[SOLVED] What's the most powerful GPU you would pair with an Athlon 200GE before it bottlenecks?

mossi

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Feb 27, 2013
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I've got a PC with just an Athlon 200GE and I may use it for some light gaming in the future (mostly DOTA 2).

I was wondering what's the most powerful GPU it could run before it bottlenecks..?
Obviously 1080p gaming only and settings whatever it could do really.

PSU is EVGA gold rated 550W
 

MasterMadBones

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I generally agree. 1050Ti/1650/6500XT/5500XT/etc etc should all be PLENTY. Pricing is really the deciding factor.

Could you get away with less GPU for DOTA2? Probably
I would not recommend a 6500XT to go with that CPU. The Athlon 200GE only has PCIE 3.0 which is an issue for the 6500 XT. Also there may be some increased CPU load when there is a lot of data to move between RAM and the GPU, which is something the 200GE may not always have enough resources for.
 
I would not recommend a 6500XT to go with that CPU. The Athlon 200GE only has PCIE 3.0 which is an issue for the 6500 XT.
The 6500XT being an x4 card is certainly a limitation for some situations. As long as you stay within the 4GB frame buffer you'd be fine. That ability varies by game/resolution/quality settings. As you can see in the above DOTA 2 video, even max settings is 1.5GB VRAM. For this application, I don't think the 6500XT deserves to be removed from the pool of potentials.
 

Eximo

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Agreed, something new that is relatively affordable. The CPU can always be updated as well.

And GTX 1050 Ti aren't that far off price wise. Would rather have the newer card.

With the one exception that the 6500XT doesn't have a video encoder, so no built in game recording.
 
And GTX 1050 Ti aren't that far off price wise. Would rather have the newer card.
Yeah, the market is a mess. Prices on most/all GPUs are sky-high. The 1050Ti has always been a pretty poor perf/$ ratio, even when it was a $100-$130 card. Need to be careful when selecting cards in this range that you don't pass up a GPU that may be 30-50% more performance for 10% more cost, even if the performance isn't explicitly important for this particular CPU/system in the short term.
 

MasterMadBones

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The 6500XT being an x4 card is certainly a limitation for some situations. As long as you stay within the 4GB frame buffer you'd be fine. That ability varies by game/resolution/quality settings. As you can see in the above DOTA 2 video, even max settings is 1.5GB VRAM. For this application, I don't think the 6500XT deserves to be removed from the pool of potentials.
That is absolutely true and if you're aware of this as a user and know which settings to adjust, it's fine. I'd be happy to buy the card myself for a decent price if I needed it, but I find it hard to recommend to people who come to these forums to ask questions like this.

If all it's ever going to do is DOTA 2, go for it. It will serve you longer than any used card you can get for the same price currently.