Video card for my beater of a system?

[Paladin3]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core 4800+ 2.50GHz
2GB ram DDR2
Radon X1650 pro PCI-E
Windows 7 Ultimate 64
1440x900 resolution


Looking to upgrade my video card. I mostly play WoW, but would love something that will play Diablo 3 and somewhat newer games.

I don't mind buying used, just looking for the best bang for the buck considering my slow processor, only 2GB ram and relatively low resolution. Also, wondering if upgrading to 4GB ram would help my gaming at all?

Thanks!

 

[MrRamon]

Are you running agp? I can still run any game out there on my ati 3850 agp at 1680x1050. As far as an upgrade on ram I don't know. I still have 2 gigs of ddr as well. :/

 

[VirtualLarry]

OP: Do you have DDR or DDR2, and do you have PCI-E or AGP?

If it's DDR and AGP, don't bother upgrading, save up until you can afford a full upgrade.

If it's DDR2, and PCI-E, then consider getting 2GB more of RAM, and something like a GT620 or GT630, for under $50. Maybe a 7750 if you can find one, but that might be a bit bottlenecked by your CPU.

N.B. I picked up some GT620 PNY 1GB DDR3 64-bit cards for $34.99 ea at Newegg some days ago. Normal price is $54.99.

 

[CuriousMike]

Are you running agp? I can still run any game out there on my ati 3850 agp at 1680x1050. As far as an upgrade on ram I don't know. I still have 2 gigs of ddr as well. :/

If it's AGP, and you think a 7800GS would help, PM me.

 

[MrRamon]

If it's AGP, and you think a 7800GS would help, PM me.

Thanks... but the 3850 is the fastest agp video card ever released. I can't believe I'm still running this card. Technology has not progressed that much since it was released.1993->2000.. omg wow! 2000->2007 was a huge jump... 2007->2014 meh.

 

[lavaheadache]

If it's AGP, and you think a 7800GS would help, PM me.

What brand is it?

 

[2is]

Thanks... but the 3850 is the fastest agp video card ever released. I can't believe I'm still running this card. Technology has not progressed that much since it was released.1993->2000.. omg wow! 2000->2007 was a huge jump... 2007->2014 meh.

Yeah, not a big jump from an 3850 to a 780....

 

[MrRamon]

Yeah, not a big jump from an 3850 to a 780....

We were talking about a 7800gs agp vs 3850 agp not a 780. A 780 is a big jump, but... I was talking about tech in general throughout the years.

 

[Beavermatic]

I've got a EVGA GTX580 for sale... works flawlessly. PCIX. Should murder anything you throw at it for a beater system.

PM me if interested, $160 bux takes it.

 

[OCGuy]

Honestly.....don't dump another dollar into that thing. Get a cheap AMD APU, Mobo, RAM...and later you can add a video card, but you don't need one right away for what you do.

This would give you something to do for as cheap as any decent discreet card these days.....crapton of horsepower for $210

 

[DominionSeraph]

2.5GHz X2 4800+ would be a Brisbane X2, so AM2. So PCIe and DDR2.

Honestly.....don't dump another dollar into that thing.

It's perfectly fine for dropping a few more dollars onto. For legacy gaming my Phenom II X4 945 is no faster than my X2 5200+ was, and the X2 can certainly push something in the 9600GT/8800GT/4850 range. If he's not looking to spend in the $300 range he can certainly get a worthwhile upgrade in the $35 used range.
E: 9800GT for $35 shipped here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2361593


Oh, and an APU with single-channel memory is just bad manners.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2GG2E
Twice the RAM and around 4 times the GPU performance for $260.

edit2: If OP has the PSU that can handle it, here's a GTX 275 for $45. If you later want to upgrade to a new budget CPU, this card is worthy of it.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2365404
You could take this and the CPU/mobo/RAM in my link above and have something just a hair slower than that GTX 460 for $215. (No DX11, though.)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3809/nvidias-geforce-gtx-460-the-200-king/6

(close 22 tabs)

 

[bononos]

I've got a EVGA GTX580 for sale... works flawlessly. PCIX. Should murder anything you throw at it for a beater system.

PM me if interested, $160 bux takes it.

His old pc would go poof with a monster of a card like the 580 with its large power draw.

 

[ultimatebob]

The Battlefield 4 Dog Tag is a nice touch

 

[nwo]

His old pc would go poof with a monster of a card like the 580 with its large power draw.

Yep, most old PSUs were crappy and had something like 50-60% total rated power on the 12v rail.

Besides, a GTX 580 would be overkill for that system. The CPU and RAM would be huge bottlenecks for it too. I'd recommend the 9800GT posted earlier in the thread.

Or, if you want DX11 support, which I doubt your PC has enough HP to run, I'd look into something like a GTX 460 or a GTX 550ti. Both of which should be only $10-15 more than the 9800GT and much better cards. Here is a comparison of the two:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diablo-iii-performance-benchmark,3195-5.html

 

[CuriousMike]

What brand is it?

EVGA,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130274

 

[Blue_Max]

OP already said he's got PCIe.

I'd grab a cheap, used Radeon 7750 or 7770 for more than enough speed as well as very low power use. I see 7750's for a lousy $50 fairly often.

...then again, I've been burned by cooked video cards before. Something on sale but mid-range as always nice... plenty of 7770's for under $100 new back at xmas.


Hey, you have 4 RAM slots or two? 4x512MB or 2x1024MB? I'm hoping you've got two empty slots you could throw some dirt cheap 512's or 1024's into... again, VERY cheap used!

 

[Paladin3]

Just came back to say thank you all for the input and advice. I eventually bought a new, old stock GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-Bit GDDR3 for $37 shipped off of eBay.

I can now actually play a few games made in this decade, and it definitely didn't break the bank, lol.

I've got two empty RAM slots so I might add another 2GB of memory for a total of 4, but that's about it for this old system.

 

[nwo]

Throw another 2GB of RAM and you will further minimize lag in games

You can get 2GB for as low as $19 from Amazon