What more "modern" GPUs I can put into a Sandy Bridge-era PC?

EvanC

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May 28, 2009
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Specifically, I have an i7-2600 with a Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 motherboard.

My Radeon 6850 went kaput 🙁

I know which GPUs were best bang-for-the-buck back then, but I figure in the years that have passed better GPUs have been probably been released that are still compatible with my old PC (everything else is running great).

I have been out of the "scene" for a while so I thought I would ask

1) What should I be looking for in GPU compatibility for my motherboard
2) Is there a specific model range or year in which GPUs stopped being compatible
3) Are new GPUs made that are still compatible with this old motherboard or am I doomed to buying a used card?
4) Any recommended compatible GPUs that will give me a nice boost in power all these years later?

Thank you
 
Solution
There's only one quirk that doesn't matter and that's the motherboard having PCI-express 2.0 and not 3.0. It makes less than 1% difference in performance and should work just fine.

NVIDIA's GTX 1050, 1050Ti, and 1060s are all readily available and will play nicely with your CPU. What is nice about buying used GPUs though is they might come with better/similar performance but cheaper because, y'know, they're used. If you can find stuff like GTX 960/970/980 or R9 380s and stuff like that for under $150 then it's a pretty good deal. (GTX 960 I'd go a little lower to be really worthwhile but you get the idea) Just know older cards will draw more power and make more heat so make sure it's one of the dual or triple fan models and your power...
There's only one quirk that doesn't matter and that's the motherboard having PCI-express 2.0 and not 3.0. It makes less than 1% difference in performance and should work just fine.

NVIDIA's GTX 1050, 1050Ti, and 1060s are all readily available and will play nicely with your CPU. What is nice about buying used GPUs though is they might come with better/similar performance but cheaper because, y'know, they're used. If you can find stuff like GTX 960/970/980 or R9 380s and stuff like that for under $150 then it's a pretty good deal. (GTX 960 I'd go a little lower to be really worthwhile but you get the idea) Just know older cards will draw more power and make more heat so make sure it's one of the dual or triple fan models and your power supply has enough to run it (400 or more should be alright)
 
Solution
Thank you all!

I can't pick more than one solution but seeing as PCIe 3.0 is backwards compatible I do have a lot of GPUs to choose from!

I will likely move forward with a 1050 Ti as it seems like good bang-for-the-buck.