Upgrading video care on old motherboard

[bluecord]

I have a Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P motherboard with and Intel i7-860 chip. My current video card is a Radeon HD 5870. My memory is 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800). My power supply is a Corsair CMPSU-750HX (750 watt). I am thinking about upgrading the video card to a Radeon R9 280x using the current motherboard and chip. Would this combination work or is the motherboard too old to run this video card? I can overclock the chip to at least 3.5 Ghz. Would it still bottleneck the GPU? Other issues I can forsee are BIOS incompatibility (BIOS too old) or insufficient power from power supply. I play games on this computer, but not the latest and greatest. I am looking for a significant upgrade from the 5870 though.

 

[Thelps]

The PCI-E 2.0 slot on that motherboard shouldn't bottleneck the card. Research indicates there won't be any performance loss and, if the research is wrong, you're looking at no more than a 5% performance loss.

Your CPU should also support the card fine.

 

[coozie7]

You still have a decent setup there.
No, the motherboard should not be a problem, but, if you know how, I suggest you update the BIOS before installing a new card.
That level of overclock should allow a R9 280X to run at, or near to, full speed.
The Corsair TX are high quality units, you'll have NO problems running your rig-new card included-off it at all.
As a dedicated tightwad I'd be amiss not to mention that the R9 280 has similar performance to the R9 280X for somewhat less cash.
One final point is that the current gen of cards use coolers that dump their heat into the case, good ventilation is important not only to keep things cool, but quiet as well so it might be a good idea to add good, strong front fan/s while you're dabbling inside the case,

 

[bluecord]

You still have a decent setup there.
No, the motherboard should not be a problem, but, if you know how, I suggest you update the BIOS before installing a new card.
That level of overclock should allow a R9 280X to run at, or near to, full speed.
The Corsair TX are high quality units, you'll have NO problems running your rig-new card included-off it at all.
As a dedicated tightwad I'd be amiss not to mention that the R9 280 has similar performance to the R9 280X for somewhat less cash.
One final point is that the current gen of cards use coolers that dump their heat into the case, good ventilation is important not only to keep things cool, but quiet as well so it might be a good idea to add good, strong front fan/s while you're dabbling inside the case,

I have a Cooler Master Storm Sniper case that is pretty well ventilated. Has fan in front, in back, and on top. Do you think that the R9 280 will give me a significant performance boost over the 5870 that I am running now? I play MMORPG's and some other stuff like Batman: Arkham Origins.

 

[coozie7]

Got your PMs, mate, no worries.
Decent case, good ventilation, looks like you're set to go with the upgrade.
As Columbo would say, though "Just a couple of things are still bothering me, sir..."
In your last PM you said you'd be looking for a used R9 280X off E-bay, I advise against that for 3 reasons: I don't like, and never will like used parts, there's little performance advantage over the R9 280, and a decent R9 280 isn't TOO expensive...Unless like me you're as poor as a Church Mouse :http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-251-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842

 

[bluecord]

Got your PMs, mate, no worries.
Decent case, good ventilation, looks like you're set to go with the upgrade.
As Columbo would say, though "Just a couple of things are still bothering me, sir..."
In your last PM you said you'd be looking for a used R9 280X off E-bay, I advise against that for 3 reasons: I don't like, and never will like used parts, there's little performance advantage over the R9 280, and a decent R9 280 isn't TOO expensive...Unless like me you're as poor as a Church Mouse :http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-251-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842

Do you think the MSI is one of the better available brands? Better than Gigabyte or Visiontek? Are you based in the UK? I am in the US, Louisiana specifically. As far as ebay I was thinking that as long as the card worked initially I would be in the clear. Not locked into buying used though. Just don't want to put too much new money into this old rig.

 

[coozie7]

Most here seem to rate Gigabyte and Asus very highly, Sapphire are also rated well while MSI and XFX are seen as more 'mainstream', usually cheaper but lacking that edge of quality. No idea about Visiontek, though.

Yep, I'm in the UK, must have confused you with another guy with a Nehalem i7 I'm working with who IS in the UK...Sorry for the mixup, mate.

Unscrupulous people can do things with a card to make a bad one work ok for a few days, but from my own, and my brothers experiences if you purchase from a seller with plenty of positive feedback you can reduce your risks when purchasing used. Some of the really good ones have a short warranty period, either way you should be covered by E-bays own return policy.
Also check for the HD78950, which is the forerunner of the R9 280 and the HD7970, which is the forerunner of the R9 280X, the 'old' and 'new' cards perform very much the same.
Avoid the XFX DD cooler, it's very noisy as are all the single fan coolers, which also run very hot, look for dual fan cooled cards.

Like I said, I'm a Certified Tightwad so don't advise spending money lightly and I'm not going to TELL you to do anything, I'm just offering advice, so I'll advise: Try for a new R9 280, it's the best match for your current system, if that's too expensive, look for a used R9 280 or HD7950. But if you spot a good R9 280X/HD7970 from a seller with plenty of positive feedback that's cheap jump on it!

Hopefully you'll get a few USA based replies but for new stuff I know of: Newegg, Tiger Direct, NCIX and Frys.