Help me choose between these cards

PaliGap

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Jun 8, 2015
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I'd like to know what would my best option between these cards:

GT 9800 512mb
HD 4830 512mb
HD 4770 512mb
HD 4850 512mb
HD 5750 1024mb
GTS 250 1024mb
HD 5770 1024mb
HD 4870 512mb/1gb

* All are second-hand and around the same price.
* Im gonna change my generic PSU to a 400-500 80Plus
* Im not gonna change my CPU till next year.
* Im OK playing Dark Souls 2 on medium settings.

Specs:

Mobo: GA-m68mt-S2P - Rev 3.0
GPU: HD 5670 512mb DDR5
CPU: AMD Athlon II x2 255
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1333
PSU: SENTEY ATX 450 P4
19.5-Inch LCD Monitor


 
Solution
Actually, it is the other way around; the Athlon may bottleneck the HD-4870... in some games. The newer HD-5770 is in the same tier as the 4870, but I chose the 4870 because it has 1GB VRAM. Either card will be fine for medium settings at 1600x900 in most games.

If you are going to stay with the Athlon II X2, the HD 4870 will be fine. No sense crippling the system even more. Who knows, maybe you will come across a faster CPU you can pop in the board someday. In fact, that would be the way to think. Don't downgrade the GPU... upgrade the CPU. Here is a list of CPUs that board will accept and the BIOS version required to recognize it. http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Gigabyte/GA-M68MT-S2P%28rev._3.0%29.html
Unfortunately they are...

clutchc

Titan
Ambassador
The HD-4870 1GB would be the fastest. But the old (slow) Athlon II dual core will be the bottleneck. Here's a Hierarchy chart to get your head around where the various cards rank in comparison with each other: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Here's a similar hierarchy chart for CPUs: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

Yes, I would get rid of that PSU before upgrading to most of those cards. What is the screen resolution of that 19.5" display?
 

PaliGap

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Jun 8, 2015
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Thank you for your answer man.

And yes, im totally getting rid of my PSU before buying the card.

Regarding the resolution, it says 1600x900 as recommended.

If the 4870 will bottleneck my old Athlon, should i look for some other one not as fast? Or almost every one from that list will most likely bottleneck it?



 

clutchc

Titan
Ambassador
Actually, it is the other way around; the Athlon may bottleneck the HD-4870... in some games. The newer HD-5770 is in the same tier as the 4870, but I chose the 4870 because it has 1GB VRAM. Either card will be fine for medium settings at 1600x900 in most games.

If you are going to stay with the Athlon II X2, the HD 4870 will be fine. No sense crippling the system even more. Who knows, maybe you will come across a faster CPU you can pop in the board someday. In fact, that would be the way to think. Don't downgrade the GPU... upgrade the CPU. Here is a list of CPUs that board will accept and the BIOS version required to recognize it. http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Gigabyte/GA-M68MT-S2P%28rev._3.0%29.html
Unfortunately they are all obsolete now. But many of them show up on ebay now and then.
 
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