800GT.

The GTX 650 should also be a reasonable choice, though NVIDIA's pricing on budget cards hasn't been all that amazing lately.

 

[sideofthebox]

Okay, thanks Virge!

 

[NTMBK]

I'd look at a CPU upgrade. That motherboard can support up to an Athlon II or Phenom II- something like an Athlon II X4 640 would be a decent upgrade on that motherboard, and not too expensive. That plus an R7 260X would be a fairly decent combination.

 

[monstercameron]

id say go cheap fm2+ motherboard that can be had for $50usd, a $75 a6-6400k and $25 for a 2gb stick or ddr3-1600 ram.

this gives you future possibilities:

1. upgrade to a10-5800k which should start hitting $100
2. upgrade to a10-6800k which will be a healthy upgrade
3. upgrade to a10-7850k a bit of an unknown but should be better than richland
4. keep current apu and upgrade to r7-260x
5. upgrade to athlon x4 760 and a r7-260

 

[sideofthebox]

Thanks guys. I bought the EVGA GeForce GTX 650 1gb. Running fine but now on my monitor i'm seeing 2 lines on either side of the screen and the text can be seen slightly offset. Does anyone have a solution to this? :\

Monitor is a Dell E2414H.

 

[ViRGE]

I can't say I've seen or heard of anything like that.