Fastest video card for Athlon II X4 650 (3.2GHz)

[box o rocks]

What would you say is the fastest video card that the Athlon II X4 650 quad core can handle without a crazy amount of bottle neck? We're not afraid of some occasional CPU bottle neck if it means better performance in other games that are heavily dependent on the GPU and not so much the CPU. And cost isn't a big factor. Thanks.

PSU: Evga 500W (+12V rail: 40 amp/480W)
RAM: 8GB
Win 7
Mid Tower case (11.5" max length for card)

 

[dangus]

any card in the $200 range is probably about right.

 

[box o rocks]

any card in the $200 range is probably about right.

Gee, thanks for that detailed, in-depth answer.

 

[R4DIO4CT1VE]

a GTX 750ti is a pretty good match for that CPU. but as you mentioned if you want abit more GPU than CPU you could go with a GTX 760 or 950. honestly you can get these cards used for under $150 pretty often.

 

[dontlistentome]

I've seen benchmarks where an RX 470 does pretty well with a CPU like that. One exception, newer CPU intensive games(City Skylines for instance) will run pretty badly no matter what GPU you have.

 

[box o rocks]

I've seen benchmarks where an RX 470 does pretty well with a CPU like that. One exception, newer CPU intensive games(City Skylines for instance) will run pretty badly no matter what GPU you have.

I play mostly less demanding games. Single player. I have a friend who has a RX 470. Maybe I'll ask him if I can give it a test run.
I have a R9 270X in it now. For the games I play, the card has no trouble obtaining 100% usage according to Hardware Info 64. That's why I was hoping there still was room for more.

Can you link me to the benchmarks you saw?

 

[dangus]

any card in the $200 range is probably about right.

Gee, thanks for that detailed, in-depth answer.

Gee. sorry i have a hard time giving detailed answers to people who can't figure out which of the three $200 (new) video cards on the market would be right for them. go with a used gtx 750ti or gtx 950 (less than $200) and call it a day. no reason to think about this too hard.

edit - i apologize for the non in-depth answer but some of us don't mind doing mild research instead of lazily asking/posting on a tech website about something so simple.

if you have an r7 270x you should stick with it. not going to be a huge benefit from anything more powerful

 

[rcald2000]

moving on.....

+box o rocks Consider overclocking your Athlon II X4 650, to squeeze the most performance out of your current R9 270X, and your future GPU. I Googled AMD Overdrive compatibility, and it appears to start support at the X4 651 level (RIP). But were I you, I'd download it anyway and see if the latest Overdrive version supports your CPU. Otherwise you'll simply have to manually overclock it yourself.

http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/over-drive

 

[dangus]

any card in the $200 range is probably about right.

Gee, thanks for that detailed, in-depth answer.

and, gee, instead of us getting all snarky we should also try to provide a "detailed, in depth" description of what we're actually running for a PC. i again apologize for not knowing that you were looking for in an upgrade to an existing (not horrible) GPU. i was trying to help. there are only a few GPUs on the market that you can buy new that would make sense to use with that older CPU. anything over $200 would be kind of a waste of money. and anything at the $200 price point would be kind of a waste of money as well. its the max i would spend on that setup. but what i was truly trying to suggest is upgrading your platform before investing in a higher end GPU.

 

[box o rocks]

I've seen benchmarks where an RX 470 does pretty well with a CPU like that. One exception, newer CPU intensive games(City Skylines for instance) will run pretty badly no matter what GPU you have.

Follow-up...
You were right. I swapped cards with my friend for a couple days. He has a Gigabyte G1 RX 470. What a difference! Doom with Vulkan plays smooth as silk at 1080p on Ultra settings. It stays mostly in the 80 - 130 fps range! My 270X forced me to play at medium settings, and even then had occasional stutters. I guess the 470 will be the card I get. Thanks for the suggestion.
Btw, all the Athlon II X4 650's cores were between 90 - 100% usage, but the RX 470 was still able to hit 100% usage.