[hholidayy]

Dear Overclockers,

--- Situation ---
Need a card for another PC so I'm moving my old NVIDIA 7950GT to that system and will buy something new for my current old horse...

Budjet: below 200$

--- Needs ---

Some light gaming (MMOs, CoD, etc.) but if possible would like to be able to play "Bad Company 2"...don't care about settings just getting a playable game.

My main concern is stability... not difficult when it comes down to graphs, fps, etc. What I don't want is problems related to the card and have to wait for drivers, etc.

--- Questions ---

1 - Should having a NVIDIA chipset influence my decision between a ATI or NVIDIA videocard?
2 - In my PCI-Expresse 1.0 environment, is it worth to go above a 4850 or a 9800GTX+
3 - Which card would you recommend in that context? (if possible please recommend a manufacture as well)

I apologize in advance if this kind of question has been answered already, my current situation doesn't allow me to do the amount of readings and research I was able to do in the past.

Thank you.

 

[Tator Tot]

1.) No, ATi GPU's will work on nVidia Chipsets, and vise-versa.

2.) No, that won't limit you. The HD5870 only has a 4% loss on PCIe 2.0 x8 speed (which is as fast as PCIe 1.x x16).

3.) For that price range, you'll only find HD5770's right now. I'd recommend the MSI HAWX
THough, right now, Provantage has a Gigabyte HD4890 on sale. It'll be slightly faster, and better at higher res. But produce alot more heat and use alot more power.

 

[ComGuards]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tator Tot 1.) No, ATi GPU's will work on nVidia Chipsets, and vise-versa.

Hrm. Good to know. I had past experience where an ATI Radeon 9600 would not run in my Shuttle with nForce2 chipset... just wouldn't post...

Guess they've resolved that particular issue now...

 

[windfire]

I recommend a 9800GTX+ (eVGA) for a light gamer like you.

It is less powerful than some more modern cards but is powerful enough. I believe it is the highest grade of card to go with your CPU Athlon 4400+ without being a significant bottleneck. And, one 'advantage' of an older card is that its driver has matured and thus is more stable (as stability is your main concern).
Also, it is relatively cheap (~US$130).

 

[dragosmp]

1. No, it's solved now
2. Yes you could, PCIe 1.0 doesn't really limit anything below the 5970
3. More than a 4850, maybe a 5770 (dx11, cooler, same price as 4890)

 

[Narynan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hholidayy Dear Overclockers, --- Situation --- Need a card for another PC so I'm moving my old NVIDIA 7950GT to that system and will buy something new for my current old horse... Budjet: below 200$ --- Needs --- Some light gaming (MMOs, CoD, etc.) but if possible would like to be able to play "Bad Company 2"...don't care about settings just getting a playable game. My main concern is stability... not difficult when it comes down to graphs, fps, etc. What I don't want is problems related to the card and have to wait for drivers, etc. --- Questions --- 1 - Should having a NVIDIA chipset influence my decision between a ATI or NVIDIA videocard? 2 - In my PCI-Expresse 1.0 environment, is it worth to go above a 4850 or a 9800GTX+ 3 - Which card would you recommend in that context? (if possible please recommend a manufacture as well) I apologize in advance if this kind of question has been answered already, my current situation doesn't allow me to do the amount of readings and research I was able to do in the past. Thank you.

1) Already answered.
2) Already answered.
3) In this price range, and with what you already are using in the system, I have two reccomendations. Ati 5770, or Nvidia 250. Price for dollar I would take the 5770 hands down. The 250 if you feel the need to go green. And also, to make a more budget minded offer, I would say the 4670. It's not a bad card, will out run you less than 90 bucks, and can still net you playable frames in something like COD4 with some goodies turned on.

There are some people who will *** my 4670 recommendation, and thats fine, but I'm just trying to give something cheaper as an option and a little more in line for the rest of his system.

If BC two is something you want, and I didn't catch that at first, you might just throw the 4670 option out the door, and stick with the 5770

 

[TCOC]

4890 Faster, more raw power DX 10.1 TDP 190

Or
5770 A little bit slower, but can use eyefinity DX 11 TDP 108

 

[hholidayy]

Thank you for all your input. I was going to pull the trigger on the MSI HAWK 5770 today, but I noticed some complaints from people with PCI 1.0 boards on newegg, so i pull back. If anyone has tried a 5770 in a PCI 1.0 slot please share your experience, model, manufacturer?

Tator: I've been eyeing the HAWK even before this thread but the 1.0 complaints are getting to me for now...maybe another manufacturer?

Windfire/Narynan: 9800GTX or 250 will most likely be my choice if I failed to find a 5770 that I'm comfortable with.

Status: Looking for a tested 5770 model in a PCI-E 1.0 board. (still below 200$...)

Thanks again.

 

[Tator Tot]

Your board is a PCIe 1.1, so you shouldn't have a problem at all.

The Original PCIe 1.0 standard was flawed. And some early boards had issues, but your board should not have any issues.

 

[hholidayy]

Oups..sorry for mistake!

MSI HAWK 5770 on the way.

Tator: How do you determine if a board is 1.0 or 1.1. I checked specs and went through the manual and can't find the the info (that's why assumed it was 1.0).

I'll post back the outcome once I receive it.
Thanks everyone for all your input.

 

[Tator Tot]

It's determined by the chipset. And not the board really.

nForce 4, nForce 5, nForce 6, P35, CFX3200, & AMD 6 Series chipsets were all PCIe 1.1 to my knowledge.

 

[windfire]

According to PCI-SIG (http://www.pcisig.com/developers/com...ors_list/pcie/) , nForce 4 is PCIe 1.0a.

Here in Asus' forum (http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us), it also appears so as well.

However, AnandTech had this comment on PCIe 2.0 :
''Unfortunately, there have been some reports of new PCI-E 2.0 graphics cards refusing to POST (Power On Self-Test) in motherboards containing chipsets without PCI Express 2.0 support. We can assure you this is not by design as the PCI-SIG PCI Express 2.0 Specification is very clear on the issue - PCI Express 2.0 is backward-compatible with PCI Express 1.x in every case. With this in mind, and knowing that some PCI Express 1.x motherboards have no problems running the new graphics cards while others do, we have no choice but to blame the board in the case of no video. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to determine if problems await during the upgrade process; you must first consult with others that use the same video card/motherboard combination. Thankfully the cases of incompatibility seem to be few and far between.''

I think there is a high probability that a 5770 will work in your A8N-SLI Premium. But, of course, the only sure way to know is to have someone having the same mobo and card and giving a positive report.

(http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=3192&p=3)

 

[hholidayy]

Update...

MSI Hawk 5770 posted with no issue. Installed latest ATI driver, everything is running smooth. I got about a 20% to 30% increase in performance in older games (Assassin Creed, CoD, Fallout3, etc). Bad Company went from totally unplayable to great game on low settings.

windfire: Thanks for the PCIe links, I just couldn't find that info anywhere.

Thank you to everyone that contributed,

h.