Looking to upgrade my 5 year old fried radeonx1900xtx

[swishersweet]

Well, I finally took out my 5 year old gaming rig and decided to replace the fried Radeon X1900XTX in it.

-Here are my system specs (not really sure what to include):
HP Pavilion a1310n
Athlon 64 (S) 3700+ 2.2 GHz
1GB memory
480W PSU
Running on Windows XP: Media Center Edition

-The games I want to be able to play at decent performance/quality are Counterstrike:source and Diablo 3.

-I've been looking at some used cards on craigslist but don't know which would be the best for me.

Radeon HD 5750 ($70)
http://austin.craigslist.org/sys/3054992845.html

Radeon HD 6870 ($140)
http://austin.craigslist.org/sys/3078916754.html

Radeon HD 6850 ($120)
http://austin.craigslist.org/sys/3071507189.html

-There's a bunch of other ones I found too. There's just so many that I'm not sure which one would be the best for me. Any suggestions/recommendations would be great.
-Ideally, I would like to get a card for under $100, but my budget is $150-$200.

Thanks in advance.

 

[rolli59]

You might have the no video issue with a version 2.1 GPU in your old HP. I would say that all these cards you list are going to be severely CPU bottlenecked by your old single core Athlon. Look for a used 9800GT or max HD4850, GTS250 or GTS450.

 

[flank21]

I wouldn't EVER buy a used or refurbished video card, especially from craigslist/ebay. Looking at your computer model on HP's website it says you have a pcie x16 slot which is good. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c00571922&lc=en

I don't think you'd have a problem playing css but diablo 3 min requirements call atleast an dual core AMD.

I'd look at the Radeon 6670 which is like ~$60 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600083901%20600144219&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

or the Radeon 7750 which is like ~$110 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709+600286767+600298541&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=48&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=

maybe someone else will know if your CPU will bottleneck these cards or not and if you'd actually be able to run diablo 3

 

[dish_moose]

Seriously - you need to think about replacing more than just the gpu.
-Bruce

 

[rolli59]

Seriously - you need to think about replacing more than just the gpu.
-Bruce

Actually the best advice so far!!!

 

[swishersweet]

Well, I'm assuming I won't be able to make this rig play high-end games like Diablo 3. That's fine then. I guess I will make this desktop solely for CS:S, which it was once able to run perfectly fine.

Flank21, you are also probably right. I don't think I will be buying a used card as so many things can go wrong.

So, my question is what would be the best card for the budget to be able to play cs:s?

Also, how will I know if a card will "bottleneck"?

 

[youssef 2010]

About the bottlenect question, any reasonably modern GPU WILL be bottlenecked by the Single core CPU

 

[jaguarskx]

When my X1900XT died I replaced it with a Radeon HD 5850 PCI-e 2.0 card. My CPU back then is the same as it is right now; a quad core Q9450.

Your single core CPU will bottleneck most modern video cards. Plus your old PCI-e 1.0/1.1 slot may not be compatible with a PCI-e 2.1 or 3.0 card. As mentioned above, you really ought to buy a new computer.

If money is a huge constraint, then consider the following Radeon HD 4770 for $44. It is a PCI-e 2.0 which is 100% compatible with the older PCI-e 1.0/1.1 slot. While not the latest and great, it will be an improvement compared to a X1900XTX.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=7120674000G-CO&utm_source=GoogleProducts&utm_medium=ShoppingSites&utm_campaign=7120674000G-CO

I assume the card is slow enough that your CPU will not bottleneck it. Not exactly the most flattering thing to say about a graphics card, but often at times when reality smacks you in the face it is not a pleasant sensation.

 

[rolli59]

That HD4770 is a great choice! Even an upgrade from what you had.

 

[swishersweet]

okay, i found this geforce 9800gt on CL for $75.

http://austin.craigslist.org/eld/2998403309.html

how will the HD4770 compare to the gefore 9800gt performance wise and capability wise? which is better for the dollars? Obviously what you've suggest is cheaper.

 

[rolli59]

9800GT is a little more powerful but if you look at the price difference then the HD4770 is a better buy. What about ebay? http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=9800gt&_sacat=0&_odkw=980gt&_osacat=0

 

[JKatwyopc]

Well, I'm assuming I won't be able to make this rig play high-end games like Diablo 3. That's fine then. I guess I will make this desktop solely for CS:S, which it was once able to run perfectly fine.

Flank21, you are also probably right. I don't think I will be buying a used card as so many things can go wrong.

So, my question is what would be the best card for the budget to be able to play cs:s?

Also, how will I know if a card will "bottleneck"?

LOL, by todays standards Diablo 3 is not a high-end game. Battlefield 3 is a high end game. However, with that CPU, Diablo 3 would still be difficult to play because it requires a Dual core CPU running at 2Ghz or above. See this: http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-system-requirements

You should be able to use a Radeon HD 3000 series or midrange Radeon HD 4000 series with it

i.e. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129209
or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150594 (this ones a limited time shell shocker)

Personally, I would just donate that to

 

[swishersweet]

buying a used one off ebay seems a little risky. You don't think people would try to sell a broken card on ebay? I would see if the card works first if I were to buy it off craigslist, but ebay I wouldn't be able to make sure it works.

-nvm. I see you can buy new cards on ebay.

 

[rolli59]

buying a used one off ebay seems a little risky. You don't think people would try to sell a broken card on ebay? I would see if the card works first if I were to buy it off craigslist, but ebay I wouldn't be able to make sure it works.

-nvm. I see you can buy new cards on ebay.

Shopping on ebay is all in the persons rating! Look those up, even some of the used ones give a few days of guarantee. It is all about shopping smart.

 

[swishersweet]

Okay, so with all these cards. How do I choose the best one?

 

[rolli59]

If you are referring to the 9800GT then just look at return policies and user ratings, really does not matter what brand if known, like EVGA, Asus, MSI, XFX, ........

 

[swishersweet]

I mean like with all the cards suggested on here.

 

[rolli59]

HD4670 is even an upgrade from your old X1900. In this chart you will see them all in performance groups http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

 

[Cyberhawk]

Battlefield 3 is a high end game

LOL thats funny....
If your price range is $150-$200 get a Phenom Quad core: http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Phenom-Black-3-4Ghz-4000MHZ/dp/B002SRQ214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339852943&sr=8-1&keywords=phenom (which I'm sure you could find cheaper somewhere as this is on Amazon.
Add a cheap motherboard from Gigabyte and Asrock and with a 6870 (Which is by far the best out of all of them as it has great bang for buck and even handles surround gaming on three 42inch monitors really well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mJeefx5_Qc) you shall have a system that will be able to handle any, and I mean any, game mostly on ultra settings.

 

[jaguarskx]

If you don't want to risk buying a refurbished card which may or may not work and if it dies you are back to square 1, then the retail boxed Radeon HD 4770 I linked to above for $44 is your best bet. It comes with a 1 year warranty.

As stated, it is not as fast as a retail boxed 9800GT, but it is a lot cheaper and it is still a significant improvement over the X1900XTX.

 

[swishersweet]

LOL thats funny....
If your price range is $150-$200 get a Phenom Quad core: http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Phenom-Black-3-4Ghz-4000MHZ/dp/B002SRQ214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339852943&sr=8-1&keywords=phenom (which I'm sure you could find cheaper somewhere as this is on Amazon.
Add a cheap motherboard from Gigabyte and Asrock and with a 6870 (Which is by far the best out of all of them as it has great bang for buck and even handles surround gaming on three 42inch monitors really well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mJeefx5_Qc) you shall have a system that will be able to handle any, and I mean any, game mostly on ultra settings.

Okay, I'm actually considering doing this now. But, I don't know much about computer past a graphics card. So you suggested the Phenom Quad core processor, how would I go about choosing a motherboard?

 

[youssef 2010]

If you still want to spend the same amount of money now, you can do much better than a quad-core Phenom. You can actually get The i5-3350P is a very compelling CPU and MSI Z77A-G41 motherboard. As for the GPU, This 7850 is reasonably priced.