Looking for PCiExpress 16 Video card for gaming

[thespyder]

I have an older system. The interface is PciExpress 16 and the video card I currently have is a Geforce 9600 GT. I play moderate end Games, mainly RPGs like neverwinter nights and Dragon Age. There are a number of games coming out this year and I want to know what my options are for upgrading without having to buy a brand new Motherboard.

Any suggestions?

 

[toyota]

please list ALL your specs including resolution when asking these type of questions.

 

[Soccerman06]

Since there is nothing newer than PCI-E beyond 2.0, I think your safe with any gpu since all are backwards compatible pci-e version wise.

Your best bet is to wait for a good deal from the hot deal forums that fits your budget. Sometimes you can get a killer deal on a AMD 6850/70, 5870, NV 460 1gb or something like that. If your running at say 1600x1050, a 6870 is probably overkill but doesnt hurt for future proofing.

 

[toyota]

considering his last post was 4.5 years ago, we may never hear back from him. lol

last time he posted, he was using an E6600 and 2gb of system ram which is probably what he is still using based on what he said in the op.

 

[thespyder]

Core 2 duo 2.4 gh
2 gigs of Ram
I am running on Windows XP (SP2)
Monitor is a 21 inch Sync Master with a max res of 1680 by 1050

I know that with XP I am limited to Dx9 and am not really looking to put a lot of money into this, so if the answer is "Stick with the card you have", that's great. Just thought I would ask the experts.

BTW, I don't post here often because usually when I am here, I am in the market to upgrade. the rest of the time, I browse. There are much better experts than I to answer questions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ghiedo27]

You could fit anything in there, but the best value at that resolution is probably the GTX 460 768mb version. Those sell for around $130 after mail in rebates. You could go with a cheaper HD 5770 for ~ $110 after rebate. I wouldn't go any lower than that.

Alternatively, if you want to spend a bit more and have headroom for a bigger monitor later or just plan on holding onto this card for 3+ years, you could grab a GTX 460 1gb or an HD 6850 for ~$180.

 

[bleucharm28]

considering his last post was 4.5 years ago, we may never hear back from him. lol

last time he posted, he was using an E6600 and 2gb of system ram which is probably what he is still using based on what he said in the op.

LOL, what else do you know about spyder? LOL

 

[JRW]

I agree with the GTX 460 recommendation, cheap & solid upgrade based on OPs specs.

 

[toyota]

a 5770 or gts450 are the most appropriate cards for his system and res but the gtx460 768mb is only a few bucks more so go for that. you really need more system ram though because some games are going to hitch with only 2gb.

 

[thespyder]

So as stated in the original post, it is PciExpress X16 (1.0) and I am not finding the cards mentioned above available for that configuration.

I can find them under 2.0 and have read that will run with my system, but most of what I have read suggests that it won't run at maximum efficiency. Will it be enough of an upgrade to warrant the price? And is it even worth it on XP considering that I am restricted to below Dx 10?

Finally, it was suggested that I need more RAM. I had always heard that XP (32) couldn't deal with more than 3 GB and that 2 GB was really all it ever needed so never went above that. Considering this, is it still recommended to get more RAM?

 

[Soccerman06]

So as stated in the original post, it is PciExpress X16 (1.0) and I am not finding the cards mentioned above available for that configuration.

I can find them under 2.0 and have read that will run with my system, but most of what I have read suggests that it won't run at maximum efficiency. Will it be enough of an upgrade to warrant the price? And is it even worth it on XP considering that I am restricted to below Dx 10?

Finally, it was suggested that I need more RAM. I had always heard that XP (32) couldn't deal with more than 3 GB and that 2 GB was really all it ever needed so never went above that. Considering this, is it still recommended to get more RAM?

Worst case is you lose 1% performance going between 2.0 to 1.0. As I said, they are backwards compatible, so dont worry about it. XP has upgrades to it to allow dx10 if your worried about it, just use google or hop over to the OS forums for the hard questions (people probably can help you here too). Ram doesnt hurt, 32bit can only handle 3gb of ram, but there are games where you can modify the usage of ram to increase performance, but even at the max settings at 2560x1600 I only use at most 2gb of ram per game. Assuming XP uses .5gb you have 1.5gb for a game which is probably way more than you need, but as games get more advanced youll want/need more ram. Its easy to tell if you need more ram, just use the task manager while you game and tab back and forth to see if you ever get close to max.

 

[thespyder]

Worst case is you lose 1% performance going between 2.0 to 1.0. As I said, they are backwards compatible, so dont worry about it. XP has upgrades to it to allow dx10 if your worried about it, just use google or hop over to the OS forums for the hard questions (people probably can help you here too).

thanks for the info. Didn't know that I could do DX10 on XP, so thanks for the info. But still my question. How much of an improvement (over a 9600 GT) am I going to see with a new card? I know this is somewhat subjective but is it going to be 10% improvement? 20%?

The games I want to play this year include
DA:2 (which already runs on my current rig)
Dungeon Siege 3
Diablo 3
Elder Scrolls

As you can see, mainly RPGs and Graphics haven't gotten as good on them as they have with the FPS games.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mnewsham]

thanks for the info. Didn't know that I could do DX10 on XP, so thanks for the info. But still my question. How much of an improvement (over a 9600 GT) am I going to see with a new card? I know this is somewhat subjective but is it going to be 10% improvement? 20%?

The games I want to play this year include
DA:2 (which already runs on my current rig)
Dungeon Siege 3
Diablo 3
Elder Scrolls

As you can see, mainly RPGs and Graphics haven't gotten as good on them as they have with the FPS games.

Thanks in advance.

In this review the GT 240 is about +/- 2% of the 9600 GT, the HD 5770 is right around 100% faster then that. The GTS 450 will be slightly slower (about -3% then the 5770) but still a nice performance increase.

 

[Skurge]

Worst case is you lose 1% performance going between 2.0 to 1.0. As I said, they are backwards compatible, so dont worry about it. XP has upgrades to it to allow dx10 if your worried about it, just use google or hop over to the OS forums for the hard questions (people probably can help you here too). Ram doesnt hurt, 32bit can only handle 3gb of ram, but there are games where you can modify the usage of ram to increase performance, but even at the max settings at 2560x1600 I only use at most 2gb of ram per game. Assuming XP uses .5gb you have 1.5gb for a game which is probably way more than you need, but as games get more advanced youll want/need more ram. Its easy to tell if you need more ram, just use the task manager while you game and tab back and forth to see if you ever get close to max.

Uh yeah, I wouldn't say 1.5GB is enough for modern games. Crysis uses near 2gb of ram, most other modern games will get close to or go over that 1.5gb.

 

[thespyder]

In this review the GT 240 is about +/- 2% of the 9600 GT, the HD 5770 is right around 100% faster then that. The GTS 450 will be slightly slower (about -3% then the 5770) but still a nice performance increase.

thanks for the info. That really puts things in perspective.

 

[thespyder]

Purchased a GTX460 and also threw in a couple more Gigs of RAM that I had lying around bringing it up to 4. I have an additional two that I can fit in if my system could use it. My question is now, is it worth it to purchase XP 64 upgrade (or even go to Win7) considering my rig?

I hesitate to go Win7 because I still play older games that may not run on that platform. But on the fence. Any suggestions?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I wouldn't spend money on XP 64.

If you're worried about older games, just google "does XXXX run on Windows 7".

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Yes it is worth it to upgrade to windows 7. How's the pc working with the upgrades? Big difference or not?

 

[thespyder]

I am not a huge fan of the way Microsoft sells Pre-Beta software as Final product (like they did with Vista). And so I am a bit gun shy with Windows 7. But I am considering it.

As for the upgrades, the Video card is in the mail, but I hope it will be significant improvement. As for the memory, I notice a much smoother/quicker boot and some of my games run better. not sure how significant the improvement is, but it is some definitely. if I can get the full 6 gigs, i will probably see more.

 

[dpodblood]

I am not a huge fan of the way Microsoft sells Pre-Beta software as Final product (like they did with Vista). And so I am a bit gun shy with Windows 7. But I am considering it.

As for the upgrades, the Video card is in the mail, but I hope it will be significant improvement. As for the memory, I notice a much smoother/quicker boot and some of my games run better. not sure how significant the improvement is, but it is some definitely. if I can get the full 6 gigs, i will probably see more.

I think that's a bit of a stretch as most of Vista's problems were driver and compatibility related, and most of the issues were worked out within 6 months. Windows 7 is a big improvement over XP, and worth picking up. As far as compatibility with old games, I don't think you will have many issues if any. If you are really that concerned you can always dual boot.

You are going to see a big improvement with that GTX 460, probably 50-100% FPS boost in most games. Since you are not running anything too heavy duty like Crysis you should be happy with your system for a while.

 

[MentalIlness]

I am not a huge fan of the way Microsoft sells Pre-Beta software as Final product (like they did with Vista). And so I am a bit gun shy with Windows 7. But I am considering it.

As for the upgrades, the Video card is in the mail, but I hope it will be significant improvement. As for the memory, I notice a much smoother/quicker boot and some of my games run better. not sure how significant the improvement is, but it is some definitely. if I can get the full 6 gigs, i will probably see more.

Yea, you should ditch XP. I was running XP Pro until a month ago. I went with Win 7 64, and I am so glad I did. I havent installed a game yet that hasnt played on Win 7. And I have a catalog of games pushing almost 200 now...and 46 games in Steam.

 

[thespyder]

I think that's a bit of a stretch as most of Vista's problems were driver and compatibility related, and most of the issues were worked out within 6 months. Windows 7 is a big improvement over XP, and worth picking up. As far as compatibility with old games, I don't think you will have many issues if any. If you are really that concerned you can always dual boot.

You are going to see a big improvement with that GTX 460, probably 50-100% FPS boost in most games. Since you are not running anything too heavy duty like Crysis you should be happy with your system for a while.

LOL. I was on the team at my company that handled the issues on the Vista conversion. I think I was being charitable if anything. Nuff said as this isn't the forum for that discussion.

anyway, I appreciate all of the feedback and am really happy that my computer is getting another lease on life for just a few hundred dollars. Thanks everyone.

 

[VirtualLarry]

XP has upgrades to it to allow dx10 if your worried about it, just use google or hop over to the OS forums for the hard questions (people probably can help you here too).

Are you sure about that? That's the first that I've ever heard that XP can do more than DX9.0c.

 

[Throckmorton]

You might not get much of a framerate improvement in Dragon Age. It's CPU limited for me with my 8800GT.

The next upgrade should be a quad core processor!

 

[dpodblood]

Are you sure about that? That's the first that I've ever heard that XP can do more than DX9.0c.

It's not officially available in XP, but there is a hacked version. I think it would be a waste of time though. Windows 7 is very worthwhile.