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Intel E2160 Bottleneck for value/mid-range Video card for gaming?

H

hellfire88

Diamond Member
Hi Guys,

Did a quick search and couldn't find a previous post on this CPU specifically (found some bottlenecking threads for older AMD X2's and Pentium D 820's). Anyways, quick question, my friend wants to get into PC gaming after his Xbox360 RROD'ed. He has a slightly older Acer Aspire Desktop with the following specs:

- Intel Pentium Dual-core E2160 (1.8GHz, 1MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB?)
- Acer OEM mATX s775 motherboard with nVidia Geforce 7050/630i chipset
- 2GB DDR2 RAM
- Western Digital 250GB SATA HDD
- some stock PSU, I fear it is 250W but hope it is 300W

His motherboard has a PCI-E x16 slot but I don't think its the newer PCI-E 2.0 ones. He basically just wants to play the following games:

- World of Warcraft
- Team Fortress 2
- Left 4 Dead
- Starcraft 2
- Diablo 3

Nothing too hardcore graphics-wise I suppose (although for Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 its just speculation based on their current/past games being not too demanding system specs-wise). A crazy twist is that he just bought a 28" Hanns-G monitor when Newegg had a sale for it at $300 the other day. This monitor has a 1920x1200 native res.... I told him to expect to be playing at low-med settings which he is fine with. His budget is $100 or less and I'm thinking he could get a :

- ATI HD 4850
- ATI HD 4770
- nVidia GTS 250
- nViidia 8800GT/8800GTS/9800GT/9800GTX

The main bottlenecks I am thinking is the CPU, PSU (it may be only 250W), and PCI-E x16 slot not being 2.0. Just wondering what video card you guys recommend, thanks!
 
If the PCIe slot is 1.0 [and 16x], no problem

if the PSU is 250w, perhaps the lower wattage GTS 250 is a good idea

and if his CPU can be overclocked; it will be a decent match for a GTS 250 class of card
- but definitely not ideal for 19x12; he can drop details or play with a lower res

its just my nickel's worth
rose.gif

maybe not worth that
 
The Pentium E2xxx series are comparable to the Athlon X2 processors for gaming performance. At 1.8 GHz, it will be a bit of a bottleneck for those cards, but it won't be so bad to make gaming for those specific games very bad. Since he has a high res monitor, getting the fastest card he can afford would benefit him. I also highly suggest upgrading the power supply. I would not trust a rated 250W with the likes of a GTS250 or HD4850. Although if you look at it, let us know how many amps it delivers on the +12 rail(s).

For reference, the E2160 at stock is comparable to the Athlon X2 3800+ in games.
 
Wow thanks for the quick replies! So they make an "ultra-low watt" version of the GTS 250 that is even less power-hungry than the ATI HD 4770's? I'll check the Amps on the +12V rail of the PSU when I get a chance. I took a quick glance and I think its a FSP brand (Fortron Source?) but I think it is indeed $250 🙁. I think if my friend had to upgrade his PSU as well he'd probably just buy another Xbox360. I'm kinda curious now to see if a low-power GTS 250 or 4770 will work in that 250W PC 🙂. I think all the other ones I listed won't work due to needing more power.

And whoa I didn't know the E2xxx are that weak for games, since the Athlon X2 3800+ is quite old, oh well. Thanks again!
 
You might want to go Radeon 4670 on a PSU like that. It's not the fastest cookie in the jar, but it might be the one worth grabbing if you don't want to truly test that PSU. It has comparable performance to the old school 8800GTS 320/640 so it ain't bad.
 
Originally posted by: Crisium
You might want to go Radeon 4670 on a PSU like that. It's not the fastest cookie in the jar, but it might be the one worth grabbing if you don't want to truly test that PSU. It has comparable performance to the old school 8800GTS 320/640 so it ain't bad.
Click to expand...

How in the world did you get to that conclusion? A HD4670 is slower than a HD3850... A HD2900XT (~HD3870) was getting spanked by the GTS 640. The HD4670 is slower than a 9600GT, it's around the speed of a 9600GSO (8800GS).

As for the OP, the fastest of the pack would be a GTS250 or the HD4850 (mostly depending on the game). But a 250W PSU is pushing your friend's luck. However, the GTS250 has quite a lower power consumption, so this card won't probably be pushing that luck as hard as a HD4850 😛 A HD4770 is slower than those two (not much though ~5-10%), but will use even less power. It's more expensive though...

And a final remark, if your friend didn't start to play WoW yet, just advise him not to start imo. He'll avoid lots of potential problems this way.
 
If your friend is tech savvy at all, I would suggest upgrading the power supply. I have spent considerable money buying low power cards that were not that strong, simply because I have an acer with a 300 watt power supply and did not want (and was afraid to try) to upgrade the power supply myself. Now I am seeing strong cards for sale very cheap, but have spent so much on low power cards that I don't want to upgrade again.

Also, you have to make sure that the power supply has the proper connectors if you use anything that requires an extra six pin connector. My acer with a 300 watt power supply does not have a six pin PCI express connector, and not even the 2 x 4 pin connectors that would be used with an adapter.

With the stock PSU, you could try an HD4670. It does not require an external power connector. Galaxy also makes a low power 9600GT and I believe even a 9800GT that do not require external power connectors, but they may be somewhat expensive.
As another poster stated, the 9600GT is somewhat stronger that the 4670, and both would be underpowered for a 28 in monitor.
If you upgrade the power supply, I would suggest a HD4850 or HD4870 or the nVidia GT260.
 
Originally posted by: Crisium
I figured the 9600GT is about equal to a 8800GTS 320 and at higher resolutions in one of the games he mentioned the 4670 is right on par with it:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...s-mmorpg_14.html#sect0

But performance aside, just look at some power consumption benchmarks to see why the 4770 is too much:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/HD_4770/26.html

You really want him on anything higher than a 4670 on 250-300W?
Click to expand...

Those power numbers look a bit off. I don't think the 4770 uses 40W more than the 4670, and I'm pretty sure it uses more than 10W less than the 4850, typically speaking.

Originally posted by: Qbah
Originally posted by: Crisium
You might want to go Radeon 4670 on a PSU like that. It's not the fastest cookie in the jar, but it might be the one worth grabbing if you don't want to truly test that PSU. It has comparable performance to the old school 8800GTS 320/640 so it ain't bad.
Click to expand...

How in the world did you get to that conclusion? A HD4670 is slower than a HD3850... A HD2900XT (~HD3870) was getting spanked by the GTS 640. The HD4670 is slower than a 9600GT, it's around the speed of a 9600GSO (8800GS).

As for the OP, the fastest of the pack would be a GTS250 or the HD4850 (mostly depending on the game). But a 250W PSU is pushing your friend's luck. However, the GTS250 has quite a lower power consumption, so this card won't probably be pushing that luck as hard as a HD4850 😛 A HD4770 is slower than those two (not much though ~5-10%), but will use even less power. It's more expensive though...

And a final remark, if your friend didn't start to play WoW yet, just advise him not to start imo. He'll avoid lots of potential problems this way.
Click to expand...

The 4670 is faster than the HD3850 (both the 256 and 512MB versions). In some cases it approaches the speed of the HD3870, but generally it performs between these two HD 3800 cards.

The 4670 also ends up being a tad bit faster than the 9600GSO and a bit slower than the 9600GT. And I would say the 9600GT is a better card than the GTS 320MB and is just as good as the GTS 640MB.

Also Crisium did mention: "I figured the 9600GT is about equal to a 8800GTS 320 and at higher resolutions in one of the games he mentioned the 4670 is right on par with it."

He was specific in this statement, which could very well be true as games can favor one video card vendor over another and the HD4670 performs close enough to the 9600GT such that perhaps a game's favoritism can swing the HD4670 on the upside for a change, even though the 9600GT is typically faster.

But I would definitely say the HD4670 is a better card than the GTS 320MB. The VRAM is going to kill the 8800GTS in quite a few situations.

And I also don't recall the HD2900 getting spanked by the 8800GTS. I quite remember the cards being competitive with each other, and they were priced similarly. Likewise the HD3870 and 9600GT are competitive with each other (the Geforce does pull ahead with AA on). I really hate exaggerated statements when they are quite unnecessary. Relatively speaking to the latest cards, the HD3800 series, HD4670, 9600GT, and 8800GTS series are going to offer similar performance and a similar gaming experience.

And can you show me where the GTS250 uses less power than an HD4850? All reviews I've seen show otherwise. And I'm referring to the reference GTS250, but if you have reviews of special version then be sure to denote that fact.
 
My E2140 is at 3.2Ghz. If you overclock, you shouldn't have much of a problem. Between it and my 4870 1GB, Ive done very well in many games. (D2/WC3/Heroes Of Newerth/Oblivion/Fallout3, all at 1280x1024.)
 
Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
(...)
But I would definitely say the HD4670 is a better card than the GTS 320MB. The VRAM is going to kill the 8800GTS in quite a few situations.

And I also don't recall the HD2900 getting spanked by the 8800GTS. I quite remember the cards being competitive with each other, and they were priced similarly. Likewise the HD3870 and 9600GT are competitive with each other (the Geforce does pull ahead with AA on). I really hate exaggerated statements when they are quite unnecessary. Relatively speaking to the latest cards, the HD3800 series, HD4670, 9600GT, and 8800GTS series are going to offer similar performance and a similar gaming experience.

And can you show me where the GTS250 uses less power than an HD4850? All reviews I've seen show otherwise. And I'm referring to the reference GTS250, but if you have reviews of special version then be sure to denote that fact.
Click to expand...

Alright, Review 1 and review 2 showing the 1GB models using less power than a HD4850. And those seem to be the most common models nowadays.

As for HD4670 it looks like I was a bit off here. It's a bit faster than a HD3850 usually, slower than a HD3870 though and slower than a 9600GT too. But a HD2900XT (~HD3870) was very often beaten by the 8800 GTS 320MB (a big review here). But then again, Crisium was roughly right - the performance is comparable in the end. Sorry if I sounded a bit rough.

However, it looks like that 250W PSU ain't gonna cut it even for a GTS250. You can get a quality ~500W PSU for under 100$ easily these days. You might consider that too in your budget, OP.

EDIT: I know there's a low-power 9800GT and 9600GT available for sale (don't remember the brand, has E-Save in the name I think) - those don't require an external 6pin cable - you might be good to go with them. Look around for a thorough review though and check the power readings in it!
 
Whoa thanks for all the replies! So it's looking like my friend needs to get a bigger PSU and then he can get something like a HD 4850 (probably best bang for the buck right now for under $100). Also, we realized his PC only has 1GB of RAM not 2 as he though, so we'd have to upgrade that too. All in all it seems much more $$ involved than what he original thought (and the E2160 may still bottleneck the HD 4850, would love to overclock it but not sure if you can overclock on an Acer OEM motherboard). So he's most likely going to just buy a new desktop or just get another Xbox 360 and give me this Acer PC (he owes me money anyways lol 🙂 ).

Guess I can try out all the tips you guys gave me to make it a secondary light gaming PC for guests or heck, with the 250W lower power PSU and E2160, as well as the fact that its in a nice microATX case with 4 internal 3.5" hard drive slots I can make this thing into a nice Windows Home Server! Thanks again for the tips guys/gals!
 
Originally posted by: Qbah
Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
(...)
But I would definitely say the HD4670 is a better card than the GTS 320MB. The VRAM is going to kill the 8800GTS in quite a few situations.

And I also don't recall the HD2900 getting spanked by the 8800GTS. I quite remember the cards being competitive with each other, and they were priced similarly. Likewise the HD3870 and 9600GT are competitive with each other (the Geforce does pull ahead with AA on). I really hate exaggerated statements when they are quite unnecessary. Relatively speaking to the latest cards, the HD3800 series, HD4670, 9600GT, and 8800GTS series are going to offer similar performance and a similar gaming experience.

And can you show me where the GTS250 uses less power than an HD4850? All reviews I've seen show otherwise. And I'm referring to the reference GTS250, but if you have reviews of special version then be sure to denote that fact.
Click to expand...

Alright, Review 1 and review 2 showing the 1GB models using less power than a HD4850. And those seem to be the most common models nowadays.

As for HD4670 it looks like I was a bit off here. It's a bit faster than a HD3850 usually, slower than a HD3870 though and slower than a 9600GT too. But a HD2900XT (~HD3870) was very often beaten by the 8800 GTS 320MB (a big review here). But then again, Crisium was roughly right - the performance is comparable in the end. Sorry if I sounded a bit rough.

However, it looks like that 250W PSU ain't gonna cut it even for a GTS250. You can get a quality ~500W PSU for under 100$ easily these days. You might consider that too in your budget, OP.

EDIT: I know there's a low-power 9800GT and 9600GT available for sale (don't remember the brand, has E-Save in the name I think) - those don't require an external 6pin cable - you might be good to go with them. Look around for a thorough review though and check the power readings in it!
Click to expand...


Well that's nice, but I can also show reviews where the 4850 uses less power. But looking through them all, I'd say for all intents and purposes the GTS250 and the 4850 use the same amount of power. And I'd also like to add that different boards from different companies can draw a significantly different amount of power, and as such not all GTS250s are the same and not all HD4850s are the same.

Source 1, Source 2

Oh and I guess you forgot to read this particular nugget of info in the Xbit article: "Although the Palit GeForce GTS 250 1GB has a nonstandard design of the PCB and power circuit". I believe this would mean that particular review isn't going to be typical of most GTS250s.
 
I would tell your friend to try to sell that system on Craigslist and try to fetch $175-$250.00 For it. Then build a system like this:

Gigabyte GA-P31 Motherboard = $59.99
Intel e 5200 = $65.99
Corsair XMS2 DDR2 6400 4GB = $56.99
WD Black 500 GB HDD = $ 59.99
Samsung DVD/CD Burner= $24.99
Logisys Cs305BK Mid tower w/ 480 Watt PS = $31.99
Power Color 4850 = $99.99

(system is just an example--Could find better prices if you look around)

Total about $430.00 W/ Shipping Just provide your own OS and overclock the e5200 to 3.0 GHZ + with the stock HSF or buy an better one for $20.00 More and hit 3.5 GHZ +


Don't waste your time with the Acer...




 
Good PCs and good PC components cost a bit of change. If he's unwilling to invest in quality components, like a good PSU, then he very well would be better off with another XBox 360...which is weird, if he already has one.

Me personally, PC gaming is the only way to go.
 
Originally posted by: Greenhell6
I would tell your friend to try to sell that system on Craigslist and try to fetch $175-$250.00 For it. Then build a system like this:

Gigabyte GA-P31 Motherboard = $59.99
Intel e 5200 = $65.99
Corsair XMS2 DDR2 6400 4GB = $56.99
WD Black 500 GB HDD = $ 59.99
Samsung DVD/CD Burner= $24.99
Logisys Cs305BK Mid tower w/ 480 Watt PS = $31.99
Power Color 4850 = $99.99

(system is just an example--Could find better prices if you look around)

Total about $430.00 W/ Shipping Just provide your own OS and overclock the e5200 to 3.0 GHZ + with the stock HSF or buy an better one for $20.00 More and hit 3.5 GHZ +


Don't waste your time with the Acer...
Click to expand...

I think the OP is gone, but why would you recommend to someone that they spend $400 on decent components and then only $31.99 on a case w/PSU? C'mon, you obviously know better since you have a Corsair 750W in your own rig.
 
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