Need a card for my core 2 Duo system...

[ghostyroasty]

hey all,
I just moved my older desktop into my living room to be used as a htpc and light gaming machine... the thing is that the board is only pci express x16. not sure what card i could add to my set up to allow for light gaming. the most graphics intense games I would be playing would be Bunout Paradise, NFS: Hot pursuit, and the UT games. I would also try out a few that I've gotten great deals on through Steam and Amazon like the Darksiders games. Even though it is mainly going to be used for xbmc, I want to have the power to play a few games if I wanted to.

I also looked into getting a trinity cpu/mobo combo with some memory as well to open up the possibility of getting a better gpu down the road sometime.
Any suggestions would be great!

 

[p_monks33]

What C2D cpu are you running? I had a E6300 that really struggled in NFS:HP and it was overclocked to 3.8Ghz. I also tried running that game on a Q6600, it seemed to be poorly optimized for the older processors, I may have just been unfortunate however. I would think something along the lines of a GTX 650 or an HD 7770 would be good, buy I don't know your resolution. Get us a bit more info to get some more advice.

 

[darkfalz]

You'll be frame limited more by the CPU than the PCI bus bandwidth. A GTX 560 should be cheap and overkill. Or GTX 550. Some even cheaper 8800 GT variant if you can find it.

 

[ghostyroasty]

I'll go ahead and paste my setup from Newegg. gotta love being able to see every order that I have ever made!


Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 Wolfdale 3.06GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80571E7600

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

ZOTAC GF9300-A-E LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

They are in a Thermaltake LANBOX Lite VF6000BWS so room is a litle limited as well.

TV is 1080p of course, but I can always run things in lower resolution if needed.

 

[lavaheadache]

you should buy my one of my 5870's. It would go nicely with that rig

 

[ghostyroasty]

I'm interested!

 

[tweakboy]

hey all,
I just moved my older desktop into my living room to be used as a htpc and light gaming machine... the thing is that the board is only pci express x16. not sure what card i could add to my set up to allow for light gaming. the most graphics intense games I would be playing would be Bunout Paradise, NFS: Hot pursuit, and the UT games. I would also try out a few that I've gotten great deals on through Steam and Amazon like the Darksiders games. Even though it is mainly going to be used for xbmc, I want to have the power to play a few games if I wanted to.

I also looked into getting a trinity cpu/mobo combo with some memory as well to open up the possibility of getting a better gpu down the road sometime.
Any suggestions would be great!

GTX 460 1GB You will still have a bottleneck but its a fast card for a great price. gl

 

[Termie]

The most powerful card I'd go for is a 7770, and even that will be CPU-limited most of the time. Here's the best price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161402

A better match for the system would be a 7750 GDDR5, but it's only slightly cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102969

 

[lavaheadache]

I'm running a 5870 with an overclocked c2duo and there isn't much it can't play well @ 1080

 

[FalseChristian]

The 5870 is still a beast of a card. It beats the hell outta my GTX 460 1GBs

 

[ghostyroasty]

Just ordered a used 5870, looks to be a great companion to my system.

 

[p_monks33]

As long as the 5870 fits length wise and you have a powersupply that will power it, the 5870 is an awesome card.

 

[lavaheadache]

it will, I checked his case on newegg...

 

[p_monks33]

Oh, sweet he got a smokin deal if he got one of your cards. The 2gb versions are tough to find.