best graphic cards available for an older machine?

[koolguy123]

budget: $130
machine: xps 420
psu 420W
8800 gtx

I was thinking about getting the 650ti for TigerD.
MSI GeForce GTX 650 TI
Model#: N650TI-1GD5/OCV4
I'm not planning to upgrade my psu right now BUT if I decided later on, which one should buy?
Also, how do I change my graphic card if the old graphic card (8800 gtx) doesn't function correctly? My system doesn't have an integrated graphic card. I can only get about a min. before screen stop working even in BIOS.
Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[jeffreyson]

In my opinion I wouldn't upgrade this PC at all. I would save up for a rebuild if you really can. You are going to be bottlenecked by the PCI X16 that you have on your board. Meaning that any card you put into your PC will run slower than it would on most other PC's. You can still buy 2.0 cards but cards have jumped all the way up to the 3.0 standard now.

 

[coffeecoffee]

I agree with the direction you're going with the GTX 650TI. According to the spec sheet via the URL below, it uses extremely limited powe which means you don't even need a PCI 6 pin power connector. Furthermore, anything with more horse power would probably be bottlenecked by your CPU (Core 2 Duo/Quad extreme is still very capable but definitely showing it's age left and right at this point compared to the current gen low end i5s and even AMD's FX6300 Hex).

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7764/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-750-ti-and-gtx-750-review-maxwell/4

Another idea would be to pick up a second hand AMD 5770/6770/7770. Those cards have roughly 100W TDP (Slightly harder on the PSU but I'm sure it will work). Firstly, they're cheap $50-80 and secondly there's no chance of CPU bottlenecks on those cards, BUT still very capable at running modern games at 1080p with lowered settings.

GTX 8800 vs 5770 Benchmark
http://www.hwcompare.com/1202/geforce-8800-gtx-vs-radeon-hd-5770/

5770 VS GTX 650TI Benchmark
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1078?vs=1129

I hope this information helps.

Warm Regards,

Coffee

Edit: @Jeffreyson: PCI-E standards does NOT affect GPU speeds (aside from MAYBE 1-2% efficiency difference). The difference between PCI-E 1, 2 and 3.0 is all about bandwidth. The cards the OP will be looking at won't even be able to reach the max bandwidth of PCI-E 1.0 standards, Furthermore anything getting close to that will be bottlenecked anyway. It my opinion, a standalone GPU upgrade is worth the money because he does have an XPS (Core 2 Duo/Quad Extreme with a solid PSU) which can still run much better GPUs without bottlenecking (in comparision to his GTX 8800). Here's an example of the bandwidth different between PCI-E standards; If the speed limit on the highway is 100mph, does it really matter if it was increased to 200, or even 300mph when the cars you're looking at can only do maybe 60-70mph?

 

[coozie7]

@koolguy123: Any card that only uses a single 6 pin PCI-e lad should fit and run well, if I recall correctly the 8800's used at least one of 'em and they also, being older tech, used quite a lot of power for their performance.
Being a Dell, I'll assume its cooling (case fans) is limited so I'd look for a reference type (blower) cooler, but make sure there's enough space to install it (again, I'm guessing the 8800 uses a similar cooler so you SHOULD be OK). Don't worry too much if you can't find a blower type cooler, though cards of this calibre don't produce that much heat, but it' sometimes handy to get it pushed out of the case, especially if you're living somewhere hot.

Just pop the new card in with the system powered down and the power cord removed, when the system reboots the card will run under Windows generic VGA drivers allowing you to remove/install drivers as required.
If you swap from Nvidia to AMD, it'll be a good idea to first uninstall, then scrub the drivers totally before installing the latest WHQL software from the AMD website, this is a handy little utility written for just that purpose: http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU/
Procedure:
Fit the replacement card and ignore any errors Windows throws up.
Download and install the DU software.
Download and SAVE the latest WHQL software for the replacement card.
Uninstall the current drivers.
Reboot into Safe Mode and run the DU software.
Reboot normally.
Install the drivers you saved earlier.
Reboot normally.
Adjust settings as required.
Sit back and have a nice cup of...Whatever. 😉

 

[nikoli707]

what cpu do you have? if you have a q6600 then i would think you would be fine with a gtx 750 ti. there would likely be a slight bottleneck in some games, but not to terrible. plenty of people used gtx580s and 570s on their q6600s. the 750ti is only slightly slower than a gtx570

 

[koolguy123]

thank you for all the info.
I have decided to go with the 650 ti. Can someone show me which 650 TI I should get? There are so many to choose from.
PNY Geforce GTX 650 Ti - Video Card 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0 (x16) - VCGGTX650T1XPB (1 fan)
ASUS GeForce GTX 650 TI OC 1GB GDDR5 PCIe (2 fans)
Gigasbyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti OC 1GB PCIe (1fan)
Galaxy GeForce GTX 650 Ti GC Video Card - 1GB GDDR (1fan)
MSI GeForce GTX 650 TI Graphic Card - NVIDIA Chipset, 1GB GDDR5, OpenGL Support, DirectX 11 Support, HDMI, DVI-D - N650TI-1GD5/OCV4 (1fan)
MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB GDDR5 PCIe (1fan)
Galaxy Geforce GTX 650 Ti BOOST Video Card - 2GB G (1fan)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 GV-N650OC-1GI Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0(x16), 2x Dual-link DVI-D, 1x D-Sub (VGA), 1x HDMI, DirectX 11, Dual-Slot, (1fan)

 

[nikoli707]

the galaxy gtx 650 ti boost is a slightly different card from all the rest. it has a 192bit memory lane and comes in 1gb or 2gb vram configurations. it is basically a gimped gtx660. the one you linked is the 2gb model. that card is going to be a little bit faster than all the rest you linked.