Best GPU for an Intel Pentium 4 at 2.93ghz

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ntr11023

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Mar 28, 2011
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Hey guys,

So, I'm still fixing up my old computer, but I finally got it running again. I reformatted the hard drive, got a wireless network card, and picked up a new sound card. We are in business! The main use of the computer will be gaming, so I want it to run as good as possible. But there's a problem. It has integrated graphics... from 5 years ago! I doubt that that will get me very far in today's world. The solution? I need a new graphics card. My computer has:

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 single core @ 2.93ghz
4gb DDR2 RAM
250w PSU

Unless I can get a significantly better processor for less than $50, I do not want to upgrade that at the current time. So, my question is what is the best GPU for an Intel Pentium 4 single core processor at 2.93ghz?

I would prefer to stick with Nvidia because Nvidia cards tend to outperform the ATIs. Remember, the main use of this machine will be gaming.

I would prefer a card that could work with a 250w PSU (if such a card exists), but utilizing the full processor is more important. I can upgrade the PSU if need be.

I am on a very tight budget. I do not have the money to buy a new computer at the current time. My goal is to get the most out of my Pentium that I can.

Thanks for the help!!

EDIT: I believe I have a PCI slot on my desktop. Don't know how much that helps, but I thought I'd go ahead and throw that in.

EDIT2: The slot in my computer is PCI 32-bit. I now know that this does matter, as PCIe and AGP will not work.
 
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jyjjy

Hmm, I figured you would want a DDR2 board so you could use your current ram and not have to buy new stuff. DDR3 motherboards are actually much more common at this point. If you want one I would recommend this combo with a GTS 250 which is a nice amount faster than the HD5670 and nice deal with the...
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Games... the sole purpose of fixing this computer. If I swapped my original board for one with PCIe slots and got a PCIe graphics card that utilized the full processor, about how well would it perform? About how high, on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best, would I be able to turn the graphics up? What kind of framerates would I be looking at?
 
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That's some good advice. What kind of board and chipset would you recommend? What kind of price are we looking at? Do you have any examples?
 
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having a better cpu will decrease the chances of bottlenecking your system. so its good to make sure you have a decent cpu, a dual core will work good for games. my guess is that you can get a good card like a 4650 or so, a pentium D, and a new motherboard for about 120 at the most. best place to get the cpu would be ebay. you can get one for about 25-35 bucks.
 
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Pentium D? If he is going to replace the motherboard and CPU he should certainly be aiming higher than a Pentium D.

@OP: Honestly it goes back to what I recommended earlier. If you want to make that machine decent for gaming you need a lot of upgrades but they don't have to cost as much as you think. A decent current processor for gaming is $50-80, a motherboard for it is $40-60, an ok power supply is $40-50. So that's $130-180 depending on what you want to spend. At that point you can get whatever video card you want. If you want to go as cheap as possible I would recommend something along the lines of this;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103903
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138294
or this combo http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.627526
Then either get the HD4650 or get a power supply such as this one;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371034
It can handle pretty much any video card might want to buy(under $200 segment.)
 
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Well, I've looked at some reviews, gotten some opinions, and have done some pricing. This is the machine I'm currently looking at:

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128357&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=100&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131360&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=8ylgwgul9bq7

Processor: http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Pentium-Dual-Core-Processor-BX80571E6700/dp/B003OAL1AG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1303774935&sr=8-1

Total cost? Less than $200. Upgrading to a 300w PSU will bring it to just over $200, which is in my price range.
 
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Well, I've been doing a lot of research in the past couple days, and this is what I've come up with:

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128357&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=100&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131360&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=8ylgwgul9bq7

Processor: http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Pentium-Dual-Core-Processor-BX80571E6700/dp/B003OAL1AG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1303774935&sr=8-1

Factor in between $30-$50 for an upgraded PSU and that brings us to just over $200, well within my price range. What do you think about this build?
 
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That is a lot for a dual core, my phenom x4 820 only cost me $100 with 4mb of L3 cache, the board is ok but the card you can do better to be honest. That thing costs more than my redneck 8800gtx but then again the cooler on it is worth more than the card when bought new :s

In short you need to work on that a little more, keep the board but work on the card at least or the cpu. Raw performance that card is ok when considering the shader advantage over a 5450 but look at a 5550/70 that has 320 shaders and gddr5.
 
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The motherboard processor combo I linked is almost the same thing but $25 cheaper. The only difference at all compared to what you picked out is 0.2 ghz on the processor which isn't worth nearly that kind of money. For less than than what you linked you could get these;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103886
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157202
The processor is a x3 but it is actually a quad core with the 4th core locked. You can unlock it in the BIOS on that motherboard. It isn't guaranteed to work but the odds are very good(85%+)
You can still get the HD4650 if you want, you aren't going to do better for $50, but I suggested it earlier as it was the best for your old processor and power supply. With the upgrade you can pretty much get any card you want. This is a good deal and worth the extra $20;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102871
What is the native resolution of your monitor?
 
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A little on the cheap side as far as the board is concerned and will not unlock the fourth core. Nvidia chipsets do not have this feature. Only 700SB series ati chipsets unlock cores and cache. The card is acceptable at that price if it met the expectation of being a quality part. The cpu is a little high but nothing unusual, a good choice when a quad isn't in range.
 
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It says in green letters "with cpu core unlock function" and yes thta will unlock cores. its the first board with an nvidia chipset to do so.
 
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Well, I didn't think it was possible, but that's cheaper AND better! Quad core is great, but 3 cores are nothing to sneeze at! It's also very easy to unlock the fourth core, so not a problem.

Now, this opens a new door. Is there a similar board for a similar price that supports DDR3? If not, this is probably what I'll go with, but I'm just curious. Also, if money were no option, what would be the best card this new build could handle?
 
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Even if the board won't unlock the fourth core, there are plenty of programs that will. You don't sound too impressed with the card. What would you suggest?
 
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I am not, actually it is to close to the performance of a 9800gt to make it worth the price. There are a lot of cards that I am unimpressed with. Some are cheaper while others are much more expensive. When I look at a card I consider more than just features ect but the quality of the whole card. This one is ok but will get dirty quickly if this machine is used daily. If you want dx11 ect and want to keep power down while still having decent performance then there are few choices out there sadly.

Just stay with the 5670 but reconsider the choice of cpu and board if budget permits. Back to the cards I am a collector.
 
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Ah, that's cool. Never heard of a GPU collector before, but it would make a good thing to collect. As for the processor/board combo, the processor is essentially a quad-core. There is a chance that the locked core is broken, but theoretically, a tri-core should work better than a dual-core. But then again, that's theoretical. The Intel Core I7 functions far better on just 2 cores and virtually the same on just 1 core as the AMD Phenom II X6 on all 6 cores. What's the reason for this? The only apparent conclusion is the Intel Core I7 is better technology. That could very well be the case for the cards and processors I'm looking at. AMD creates something new, and Intel makes it actually work. But from a budget standpoint, it's hard to beat $200 for a machine. Generally speaking, I am not impressed with the performance of AMD hardware, but it appears to function just as good if not better than an Intel build from the same era, and certainly for a lot less.

I have no problem upgrading the PSU. I can get a 750w PSU from the local hardware store for less than $30. I'd like DX11, I'd like a good card, and I'd like a good processor. But as for what's hot in yesteryear's technology and what's not, I am virtually clueless. About all I know is AMD is generally a lot cheaper. Let me ask you this way: I have $300 to spend, but I might be willing to invest up to $400. I need a new motherboard, a new processor, and a new graphics card. I need the new items to function the best they can for the lowest price I can get. Give me some ideas.
 
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lol!

But what would the difference in performance be from the 5670 and the 5770, and is the difference worth $50?
 
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"I would prefer to stick with Nvidia because Nvidia cards tend to outperform the ATIs. Remember, the main use of this machine will be gaming. "

OP:

who told you that the bestbuy salesman!? this is ambiguously wrong...

it all depends on what cards/configs/games/settings you are talking about, both companies respectively edge each other out from time to time. IMPHO I think the quality of nvidias drivers are a bit better but overall the two gpu companies are about the same, they both have their strong and weak suits...
 
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Hmm, I figured you would want a DDR2 board so you could use your current ram and not have to buy new stuff. DDR3 motherboards are actually much more common at this point. If you want one I would recommend this combo with a GTS 250 which is a nice amount faster than the HD5670 and nice deal with the combo/rebate;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.627069
Here is another option for the processor that I just spotted on sale.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103916
There's a $10 off promo code, EMCKFHD32, making it $105. That's a quad core you don't have to worry about unlocking and the Phenom IIs have L3 cache that the Athlon II processors lack. It is worth the extra money if you can afford it.
The PSU I recommended earlier has gone up in price and not worth it any more. I'd switch it to this;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817815008
Not the best brand but the reviews I'm seeing are alright and it is bronze certified. Should be fine for your needs and it is a very good deal with the rebate.
If you do go with the DDR3 motherboard then you will need new RAM. Something like this would be fine;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231396
FYI there is currently a 15% off promo code for all memory, DM15AP11US.
 
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Solution


Now that is better 😉
 
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