Graphics card for a resurected/recycled older computer?

[dud]

My son replaced his old server and shipped it to me. I received a Nice Antec case with an Asus A8N-SLI Premium MB shown here:

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_939/A8NSLI_Premium/#specifications

The MB has 2 GB of RAM and an Opteron 2-core CPU running a little over 2 GHz. I am connected (via a VGA cable) to a Samsung 46" LCD.



My question is this: I want to buy a vid card that will allow me to play video files and play pre-2010 games on medium (or lower resolution). I am looking for the best value solution and am manufacturer agnostic. Here are the options that I have come up with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127666
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127611
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500191

and this one if it were still in stock:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...m-_-14-500-193


Will I have an issue running any of these cards (PCI express 2.0/2.1) on this MB? The MB has the following expansion slots:

2 x PCIe x16 , SLI mode: x8, x8, Default (single VGA): x16, x1
1 x PCIe x1
3 x PCI
1 x AGP 4X


Thanks ...

 

[Termie]

With that CPU, the most I'd go for is the HD6670. That's actually a relatively hot deal (although the DDR3 memory makes it slower than reviewed 6670s). The two nVidia cards are significantly overpriced.

The GT440 was much slower than the older HD5670, so it's sure to be slower than the 6670, even with the 6670's slower ram. Link: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GT_440/26.html

 

[RavenSEAL]

To be honest, you're better off throwing out that mobo/cpu and going with this first:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2238985
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157241
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231423

Once you do that, grab something along the lines of a 6670 and call it a day.

You're looking at almost 50% better performance in any sort of gaming.

 

[Termie]

To be honest, you're better off throwing out that mobo/cpu and going with this first:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2238985
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157241
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231423

Once you do that, grab something along the lines of a 6670 and call it a day.

You're looking at almost 50% better performance in any sort of gaming.

While I generally agree with you, the whole point is that he just got this as a gift. I don't think he's going to throw it out and build a new system.

OP - just focus on keeping your video card purchase around $50 or so. Any more than that, and it really would make more sense to build a new computer for around $100.

 

[RavenSEAL]

While I generally agree with you, the whole point is that he just got this as a gift. I don't think he's going to throw it out and build a new system.

OP - just focus on keeping your video card purchase around $50 or so. Any more than that, and it really would make more sense to build a new computer for around $100.

Hey, he could always stick it in a closet as use it as a storage server :awe:

 

[dud]

While I generally agree with you, the whole point is that he just got this as a gift. I don't think he's going to throw it out and build a new system.

OP - just focus on keeping your video card purchase around $50 or so. Any more than that, and it really would make more sense to build a new computer for around $100.

Sir, you hit the nail right on the head. It was a gift and I do not want to throw it out. If all I have to do is drop $50 on a vid card then I will be happy (because I have a functional HTPC) and my son will be happy because he helped the old man out.

BTW ... do you (or anyone else) see ANY problems with using a "modern" card like the 6670 on an older MB with an older interface? Are the newer cards backwards compatible?


Thanks for your VERY insightful replies ...

 

[RavenSEAL]

Sir, you hit the nail right on the head. It was a gift and I do not want to throw it out. If all I have to do is drop $50 on a vid card then I will be happy (because I have a functional HTPC) and my son will be happy because he helped the old man out.

BTW ... do you (or anyone else) see ANY problems with using a "modern" card like the 6670 on an older MB with an older interface? Are the newer cards backwards compatible?


Thanks for your VERY insightful replies ...

Your problem is gonna be a CPU bottleneck. At most, you'll be able to get 60% of the performance out of a modern mid-range card.(Ala 6670/6770/GTX550)

 

[bigsnyder]

Any modern PCIe card "should" be fully backwards compatible.

 

[ViRGE]

BTW ... do you (or anyone else) see ANY problems with using a "modern" card like the 6670 on an older MB with an older interface? Are the newer cards backwards compatible?

PCIe is fully backwards compatible. You shouldn't have any issues.

 

[dud]

Thanks all for your responses ... in just a few hours you have answered all of my questions/concerns. I will be ordering the 6670 this weekend and plugging it in late next week. If I have any problems/questions you know where I will come ...

 

[Termie]

PCIe is fully backwards compatible. You shouldn't have any issues.

Thanks all for your responses ... in just a few hours you have answered all of my questions/concerns. I will be ordering the 6670 this weekend and plugging it in late next week. If I have any problems/questions you know where I will come ...

Just a quick warning - I tried to "upgrade" an old AMD X2 system with an nVidia chipset (circa 2007), and while it had accepted an older circa-2008 HD4670, it would not work with a circa-2010 HD5450. See my thread here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2239285

Based on this finding, I'd recommend you look at older cards that were designed around the time of your system. I'm not fully convinced that there aren't PCIe compatibility issues, and furthermore, the older nVidia chipsets were prone to various incompatibilities - running a newer AMD card might be one of them.

I wish I could recommend an older nVidia card in this price range, but there isn't much choice. So how about this refurbished HD4670 for $40 shipped: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102975?

I mention that one because I successfully ran an HD4670 in my Shuttle Athlon 64 X2 system with an nVidia chipset. Plus it's almost as fast as a 6670 (and good enough for your purposes), while avoiding the rebate hassle. It's refurbished, but so's your rig!

 

[RavenSEAL]

Just a quick warning - I tried to "upgrade" an old AMD X2 system with an nVidia chipset (circa 2007), and while it had accepted an older circa-2008 HD4670, it would not work with a circa-2010 HD5450. See my thread here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2239285

Based on this finding, I'd recommend you look at older cards that were designed around the time of your system. I'm not fully convinced that there aren't PCIe compatibility issues, and furthermore, the older nVidia chipsets were prone to various incompatibilities - running a newer AMD card might be one of them.

I wish I could recommend an older nVidia card in this price range, but there isn't much choice. So how about this refurbished HD4670 for $40 shipped: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102975?

I mention that one because I successfully ran an HD4670 in my Shuttle Athlon 64 X2 system with an nVidia chipset. Plus it's almost as fast as a 6670 (and good enough for your purposes), while avoiding the rebate hassle. It's refurbished, but so's your rig!

OR! :sneaky:

 

[Towermax]

There are several threads out there on the net about incompatibilities between nVidia NF4 chipsets and Radeon HD5xxx cards.

Nonetheless, I just put a 5450 in a DFI LanParty Ultra-D NF4 system and it's been working just fine. The system has an AMD X2 processor, runs Windows 7, and functions as a dedicated HTPC.

Sounds like it's one of those YMMV situations . . .

 

[blckgrffn]

I've been really impressed with my 6570.

I'd also recommend checking here if you find you need an older card:

http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=VCD

I bought the 4770 for distributed computing there not long ago (great performance/power utilization ratio @ $50 shipped new, hard to beat...) Quiet, able to use the latest Catalyst drivers, etc. What was important for me and the specific application is that it offers double precision compute. That doesn't sound like it would matter at all to you... unless, of course, you decide to join the TeAm over in the distributed computing sub forum

The 4850 there would be a good bet too, along with several cards there.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Your problem is gonna be a CPU bottleneck. At most, you'll be able to get 60% of the performance out of a modern mid-range card.(Ala 6670/6770/GTX550)

That leaves 40% for SSAA.

 

[dud]

In the interim, before I procure a new card (that will hopefully work with this MB) I have been playing around with an old XFX geforce 7900 GT that I had on-hand. Unfortunately, the card displays the same horizontal line problems as discussed here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/19203-huge-problem-geforce-7900-gt-horizontal-lines.html

There are two (2) methods (mentioned within this thread and another to fix the problem: #1 is to use Rivatuner to up the stock GPU and mem speeds just a tad while #2 is to re-flash the vid card BIOS.

Here is the problem: The card will only display in 640x480 mode ... any other resolution and i get something similar to the horizontal lines described above. I loaded RIvatuner but (get this) cannot access the top of the overclocking screen because I am viewing the app in 640x480 mode! This is very frustrating as I have updated the drivers and have removed/replaced the vid cable from the back of the card and neither of these returns the screen to normal. All I have to do (according to the thread above) is to only slightly overclock the card ... but I can't because of the screen resolution issue.


Anyone have a recommendation to correct this issue? Thanks ...

 

[Termie]

In the interim, before I procure a new card (that will hopefully work with this MB) I have been playing around with an old XFX geforce 7900 GT that I had on-hand. Unfortunately, the card displays the same horizontal line problems as discussed here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/19203-huge-problem-geforce-7900-gt-horizontal-lines.html

There are two (2) methods (mentioned within this thread and another to fix the problem: #1 is to use Rivatuner to up the stock GPU and mem speeds just a tad while #2 is to re-flash the vid card BIOS.

Here is the problem: The card will only display in 640x480 mode ... any other resolution and i get something similar to the horizontal lines described above. I loaded RIvatuner but (get this) cannot access the top of the overclocking screen because I am viewing the app in 640x480 mode! This is very frustrating as I have updated the drivers and have removed/replaced the vid cable from the back of the card and neither of these returns the screen to normal. All I have to do (according to the thread above) is to only slightly overclock the card ... but I can't because of the screen resolution issue.h


Anyone have a recommendation to correct this issue? Thanks ...

I don't see anything in that forum about overclocking to fix that problem. I would be very surprised if that fixes it. If anything, underclocking might work. I did see there that someone had luck disconnecting and reconnecting the dvi cable as a temporary fix. You might try that just to see if you can get it to work long enough to see the rivatuner window.

 

[dud]

I don't see anything in that forum about overclocking to fix that problem. I would be very surprised if that fixes it. If anything, underclocking might work. I did see there that someone had luck disconnecting and reconnecting the dvi cable as a temporary fix. You might try that just to see if you can get it to work long enough to see the rivatuner window.

I've tried connecting/disconnecting MANY TIMES with no luck. There is a link to another thread within Sevenforums that detail bumping up the clock (by 5 Mhz or so) for the GPU/memory:

http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/18728-blue-screen-geforce-7900-gt.html


Many with this problem (years ago) used this as a fix. Unfortunately, I can do neither.

 

[dud]

I just wanted to thank the forum ... my problems are a thing of the past. Based upon the GREAT advice provided here I walked over to the FS/FT forum and picked up a slightly used HD 4770 vid card for about $40. I plugged it in, installed the drives and I now have high res magic ... no more 640x480!

The thing that I find ironic is that the 4770 is considered a "high end" vid card by PassMark here:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html


Thanks all ...

 

[Termie]

I just wanted to thank the forum ... my problems are a thing of the past. Based upon the GREAT advice provided here I walked over to the FS/FT forum and picked up a slightly used HD 4770 vid card for about $40. I plugged it in, installed the drives and I now have high res magic ... no more 640x480!

The thing that I find ironic is that the 4770 is considered a "high end" vid card by PassMark here:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html


Thanks all ...

Awesome, that's a great price on a great card for your system. Actually about equal to a 6670, but avoiding the potential incompatibility with newer cards I'd mentioned.

Glad we could help!