Which graphics card for my MOBO? HELP PLEASE

C

Conrad

Guest
Hello gents, I really would like to upgrade my current graphics card, but I would like some advice from our members here regarding the most appropriate card for my mother board.

I currently have a ASUS P5W DH Deluxe with E6700 core 2 duo, current card a nvidia 7900GTX 512mb and 2 gig of RAM. At the moment everything is running OK but with low settings.

Has anyone got a similar motherboard and upgraded. I would like to get the best graphics card ( I want to keep with nvidia), but I am concerned that I would have to upgrade the processor at the same time. I don't have the spare readies to do this in one month- so would like to get way with a graphics card upgrade first. My motherboard takes PCIe X16, but I have noticed that the GTX280 for example is PCIe 2.0 X16. Would this be compatible?

Changing the motherboard isn't an option for me at this moment in time.

Any help, suggestions or advice would be most appreciated.

Many thanks,

Conrad.
 
I just bought New computer, well parts and im now trying to build the pc up.

-motherboard MSI K9A2 CF-F 790 ATX Crossfire
-prossessor AMD Phenom II 920 AMD+ 2.8 GHz 8mb 45nm
-4GB ddr2 800MHz
-Graphic card ATI Club3d HD4850 512mb (2ghz mem) Overclocked Edition

I suggest more Nvidia cards for OFF becourse i have heard that it runs better cfs3.

Cheers

Arto



Conrad said:
Hello gents, I really would like to upgrade my current graphics card, but I would like some advice from our members here regarding the most appropriate card for my mother board.

I currently have a ASUS P5W DH Deluxe with E6700 core 2 duo, current card a nvidia 7900GTX 512mb and 2 gig of RAM. At the moment everything is running OK but with low settings.

Has anyone got a similar motherboard and upgraded. I would like to get the best graphics card ( I want to keep with nvidia), but I am concerned that I would have to upgrade the processor at the same time. I don't have the spare readies to do this in one month- so would like to get way with a graphics card upgrade first. My motherboard takes PCIe X16, but I have noticed that the GTX280 for example is PCIe 2.0 X16. Would this be compatible?

Changing the motherboard isn't an option for me at this moment in time.

Any help, suggestions or advice would be most appreciated.

Many thanks,

Conrad.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Siggi for getting straight back to me. Please excuse my ignorance- what is 'backwards compatible'? I read
somewhere earlier that a card like the GTX280 would need a more powerful processor than the one I have (E6700 Core 2 duo). Any thoughts appreciated.
 
Conrad,

I have the e6850, paired with an EVGA 8800gt superclocked card. I'm very happy with the performance, most sliders at 5, clouds at 1, using NHancer, and I'm gettting 30 to 40 FPS.

PIED
 
Conrad said:
Thanks Siggi for getting straight back to me. Please excuse my ignorance- what is 'backwards compatible'? I read
somewhere earlier that a card like the GTX280 would need a more powerful processor than the one I have (E6700 Core 2 duo). Any thoughts appreciated.
Click to expand...

Backwards compatible means the 2.0 card will work on a 1.0 mobo.

Your CPU will probably be a bottleneck with that graphics card, but all that means is so long as you have that CPU you won't see the full benefit of the new card. But that's not a problem, as you say you'll be upgrading the CPU soon as you have the dosh for it. Get an E8400. At some point, with a new mobo, RAM and HS&F too, you'll be able to overclock that lot and then the card will really be earning it's keep. :)
 
Siggi,

I have looked at upgrading my graphics card also, but when I spoke to the local shop they advised me that as my motherboard does'nt have a PCIe 2.0 slot, that although the card would run in a PCI 1.0 slot it would not give maximum performance, and they advised against it knowing that I was not going to upgrade my whole system (CPU, Motherboard & Ram) just so I could get a new graphics card.

I had already decided that if I had to go the route of purchasing a new motherboard that I would wait until I could afford the whole system (see above) and when I worked out a quad core AMD, GTX260, motherboard and 4gb of ram would cost the best part of £600 I decided to wait.

I am running the following:

M61SME-S2L
AMD 6000+
8600GT 1GB
2GB Ram
500GB Sata HD
600W PSU

I hope this helps

Thanks
Fenwick
 
PCIe2 is double the bandwidth of PCIe1, so a PCIe2 card on a PCIe1 mobo will, theoretically under full load, be 50% throttled by the mobo. That's assuming the program is wanting the full bandwidth of the card. If the CPU is already doing it's own throttling...

It's a case of buying bits as money presents itself, knowing one isn't going to get full throttle from any particular bit until all possible bits are together. An 'incremental upgrade' if you will.

Whatever one ends up with, there will always be one component that's slower than the next fastest component. If the system is good the difference will be small, so no appreciable negative effect.

Sticking a top-end card into an old mobo has to be a temporary measure. The plan has to be to replace, eventually, the other three core components too...mobo, CPU and RAM. Fast drives and sound are nice too but not as critical (top CPU can handle sounds, good and plentiful RAM can handle drives).

And then for overclock, a good heatsink & fan and a good case with good airflow.

My mobo was £150 (cheaper one would be as good). RAM was £50. Card was £200 (now available for around £100). CPU was £140. With that I have OFF flying (tee hee).
 
Siggi- you have given me the information I needed. Thanks for that,
Conrad.
 
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