Video card for old pentium D CPU machine

[Rambusted]

I salvaged a dell optiplex 620 from work, barely used but it was destined for trash due to its age. It's running 4 gig ddr2 667 pentium d 945 3.4ghz 305 watt powersupply, 19in 720p lcdtv, and a fresh install of winxp. Dell never released a bios update to allow core series chips so this pd is really the best it's going to ever have. My kids are gonna fill it with games from steam so I'd like to get the best gfx card possible considering bottlenecks, power, and screen res. any thoughts?

 

[ruhtraeel]

I think the 7750 is the highest you can go in terms of power consumption. I'm assuming that power supply doesn't have a 6 pin PCIE connector, so the best card you could get that still uses onboard motherboard power would be the 7750.

Any higher, then you would need to start looking at adapters to get that 6 pin PCIE connector. I've been on the same boat with an HP DC7700 mini-tower PC.

 

[Rambusted]

I'm a little concerned that the 7750 will be bottlenecked by the really craptastic pd that's in there. I'm wondering if a gt440 will perform similarly in this configuration.

 

[BUnit1701]

Might also consider picking up something used on eBay, limited to DX 10 but something like a GeForce 8800GT/9800GT/GTS250 (all the same chip) or maybe even up to an HD4850/70 (DX 10.1) shouldn't be too overkill for your CPU.

 

[Termie]

Get an HD6570 for $40AR - plenty powerful for that CPU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102994

 

[vanillatech]

Well I presume you're keeping Windows XP on that machine, and not installing Windows 7/8... in which case it's kinda pointless upgrading the card to anything beyond DirectX 9 capability. If I remember the Pentium D series was basically 2 Pentium 4's on the same die, instead of true dual core architecture. Regardless, you have about the fastest Pentium D CPU already.

In regards to a good "match" graphics card for that machine, I'd probably go with something like an ATI 3870/4770 or an Nvidia 9600GT/GSO. Both of those options are OVERKILL for the speed of your CPU, but they will maybe increase your minimum FPS even if the max FPS will be severely capped by your CPU. Also you can pick up either on Ebay very cheap. A simple 6-pin PCI-E to Molex power cable can be used if the card requires it.

Truth is, even an ancient ATI X1950 would be overkill for that CPU, but if you installed a good power match card (ie. Nvidia 6800GT or ATI x800 series) then even the new indie games on Steam would choke due to the copious use of pixel shaders in even low end games these days.