Looking for new GPU with old system

[Kneedragger]

Early last year my GPU died and I put off buying a new one because I purchased a PS4. I'm getting the itch to play some of my PC games and thinking about buying a new GPU. I don't play a lot of the new AAA games on my PC. I spend more time on games like Diablo III and Paths of Exile to name a few. I'm looking to only game at 1080p.

I know my system will bottleneck the GPU and I won't benefit from a top of the line GPU. The PC still has some life in it and I don't want to upgrade since that would be a lot of money I don't feel it's worth it..

My price limit would be around $150.00 or is that too much considering my old hardware?

My system
OS - Win 8 64bit
Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2P
Ram - 4 gigs patriot g series DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Cpu - AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz
SSD - Kingston HyperX 3K 240 GB SATA III 2.5
PSU - XFX Pro 550W 80 plus bronze
Monitor - HP 2311x

Thanks

 

[sheh]

ASUS GTX 750 Ti 2GB dual fan for $150, or $130 after MIR:
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=AS-750TO2G

If you don't want to bother with MIRs, there's a Zotac GTX 750 Ti 2GB, single fan (hopefully not noisy), for about $130:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500349

Else, AMD 270/270X/280 can be had for a bit more. For example, Sapphire R9 280 3GB dual fan for $180, or $160 after MIR:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202099

You can also go for used to improve the price/performance ratio.

 

[MeldarthX]

Honestly the R9 280 for 160 is your best deal; stomps all over the 750 Ti in performance and won't be a massively bottlenecked on your on your system. also oc your cpu

 

[Seba]

Get a GTX 750 Ti (or even a GTX 750).

A R9 280, while clearly better than GTX 750 Ti, is a waste of money with that CPU.

 

[Sunaiac]

I have a 270X on my Ph II 955, it's a good combo.
Anything like 260X to 280 will be good anyway.
Or a nVidia 750, if you really like/want to burn money.

 

[Seba]

Anything like 260X to 280 will be good anyway.
Or a nVidia 750, if you really like/want to burn money.

What? GTX 750 is much cheaper than R9 280.

 

[happy medium]

In case I missed it , what gpu did you have last year?

In any case I'd go for a used gpu for a system as old as yours.

I think this 270x for 124$ shipped is a good deal. Almost new.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2422884

You can find 7950's for about 110$ also.

Overclock your cpu for best results.

 

[therealnickdanger]

750Ti is a great card for efficiency, but go with a Radeon 260X or higher if you can get one for the price you want.

 

[Seba]

750Ti is a great card for efficiency, but go with a Radeon 260X or higher if you can get one for the price you want.

GTX 750 Ti and R7 260X have nearly identical performance in games.

 

[SPBHM]

gtx 750 ti sounds like a good match, but your motherboard uses that ancient nvidia chipset, with PCIE 1.x so I would be a little worried about compatibility, but it should work.

 

[sheh]

gtx 750 ti sounds like a good match, but your motherboard uses that ancient nvidia chipset, with PCIE 1.x so I would be a little worried about compatibility, but it should work.

A few reports of similar cards working, also on older motherboards:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2411556

 

[therealnickdanger]

GTX 750 Ti and R7 260X have nearly identical performance in games.

That's true, but the 260X will give better performance for Mantle-supported games (if he ever plays any) and will perform better with DX12-supported games (if he plans to keep this GPU around that long), given what we know of GCN and DX12. Likewise, any games that support TrueAudio... are there any? To me it just seems like the 260X is a tad more future-proof.

On the downside, the 260X has higher power consumption and lacks the same PhysX support of the 750Ti.

 

[nvgpu]

http://www.evga.com/articles/00914/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-960-4GB/

GTX 960 4GB cards are now available, I would consider this instead. It's more expensive but it's more future proof the feature set.

GM206 supports variable refresh rate for gaming, supports 4K H.264 decoding & 4K HEVC decoding and is more power efficient than Pitcairn/Curacao & Tahiti.

 

[Kneedragger]

In case I missed it , what gpu did you have last year?

In any case I'd go for a used gpu for a system as old as yours.

I think this 270x for 124$ shipped is a good deal. Almost new.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2422884

You can find 7950's for about 110$ also.

Overclock your cpu for best results.

I forget which one but I was running a Radeon 6000 series. I think it was a HD 6770..

 

[Kneedragger]

I was looking to go with Nvidia this time so a 750ti is the one then if I go with Nvidia?
What brands should I stay away from if I go with Nvidia?

Thanks

 

[Seba]

http://www.evga.com/articles/00914/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-960-4GB/

GTX 960 4GB cards are now available, I would consider this instead. It's more expensive but it's more future proof the feature set.

GM206 supports variable refresh rate for gaming, supports 4K H.264 decoding & 4K HEVC decoding and is more power efficient than Pitcairn/Curacao & Tahiti.

He has a 6 year old CPU (and not a great one). Does not look that future-proofing is the main concern here. And without changing the CPU, there is no point in using a GTX 960 instead of a GTX 750, at double the cost.

 

[Termie]

That's true, but the 260X will give better performance for Mantle-supported games (if he ever plays any) and will perform better with DX12-supported games (if he plans to keep this GPU around that long), given what we know of GCN and DX12. Likewise, any games that support TrueAudio... are there any? To me it just seems like the 260X is a tad more future-proof.

On the downside, the 260X has higher power consumption and lacks the same PhysX support of the 750Ti.

This isn't true. It's been shown many times that 2GB cards simply do not work correctly with Mantle - they actually perform worse than in DX11.

I was looking to go with Nvidia this time so a 750ti is the one then if I go with Nvidia?
What brands should I stay away from if I go with Nvidia?

Thanks

No particular brand needs to be avoided, but EVGA is great for customer service and warranty support. It sometimes comes at a slight price premium, however. Given the chance of a PCIe slot mis-match with your old motherboard, you might want to go with EVGA, as they can talk you through it to see if it is indeed a problem.

 

[Kneedragger]

Thanks for the input guys.

So with the 750ti I noticed some brands have two fans and others have a single fan. Is it safe to say that the dual fan ones will run significantly quieter and cooler?

And what is a possible problem with my PCIe slot? not sure what you guys are implying.
EDIT: Is it the PCIe 3.0 for these new cards?
Thanks

 

[shady28]

Thanks for the input guys.

So with the 750ti I noticed some brands have two fans and others have a single fan. Is it safe to say that the dual fan ones will run significantly quieter and cooler?

And what is a possible problem with my PCIe slot? not sure what you guys are implying.
EDIT: Is it the PCIe 3.0 for these new cards?
Thanks

On noise - depends. If you overclock or get a significantly overclocked 750 Ti then single fan will get louder than otherwise.

I have a single fan 750 Ti 2GB and the only time I can hear the fan is if I overclock, which I don't do normally (only done to see what it can do, then returned it to normal).

I don't think you will have a problem with a 750 Ti on PCIe 1.0

This is an almost stock-clocked 750 Ti at $129+s/h+tax :

http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Produ...rx11pH6A8kVsGh5FyTjaEtOWIW-Jr7jZvYaAjWL8P8HAQ

 

[Seba]

PCI-E should be backwards compatible, but sometimes things do not work as planned. Since your motherboard worked with HD 6770, I expect it to work with a current graphics card (as long as the PCI-E 16X slot is not defective).

GTX 750/GTX 750 Ti does not generates a lot of heat. How silent a card (with a certain GPU) is depends on the heatsink design, number of fans and the size (diameter) of fans, the quality of fans and the target temperature.

 

[Leyawiin]

I had a 3.2 Ghz Phenom II X4 955 until about this time last year. At stock speeds it was bottlenecking an HD 7850 2GB. With a CPU with 400 less Mhz that can't be overclocked anything greater than that is going to be a waste of money. I wouldn't go above an R9 270.

 

[Headfoot]

http://www.evga.com/articles/00914/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-960-4GB/

GTX 960 4GB cards are now available, I would consider this instead. It's more expensive but it's more future proof the feature set.

GM206 supports variable refresh rate for gaming, supports 4K H.264 decoding & 4K HEVC decoding and is more power efficient than Pitcairn/Curacao & Tahiti.

128-bit, 2GB card is future proof?

 

[Denly]

Sorry for hijack this thread

I do have a HP 6005 PII x4 3.0ghz SFF 4gb ddr3 and SSD, can anyone suggest a good low profile card? I don't game, looking for a card that will help video playback.

Also

I have I have Trinity 5500 PC, if I would like to add a card what would that be?

 

[lehtv]

Sorry for hijack this thread

Then why hijack the thread? :\

 

[Kneedragger]

Thanks for the info guys