Seeking Guidance: GPU to replace my 8500GT

[bruno0920]

Hi everyone,

I'm just new here and I would like to get some advice from you. I already surveyed all the shops here in my area. I'm living in the

Philippines and stocks are limited, so I'm going to list my PC specs and the available GPU in their shops w/ the cheapest price. I

only have the model of the GPU, since it doesn't really matters who's the "2ndary" manufacturer.

I'm going to use this mainly for gaming and play games such as Crysis 2, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Starcraft 2. Preferably,

play them in their max settings on a 1440 x 900 pixels (though resolution and settings doesn't count that much). Also to be

used to view movies (not really as a home theater), and doing some video/photo editing. I already made some research and my

choice would be HD 6850, but I'm not confident on my choice. My budget is only 8000Php (Philippines peso) roughly around

$200, and can be stretch and cannot exceed more than 10,000Php ($250). I'm just going to add here the GPU that's not w/in my

budget for comparison purposes.

PC specs:
Motherboard: P5GC-MX/1333
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7200 @ 2.53GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM Apacer UNB pc2-5300 CL5 1x2GB
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
OS: Microsoft XP SP3
PSU: 600W - Zeno Power
Monitor: ViewSonic 21" 1440 x 900 native resolution


GPUs on competition: (I'm going to use Philippine Peso price here. For rough estimated converted price to $ [Php/40 = $])
9400GT -2,900
9500GT -2,250
GT210 -2,100
GT220 -2,650
GT240 -3,000
GT430 -3,300
GT520 -2,500
GTS250 -4,990
GTS450 -5,400
GTX460 -18,000 (2GB)
GTX550 -6,500
GTX560 -14,000 (N560GTX)
GTX570 -19,000
HD3650 -2,435
HD4350 -2,950
HD4650 -2,500
HD4670 -3,500
HD5450 -2,275
HD5570 -3,200
HD5670 -4,650
HD5770 -7,500
HD6770 -6,350
HD6850 -8,990



So w/c do you think is the best GPU should I buy w/ my PC spec. Note, I'm not planning to change any PC spec.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[BarbaricSoul]

The 6850 is a really good card, and at 1440*900, it'll max out the games you listed.

 

[Damn_Smooth]

I agree. The 6850 is very solid. It's at the top of bang for buck cards.

 

[Red_Machine]

TBH, if you're still on XP there's no point in buying a DX11 or even a DX10 GPU. It would be a waste of money. Don't go any higher than the nVidia 200 series, and take the GTS 250 as a MINIMUM. Anything less is a pile of crap.

I also highly doubt your generic PSU would be able to handle any sort of power draw that a decent GPU would require. So I'm worried you may be defeated before you even start.

 

[LDNL]

Unless you upgrade to vista or 7, everything on the list is a waste of money.
E: But if youre just after raw horsepower and planning to change to vista or 7 in the near feature, the 6850 is an exellent choice.

 

[bruno0920]

Thanks

Thank you for all the replies.

So to sum it up, I should buy GTS250 and anything above GTS250 is a waste of money since I'm not planning on changing anything on my PC aside from my GPU. I'm just actually changing my GPU now since it's broken after 2yrs of service.

Actually I'm quite in a rush right now to buy a GPU to replace my 8500GT. I'm thinking that if I'm going to upgrade my PC parts, there are a lot of things to consider especially compatibility issues. So..later I'm going to save money to buy this PC.

Does any of you has any idea how much does it cost?

 

[Red_Machine]

I wouldn't bother. It's a laptop inside an all-in-one and laptop hardware is always inferior. Plus that would be RIDICULOUSLY expensive.

Just build a new desktop yourself.

 

[Fourstaff]

Would wait for the other pinoys to advise, they have a much better idea of what is happening.

 

[micropage7]

i suggest spend 200$ and leave 50$ as spare, since gpu is changing pretty fast, you may find a better one by adding some $
6850is a nice option

 

[Horrux]

I agree with Red_Machine. When on a budget, your best option is to keep a desktop which you can upgrade gradually. I would think the OS would be the easiest part of the PC to change, but hey, it's your PC.

But seriously, changing only the parts that need upgrading will let you keep your PC decently current-tech without ever needing to save for months on end. Yes, having an all-new shiny toy is very cool, but when you have to wait 3 years until the next one, that is an eternity, tech-wise. Much better to upgrade what needs it when it needs it.

I'm sure if you posted up your specs we could guide you through your upgrade path.

 

[Hotobu]

How did you get your copy of XP? Is this a pre-built computer, or did you buy it yourself? I ask because as someone else mentioned on XP you're limited to Direct X9. The 6850 is still a good idea, because it's a good card for a good price, but you're not going to be able to take advantage of Direct X 10 and 11 stuff, thus your performance is gimped a bit. If you have a copy of XP not tied to a vendor mobo on a prebuilt computer then it'd be a good idea to consider getting a Windows 7 upgrade version (slightly less than full, and installs over XP).

...or just find another way to "get" Windows 7. Simply upgrading the OS will boost performance.

 

[TC-man]

Hi,

Well, HD6850 is obviously the best choice. While you are still using Windows XP (for the raw power instead the DirectX 11 feature sets), you will see a significant performance increase when compared the HD6850 to a Geforce 8500gt. And you can always upgrade to Windows 7 after the purchase.

The second best choice would be the HD6770 at 6350 Philippine Pesos (according to your chart) which is even cheaper than the HD5770 on the list, the hardware is the same (it's a "refresh/rename"). And GTX 550ti is also pretty decent at 6500 Philippine Pesos (according to your chart) and it's supposed to be somewhat faster than the HD5770/6770.

But make sure the motherboard Asus P4V8X-MX is working with these new generation videocards, since there were quite a lot of older generation motherboards without pci-e 2.x slot that have problems with and won't work with e.g. the HD5000 series.

 

[Mindweaver]

Buy the 6850 and when you are ready to upgrade you'll already have a DX11 graphics card. In no way would i suggest anyone to buy a gts250... Why? So, when you're ready to upgrade.. you'll have to buy another graphics card as well? Say NO to legacy hardware.. hehehe

 

[Red_Machine]

But make sure the motherboard Asus P4V8X-MX is working with these new generation videocards, since there were quite a lot of older generation motherboards without pci-e 2.x slot that have problems with and won't work with e.g. the HD5000 series.

Not true. All cards are backwards-compatible.

 

[Dent1]

Cant see that old processor pushing the 6850 to it's limits, and having only 2GBs of ram in a system will effect performance in modern games.

I would get the HD6770, 5770, GTS 250 or GTS450 and spend whatever is left over on another 2GB+ of ram.

If you can afford the 6850 and 2GBs+ of ram. Go for it!

Edit:

Look into the 6790 it performs slightly behind the 6850 but for cheaper!

 

[TC-man]

Not true. All cards are backwards-compatible.

Well, that's on paper, but in practice there were VIA chipset based motherboards and several older gen nForce motherboards (often because of out-of-spec issues) that were not working with newer generation videocards such as AMD's HD5000 series. And even before that there were reports that some motherboards (mainly VIA chipsets) that won't even post with e.g. nVidia's Geforce 8800GT (G92), because GEN2 VGA mode was being used; only solutions were bios updates for the motherboard and/or vga bios updates to put back GEN1 VGA mode support on the videocard. There were no problems with Intel based 775 socket motherboard chipsets (e.g. from Intel P965 to P35 without pci-e 2.x) with newer generation videocards.

So there's always a chance a newer generation videocard that won't work with certain several generations older motherboards. Even when on paper it should work, it doesn't mean it will work for 100% when we are talking about compatibility/interoperability between new and old gen PC components/hardware.

EDIT

PC specs:
Motherboard: P4V8X-MX
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7200 @ 2.53GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
OS: Microsoft XP SP3
PSU: 600W (a generic one)
Monitor: ViewSonic 21" 1440 x 900 native resolution

Anyway, just searched for the Asus P4V8X-MX motherboard in Asus' site and it's a socket 478 socket motherboard (chipset: VIA P4M800) and it only has AGP port and no pci-e port. Are you sure the motherboard is really called P4V8X-MX?

 

[Mindweaver]

Well, that's on paper, but in practice there were VIA chipset based motherboards and several older gen nForce motherboards (often because of out-of-spec issues) that were not working with newer generation videocards such as AMD's HD5000 series. And even before that there were reports that some motherboards (mainly VIA chipsets) that won't even post with e.g. nVidia's Geforce 8800GT (G92), because GEN2 VGA mode was being used; only solutions were bios updates for the motherboard and/or vga bios updates to put back GEN1 VGA mode support on the videocard. There were no problems with Intel based 775 socket motherboard chipsets (e.g. from Intel P965 to P35 without pci-e 2.x) with newer generation videocards.

So there's always a chance a newer generation videocard that won't work with certain several generations older motherboards. Even when on paper it should work, it doesn't mean it will work for 100% when we are talking about compatibility/interoperability between new and old gen PC components/hardware.

EDIT



Anyway, just searched for the Asus P4V8X-MX motherboard in Asus' site and it's a socket 478 socket motherboard (chipset: VIA P4M800) and it only has AGP port and no pci-e port. Are you sure the motherboard is really called P4V8X-MX?

That can't be his motherboard. E7200 is a LGA 775 socket CPU and they didn't make an AGP 8500gt card. You can check our GPU database here.

 

[koorosh]

I think you can easily get a windows 7 because of weak copyright in Philippines, I mean did you buy those games with their real price? So I think 7 is a free upgrade for gaming.
Second you need a 2GB ram, and a graphics at your choice.

 

[bruno0920]

First of all, those games listed are the games I'm planning to buy. Of course I doesn't have them yet since I don't have yet the GPU I needed to play them in my preferred taste.

Second, I don't have any copies of any OS, yes it's pre-built, and they just put a Acronis Backup so just in case I got any viruses, I'll just load the backup so no need for re-format/install.

Third, yeah HD6850 is the best choice obviously if we're not going to consider my specs. If I'm going to buy that, I won't be able to utilize it's maximum ability due to my other PC specs. Like I mentioned in my first post, I'm not planning to change anything other than my GPU. I'm replacing my GPU since it's already not working so I need a replacement. I don't replace parts when they're not broken. I really need guidance on what GPU will perform at it's maximum performance w/ my current PC settings.

4th, sorry and thanks for pointing that out. Correction, this is my Motherboard: P5GC-MX/1333


Thanks for all the feedback guys, really need guidance here since planning to buy this friday before stocks run out. They're not order basis shops, they're stock basis.

 

[TC-man]

Hi,

If you are not upgrading your PC for a long time, then a HD6850 would be wasted in a PC with C2D E7200 + 2GB ram + Motherboard with no overclocking capability. Also the next upgrade would be a big change for you, i.e. motherboard + ram + CPU, since DDR2 ram modules and 775 motherboards/CPUs are end of life products. If you are afraid that the HD6850 would be wasted in your PC, then the second best choice is HD6770 which is in fact a HD5770 (yes, AMD just renames it), and it's even cheaper than the HD5770 on your list. The HD6770 should be fast enough for the games you listed earlier, although not with the highest settings for graphics (something between mid/high settings). Don't wast your money on Directx 10 cards such as the GTS 250, since it's old tech and consumes too much power for the performance it delivers; so the DirectX 11 cards are good choices, even you are using Windows XP; they are backwards compatible with Directx 9 and a lot of games (all 3 games on your list) still support Directx 9 (e.g. Crysis 2 e.g., while there's a Directx 11 patch, but it will just increase the system requirement even further!).

By the way, can't you find a GTX460 768MB with a reasonable pricetag in the neighborhood? It would have been a really nice choice.

 

[bruno0920]

Semi-finals!

By the way, can't you find a GTX460 768MB with a reasonable pricetag in the neighborhood? It would have been a really nice choice.

Only 2GB is available, can't find any other lesser memory. Though, I might be able to find way to find a way/shop to purchase it by order basis.
Oh, btw, between GTX460 memories (768M,1G, 1.5G...and for comparison let's include 2G) w/c among them performs on its best w/ my spec? If I can purchase 470 and 480, wouldn't those be better choice? Then, let's match it against 6770 and 6850.

Let's then increase our # of choices, is there a GPU that's not on my list that my spec won't bottleneck and would still win against the winner of the above's match up? (I'm actually considering 5850, 6790

Just asking because based on my further investigation this is my conclusion:
6850 - preferred choice
6770 - best choice
???? -- PERFECT choice

 

[Horrux]

6770 should be damn close to perfect.

 

[bruno0920]

Title

6770 should be damn close to perfect.

And that's why I gave it the title "BEST"

 

[Dent1]

Only 2GB is available, can't find any other lesser memory. Though, I might be able to find way to find a way/shop to purchase it by order basis.
Oh, btw, between GTX460 memories (768M,1G, 1.5G...and for comparison let's include 2G) w/c among them performs on its best w/ my spec? If I can purchase 470 and 480, wouldn't those be better choice? Then, let's match it against 6770 and 6850.

Let's then increase our # of choices, is there a GPU that's not on my list that my spec won't bottleneck and would still win against the winner of the above's match up? (I'm actually considering 5850, 6790

Just asking because based on my further investigation this is my conclusion:
6850 - preferred choice
6770 - best choice
???? -- PERFECT choice

Your PC can't handle the 470 or 480 or 6790 6850 without bottlenecking.

Minimising bottlenecking the 6770/5770 is the best choice, even that you won't get the most out of. HOWEVER in most countries the 6790 costs the same as the 6770/5770, if this is the case for you the 6790 is the best option. Otherwise the 6770/5770.

Just for reiteration, 2GBs of ram is not enough for today's gaming.

 

[Jstn7477]

I would say 6790/6770/5770. With a no-name PSU, an old C2D, 2GB of RAM and XP, a 6850 would probably be overkill and burn up that PSU if it's a really bad brand.