What is a good upgrade from a 9800GTX ?

[MentalIlness]

My secondary rig below...currently has the E7200 cpu and a Gigabyte UD3P motherboard. Decided to give it to my son to may games on. It no longer has the HD 6870 since a year ago I traded it to my brother.

Anyway, what would be a good pair for a Q5550, which is what I ordered to upgrade the cpu.

It is running Windows 7. The games range from Call Of Duty 2...Age Of Empires 3 to Prey to Half Life 2 and other games like Oblivion and Left 4 Dead. Maybe even some of the newer stuff. Nothing like Crysis 3 though.

Any suggestions?

 

[Arachnotronic]

What's your budget?

 

[MentalIlness]

Would prefer not to go more than $200.

 

[happy medium]

I think you meant Q9550?
If your overclocking it a little, and wanna play some newer stuff ,grab a used gtx760 for 110$, if your not overclocking it, a used gtx560ti goes for about 60$ and will play those games you listed just fine..
That should be a good match for it.
I have the same cpu, I've done my research.


edit:
200$? no don't spend 200$ on that older rig bro.
Just grab something around 100$.

 

[dave1029]

Just grab the highest end of the low profile cards you can find.

 

[MentalIlness]

Yea, I meant a Q9550. I have a GTX 460 SC here, but it started artifacting. A 560 would be good I suppose. Ill start searching for one.

 

[happy medium]

Yea, I meant a Q9550. I have a GTX 460 SC here, but it started artifacting. A 560 would be good I suppose. Ill start searching for one.

I just noticed your running 1600x900 on that rig.
Yes a used gtx560ti would be perfect.

 

[crisium]

I wouldn't get a Fermi. Stick with something new - no need to age yourself. Even Kepler is handicapping yourself. Get a used Radeon 7850 2GB.

 

[happy medium]

I wouldn't get a Fermi. Stick with something new - no need to age yourself. Even Kepler is handicapping yourself. Get a used Radeon 7850 2GB.

Yea, whatever you find cheaper. remember he's running a stock q9550 @ 2.8, it wont matter much.

 

[crisium]

Just trying to get him longevity. GCN is still optimized for, even good ol' 1.0. And the 7850 is an overclocking beast should he be interested in that. But certainly don't break the wallet!

 

[SteveGrabowski]

The R7 370 is supposed to be a rebranded R9 270 for $135. Hard to go wrong there.

 

[Headfoot]

Used R9 280/7950 Boost go for literally $100. DEFINITELY don't get a 560 ti, that's a terrible idea unless you can't spend more than $50. Fermi is old and very deprecated now. GCN 1.0 w/ 3GB is a much, much, much better buy.

Overclock that q9550 to at least 3.2, which is easy. Even 3.4 should be trivially easy to get. It'll make a world of difference as the CPU will be the largest bottleneck. 3.6 ghz is doable on many q9550s. Just make sure your PSU is big enough to handle an OC'd quad and a faster video card.

A q9550 @ 3.6 with a 7950 Boost would actually be a pretty nice side gaming machine. I have a guest computer that uses an i5 760 and a 7950 Boost I got for $100 used and it works quite well.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

That cpu is really slow. Just get a $100-150 AMD GCN card.

 

[NTMBK]

Second hand 7850 sounds like a good idea.

 

[iiiankiii]

Second hand 7850 sounds like a good idea.

Agreed. You can grab a 7850 for dirt cheap on eBay. Around $80. Perfect match for that CPU.

 

[Headfoot]

It's only another $20 to go from an $80 7850 to a $100 7950. Totally worth it even if sometimes it doesnt always get fully utilized. Id do it just to have 3 GB, especially if he keeps this GPU as long as he's kept the 9800 GTX