Upgrading 7900GS for MMO; $50 budget

jay48

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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: immediate; BUDGET RANGE: $15-50

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Lord of the Rings Online (MMO)

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: GeForce 7900 GS; Antec SU-430

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: Intel Core2Duo 6300, Motherboard: MSI 945PL Neo-F (MS-7236) [PCI-Express 1.0], 4 GB of RAM

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada

WEBSITE: directcanada.com

OVERCLOCKING: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: want something with HDMI port, which my current 7900 GS doesn't have

POSSIBILITIES? (doesn't have to be silent or low profile)

1. Gigabyte Radeon HD 5450 700MHZ 512MB 1.6GHZ DDR3 HDMI DVI VGA DIRECTX11 PCI-E Low Profile Video Card
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11830BD0817

2. ASUS Radeon HD 5450 Silent 1GB DDR3 64BIT PCI-E DVI-I HDMI HDCP Passive Low Profile Video Card
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530BD2981

3. ASUS GeForce 8400GS 589MHZ 512MB 677MHZ DDR2 Silent Low Profile DVI HDMI PCI-E Video Card
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530BD0878

4. Or...just about anything from this page, I'm not picky, as long as it improves my LOTRO raiding experience...
http://www.directcanada.com/category/?minorcatid=1862&pricerangeid=1002

And my understanding is that my mobo (PCI-Express 1.0) should work with a PCI-Express 2.x card, as the cards are compatible with older motherboards...?
 
Solution
No its the overall performance of the cards, it doesnt matter whether or not the memory is larger its the stream processors/shaders/cores/speed of memory that matter. Even then an older card might be faster than a newer one. The 8400gs is slower for example than a 6800gs.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card-gaming-performance,3042-7.html

A 5450 is equivilant to a 7600gs according to the chart.

Look at this for comparision:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-q3-2009-mainstream-quality/compare,1798.html?prod%5B3533%5D=on&prod%5B3527%5D=on

jay48

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Thanks for the replies. Nothing wrong with the current card, except it's lacking an HDMI output.

I'm still learning about video cards...what numbers show that the 7900GS is more powerful? Obviously, for my current 256MB card to be better than those cards (512MB - 1GB), other numbers must tell the story... Is it the 256-bit bus width of the 7900GS vs. the 64-bit bus width of the other cards that contributes to making the 7900GS better?
 

mightymaxio

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No its the overall performance of the cards, it doesnt matter whether or not the memory is larger its the stream processors/shaders/cores/speed of memory that matter. Even then an older card might be faster than a newer one. The 8400gs is slower for example than a 6800gs.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card-gaming-performance,3042-7.html

A 5450 is equivilant to a 7600gs according to the chart.

Look at this for comparision:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-q3-2009-mainstream-quality/compare,1798.html?prod%5B3533%5D=on&prod%5B3527%5D=on
 
Solution

mightymaxio

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jay48

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Thanks all; yes, the extra $69.80 s/h charge to Canada wasn't too promising, but the Canadian site has the same card for a few extra dollars, as jyjjy mentions...

My power supply will be plenty based on what I'm running, so this is the route I'm planning to go, even if it's a little more than I'd budgeted for...

Thanks also for the explanations; the hierarchy chart was very useful.