Solved Best video card for an older system?

[Soulfly]

Hey guys!

I'm looking to get a video card for my old system, and I was wondering what would be best for the performance/$. I'm afraid of buying a card that wouldn't perform at its best because of bottlenecking.

I also play games such as: Counter strike global offensive, dota 2, Dishonored..etc. I was thinking that maybe this would do, what do you guys think? Newegg.ca - ASUS GTX650-E-1GD5 GeForce GTX 650 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Specs:
Windows 7 Professional x64
AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz(Quad-core)
M2N-SLI DELUXE mobo
4 gigs of DDR2 ram
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
320 gigs WD hard drive
650 watts Corsair Bronze

Thanks!

 

[Faladu]

That plain 650 is not a huge leap over a 8800GT 1gig card.

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 650 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare

You want to jump a tier out of the 128-bit memory architecture.

Nvidia is priced out, I'd go with:

MSI R7850 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Newegg.com

Comes with Crysis 3 free offer!

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB vs Radeon HD 7850 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare

GeForce GTX 650 vs Radeon HD 7850 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare

See? You have a 650W PSU, that should be plenty for the upgrade.

Only possible problem, these cards are big, you might have to check your case, I have the big brother to that card, it looks identical.

My last 3 cards have all been huge, 8800 GTS, and a 5850 being the other 2, this is my case, and I have maybe an extra inch or those cards wouldn't have made it:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/999

 

[Soulfly]

That plain 650 is not a huge leap over a 8800GT 1gig card.

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 650 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare

You want to jump a tier out of the 128-bit memory architecture.

Nvidia is priced out, I'd go with:

MSI R7850 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Newegg.com

Comes with Crysis 3 free offer!

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB vs Radeon HD 7850 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare

GeForce GTX 650 vs Radeon HD 7850 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare

See? You have a 650W PSU, that should be plenty for the upgrade.

Only possible problem, these cards are big, you might have to check your case, I have the big brother to that card, it looks identical.

My last 3 cards have all been huge, 8800 GTS, and a 5850 being the other 2, this is my case, and I have maybe an extra inch or those cards wouldn't have made it:

Thermaltake Armor A90 Case Review | Hardware Secrets

Thanks for the response!

I understand that I have a good enough psu for a lot of mid high end video cards, but what about my motherboard and cpu? Wouldn't they bottleneck that Radeon HD 7850? Sorry, really a noob with this stuff. And no worries about space, I have a Haf 922.

 

[Faladu]

Nah get the 7850, if you wind up upgrading to newer mobo and CPU later, that card will still be decent, even if your performance is limited SOME, better video is not a bad thing.

It's a good price point too, I spent $400 on mine, at the time I think the 7850 was still $250ish.

Video card is the one part I have system hopped more than once.

Looking at specs, I forgot to mention need for PCIe 16x v2.0 slot for compatibility, looking at specs of your motherboard, didn't say what revision, that could be a problem if it's 1.x and the card doesn't support 1.x, not a definite or anything.

I would go here and confirm that, when they are open:

http://www.service.asus.com/#!consumer/csn9
^if in USA or Canada.

I tried to, unfortunately now closed.

Found a thread where someone put in a 7750 and said it worked great, so it's probably a non-issue.

Apparently, that mobo can handle the Phenom II x4 945 CPU with the right revision/bios update, also.

 

[Soulfly]

Okay, thanks. maybe I will!