Advice on old (2006/07-ish) video card for gaming

[Dryden]

Need some help selecting a video card for a brand new "old" budget PC. The PC is built with a Gigabyte G31M mobo, a Q6600 Core 2 Quad, and 2Gb Corsair DDR2 RAM. Running Vista Ultimate (32-bit).

What I am looking for is advice on a graphics card to install to replace the current on board Intel video. The mobo only has a PCIe x1 and a PCIe x16 slot (no 2.0), and being a micro ATX system it doesn't not have any expansion power options either, so we're talking a bare bones video card for this desktop.

So, I need some suggestions on what to go with from that era, like an X1650 or a 7600 GT or whatever. Looking for something under $50, preferably with passive cooling. Obviously this isn't a hard core rig. Really, my only goal here is to find something a step up from onboard video that can run casual games like WoW at 1650x1080 with some details. With the onboard video the best I can pull on WoW in a playable framerate is 1280x768 with a lot of details off, so pop-in is a huge gamebreaker for me.

I figure somebody on this board has had experience running through all these different video cards for that time frame. The only ones I used over the past few years were x1650s, which I'd be fine with if need be, but I'm wondering if there is perhaps something a little better I should be considering. I am a big fan of ATI, for what its worth. nVidia cards over the past five years or so have been nothing but a headache for me.

 

[Dryden]

Say ... like this one:

BFG - NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI Express Graphics Card - BFGR84512GS64E

BFG nVidia 8400 GS for $55. Good card or no?

 

[Buckeneye]

Under Vista, the more VRAM the better.

Still not gonna run WoW @ your stated resolution with any goodies.

Especially in ANY capitol city.

 

[scott91575]

Say ... like this one:

BFG - NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI Express Graphics Card - BFGR84512GS64E

BFG nVidia 8400 GS for $55. Good card or no?

Decent card, but you can do better. For around $65 here is my recommendation....

Newegg.com - BFG Tech BFGE96512GTOCBE GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

or

Newegg.com - MSI R4670-2D1G/D3 Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
and comes with free game

Those will play WoW really well at 1080.

BTW...PCI 2.0 does nothing right now. No need to differentiate it.

 

[powerlifter]

Say ... like this one:

BFG - NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI Express Graphics Card - BFGR84512GS64E

BFG nVidia 8400 GS for $55. Good card or no?

Like Buckeneye stated,it might be a little laggy in high populated areas,but it will work. You definitely should consider maxing out that particular mobo at 4 gigs as well,when using Vista.

Edit: Just ran a google search..A few people on Wow forums seem to run it fairly well with the said video card.

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> NVidia GForce 8400gs for WoW?

 

[scott91575]

BTW...if you have to stay below $50 this is the card you want....

Newegg.com - EVGA 256-P2-N753-TR GeForce 8600 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Much better than the 8400 GS. The 8600 GT is about twice as powerful.

edit: Looked up the benches for the 8600GT. Should play WoW fine, but can't even play Oblivion at 768. Yet the 9600 GT has no problem with Oblivion at 1680x1050. That is a big jump, and means it would be able to play anything you throw at it. Worth the extra $15 in my mind. Also I am 99% sure anything labeled PCI 2.0 will do just fine on PCI x16. They are designed to be backwards compatible. The reduced badwidth doesn't hurt anything since nothing requires 2.0 speeds yet.

 

[Dryden]

Also I am 99% sure anything labeled PCI 2.0 will do just fine on PCI x16. They are designed to be backwards compatible. The reduced badwidth doesn't hurt anything since nothing requires 2.0 speeds yet.

Yeah, I know the 2.0 is backwards compatible. My point in mentioning it though was to emphasize that I'm not looking for anything bleeding edge, and I don't have the bus speed or power to support it anyway. This is a "family" computer in the living room, so beyond anything else it needs to be quiet and cool, which means a video board that is not bleeding edge and ideally passive too -- hence something new built off an older chipset.

 

[scott91575]

Yeah, I know the 2.0 is backwards compatible. My point in mentioning it though was to emphasize that I'm not looking for anything bleeding edge, and I don't have the bus speed or power to support it anyway. This is a "family" computer in the living room, so beyond anything else it needs to be quiet and cool, which means a video board that is not bleeding edge and ideally passive too -- hence something new built off an older chipset.

Well, newer cards are cooler and often more quiet. They also use less power. This is due to die shrinks. As far as bus speed and power, you have plenty. The only reason not to go with a newer card is money. They make cards for people in your situation. We are not talking about a GTX 295 here. A 9600 GT will be quieter, cooler, and use less power than it's 8 series counterpart. The 9600 GT is not bleeding edge, but it is newer. You would need to spend over $300 to even touch those issues you are concerned about.

Even then PCI 2.0 is not even touched by a GTX 295. PCI 1.0 is plenty for all video cards, and does not cause any slowdowns.

edit: A cheap thing to do in order to increase performance is get an aftermarket cooler and overclock your Q6600. With little effort you could reach 3.0 GHz, and many people have gotten that processor to 3.6. I had that processor and it ran great at 3.15 GHz (only reason I didn't go higher is my 790i MB had issues overclocking the 65nm Core 2 processors). You can get a decent aftermarket cooler for $15 to $20 and then overclock easily. I think you are selling your computer a little short.

 

[Buckeneye]

edit: A cheap thing to do in order to increase performance is get an aftermarket cooler and overclock your Q6600.

Pretty sure this is suppose to be a "family" machine. Besides, when your GPU is the bottleneck, little to much will that overclock do.

 

[scott91575]

Pretty sure this is suppose to be a "family" machine. Besides, when your GPU is the bottleneck, little to much will that overclock do.

Do overclocks cuss and walk around nude?

It's an increase in performance with little money and effort. For games the GPU may be the bottleneck (depending on the GPU, game settings, and the game itself), but it helps overall performance.

 

[Buckeneye]

D

It's an increase in performance with little money and effort.

Not enough to justify the cost of a decent cooler along with finding a stable overclock. Its pointless, the quad alone should be sufficient for their needs.

 

[scott91575]

Not enough to justify the cost of a decent cooler along with finding a stable overclock. Its pointless, the quad alone should be sufficient for their needs.

Huh? Overclocking to 2.8-3.0GHz would take little effort and wouldn't need the greatest cooler in the world, and would be a nice jump in performance across the board.

Overclocking is cheap and easy. It's not like I am expecting him to win some overclocking competition and find the max overclock. Just increase the FSB some and put in a $15-20 cooler. This one will work well....

Newegg.com - MASSCOOL 8WA741 92mm Ball CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

Hell, if he has decent airflow he could do a small overclock for free.

I think it's up to him. Quit trying to find some fault with what I said. Just offering a cheap and easy performance increase. If he doesn't want to do it, fine. Yet your points are decisions for him to make. Sometimes I wonder why I bother.

 

[scott91575]

BTW, there is a tweak to WoW for people with quad cores. I don't play WoW, but I heard of this a while ago. It allows use of more than 2 cores when you have a quad processor. Cut and paste from another forum...

Find your WOW folder, then locate the WTF folder.
Then you will see a account folder and a file called Config.wtf.
Now open the Config file using notepad and find the line of text (processAffinityMask "3")
Change the 3 to 15 and save the file.
Close the file, and then right click it and at the bottom check Read-only, hit apply and close it.
Restart WOW and enjoy.

In case you were wondering why 3 to 15, it's binary for 0011 and 1111. That is what is used to determine cores to use. WoW was recently patched to allow use for 3 cores. Setting to 15 allows use of 3 cores and can pick any 3 it wants. If you want to force a specific 3 cores use the appropriate binary (such as 14=1110).

Here is the WoW forum discussing it...

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Using processAffinityMask CVAR in config.wtf

Can't say I visit the WoW forum, but that was included as a link at the other site I visit. Seems like it's pretty legit and lots of people are seeing a nice jump.

Just make sure you make sure you check with Buckeneye to see if this is family computer friendly.

 

[Buckeneye]

I dont look to find fault in anything, I just dont see the reason behind a 300mhz overclock. You might be seeing a 2-4% increase in performance at the very most.

Besides this is a machine for desktop applications and WoW, he can take that extra $25 dollars you suggested in using for a cooler and put that into and even better GPU which is the clear bottleneck in this system.

So instead of getting a midrange 8xxx, he could get a midrange 9xxx.
This way he doesnt have to stay below $50... and focus on the component that would provide him with the better increase in whats needed as opposed to the 2% increase in simple desktop applications



Just gotta check though, since apparently with you, overclocking cures everything including cancer...

 

[scott91575]

I dont look to find fault in anything, I just dont see the reason behind a 300mhz overclock. You might be seeing a 2-4% increase in performance at the very most.

Besides this is a machine for desktop applications and WoW, he can take that extra $25 dollars you suggested in using for a cooler and put that into and even better GPU which is the clear bottleneck in this system.

So instead of getting a midrange 8xxx, he could get a midrange 9xxx.
This way he doesnt have to stay below $50... and focus on the component that would provide him with the better increase in whats needed as opposed to the 2% increase in simple desktop applications



Just gotta check though, since apparently with you, overclocking cures everything including cancer...

Yeah, that is what I said. Or maybe I said this....

A cheap thing to do in order to increase performance is get an aftermarket cooler and overclock your Q6600

I did not say he should do it instead of buying a better GPU. I did not make any claims to curing cancer. It will give gains in many areas with little effort and cash. I also did not say a 300MHz overclock. 400-600. With a 25% overclock there will be noticeable gains in performance in many applications. Simple aplications like Exel would see about 15% performance increase, WinRar over 10%, Photoshop about 15%, Movie maker about 15%, and a multitude of other applications. It would also be a huge boost for any anti virus software, and improve most other applications by about 15%.

You made stuff up stuff I never said, and then found fault in claims I never made. Congrats.

Edit: Here you go. Just found this. I was off on some applications, but actually to the conservative end.

Hmm, almost 19% increase for a 25% overclock. Thanks for trying to prove something I never said wrong, and then being wrong in what you say.

Overclocking Yields 25% Performance Increase - Review Tom's Hardware : Overclocking: Dual- vs. Quad-Core CPUs

Note, they did use a 8800 GTX which is pretty powerful so the gaming gains would not be as large as compared to using 8500GT or 9600GT or other lower end video card (but will see gains from overclock the better video card he gets, and a 9600GT is not that far off from a 8800GTX). Yet the other applications will see similar increases in performance.

In other words, a cheap thing to do in order to increase performance is get an aftermarket cooler and overclock your Q6600. Hmm, something tells me I already said that.