Graphics card compatibility with Asus M2V motherboard

[mogwar]

I could really do with some advice if anyone can help. Essentially I'm running an old Radeon X1300 graphics card on my system and looking to upgrade so I can better enjoy some of my favourite games like Bioshock, Half Life 2, Mass Effect, F.E.A.R et al, as well as being able to meet the minimum requirements of some newer games (even a couple in that short list). Problem is i'm a little confuse as to what graphics cards are actually now compatible with the M2V motherboard. There seem to be many forums related to incompatible PCI-e 2.0 cards but not much related to what actually works. Can anyone recommend a few cards they know to work, preferably in a sub £100 price range although I'm open to the idea I might have to work harder and spend more!
Thanks in advance.

System Spec.
Asus M2V Motherboard
Athlon 64 X2 5200+ processor
ATI Radeon x1300 PCI-E
MOTU 828 MK2 audio interface
2GB DDR2 667MHz Ram
240 GB Hard drive
500W PSU

 

[Henry Chinaski]

I recommend you to go for an ATI 5770. All you need is having one PCIex16 slot, and, as you can see, your mobo has one:

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=OqYlEDFfF6ZqZGvp

It performs very well and the price is affordable.

Here you have a good option: http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-503.shtml

 

[mogwar]

Thanks for the reply, it certainly looks like a great card, my concern really is with the fact that the PCIe slot uses the old 1.0a standard which can cause some compatability issues with 2.0 and inparticular 2.1 cards which this one appears to be. Do you know of any good cards still available that use 1.0a?

 

[tcsenter]

It doesn't matter because any current graphics will under-perform a full 20% ~ 25% on this board with the latest BIOS due to some bugs in the VIA chipset that could only be solved by this BIOS change, which drags performance down.

I would just find the cheapest Socket AM2/AM2+ motherboard you can find and replace it altogether. Then you can run whatever graphics card you can afford. e.g.

This is an idea of what you can get for $52.00 (US) shipped:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138156