sundownz Posted May 16, 2012 Report Share Posted May 16, 2012 So... I haven't played games in years due to being super busy. I was a BIG computer gamer a few years before starting Sundown Audio but I've really fallen out of the gaming loop ever since but I couldn't resist and I bought Diablo III last night. My desktop @ home is a couple of years old and has PCI-E x16 slots but only version 1.0 Currently has a Geforce 7800GT -- this appears to satisfy the minimum game requirement but I'd like to crank up some detail levels -- any suggestions for something that is still available for this interface ? Everything has moved to newer versions of PCI-E -- I usually shop at Newegg and the selection of 1.0 boards is very limited... and to be honest I've been out of computer hardware long enough that I don't know what boards are faster or slower than what I have that are listed. I did some Google searching for benchmarks but none of the units listed had direct results vs. what I have and, again, I no longer have knowledge of all the products available. Any help appreciated... may even buy a used card if necessary. Quote - Jacob Fuller - Owner, Sundown Audio - Sundown Audio on FACEBOOK - Please DO NOT PM ME -- use my email address -- [email protected] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaker Posted May 17, 2012 Report Share Posted May 17, 2012 All versions of PCI-E are backward compatible. Depending on your CPU, it will bottleneck the card. A nice (and cheap) upgrade from the 7800 would be a Geforce GTX 285 from ebay, they're very fast and usually 120-150. Memory bus speed is 512 bit and they have 1gb of vram. I would also look into upgrading memory if you havent already. To use that card you might have to upgrade power supplies, at least 500 watts, single rail would be nice. http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-NVIDIA-GEFORCE-285-GTX-702MHZ-GPU-01G-P3-1287-AR-GRAPHICS-VIDEO-CARD-UNIT-/110881364112?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item19d10b5890 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182131 15% off w/ promo code RW15PSUM, ends 5/21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sundownz Posted May 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2012 (edited) Great, thanks for the help. I was not aware of the backward compatability. Just to confirm I can get any generation PCI-E card and use it in my system but it will simply be limited to a slower BUS speed ? The CPU is pretty decent... Core-2 model overclocked to 3.0 Ghz and the system has 4GB of RAM. The PSU may be adequate as I recall it being a very large unit and I'm pretty picky on power supplies (of course they change so much anymore!) -- but I will check for sure. Edited May 17, 2012 by sundownz Quote - Jacob Fuller - Owner, Sundown Audio - Sundown Audio on FACEBOOK - Please DO NOT PM ME -- use my email address -- [email protected] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALAMO695 Posted May 17, 2012 Report Share Posted May 17, 2012 (edited) fail post Edited May 17, 2012 by ALAMO695 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALAMO695 Posted May 17, 2012 Report Share Posted May 17, 2012 ill trade you a bnib asus p8p67 deluxe motherboard (which supports the 2nd gen core i3/5/7 processors which overclock to 4.5+Ghz, so you can upgrade your whole machine) for a couple neo pro 10's heres the link to the board im not sure what your budget is and or if it will fit in your case, but if you decide to go with an ati card, you should look into the 6950 (some of them you can unlock via a dual bios feature that they have and overclock both the memory and the gpu to 6970 specs). Thats a pretty nice card but its a bit long and its in the high 180s on ebay. i my self love ati cards and have a 6990 my self, best card ive ever had. take a look at my build log (that i never finished posting lol) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sundownz Posted May 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2012 I am not sure I need to go that far; as I haven't played games in years and Diablo III is about the only thing I want to play right now I do appreciate the offer, though ! Quote - Jacob Fuller - Owner, Sundown Audio - Sundown Audio on FACEBOOK - Please DO NOT PM ME -- use my email address -- [email protected] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaker Posted May 17, 2012 Report Share Posted May 17, 2012 (edited) Great, thanks for the help. I was not aware of the backward compatability. Just to confirm I can get any generation PCI-E card and use it in my system but it will simply be limited to a slower BUS speed ? The CPU is pretty decent... Core-2 model overclocked to 3.0 Ghz and the system has 4GB of RAM. The PSU may be adequate as I recall it being a very large unit and I'm pretty picky on power supplies (of course they change so much anymore!) -- but I will check for sure. Unless you're running the latest gen processor, you wont notice a difference in terms of PCI-E bus speed. To put the CPU bottleneck in perspective, I went from an overclocked E8400 with 6 megs of cach @3.6ghz to a i3 @ 3.8ghz and my FPS increased by almost 80, though you will see a HUGE jump in preformace as the 285 is almost as fast as a 470 at 1920x1080 I also have a E8400 I can send you if you want it. Edited May 17, 2012 by beaker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel4055 Posted May 17, 2012 Report Share Posted May 17, 2012 Since it doesn't seem your a hard core gamer I would honestly try and find like a 8800GT. Older card but VERY nice. Bet you can find one cheap. No need to go and get a brand spankin new card. Quote Rest In Peace mother. January 22, 1955 - February 14, 2013 http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/user/35351-megrch/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaker Posted May 17, 2012 Report Share Posted May 17, 2012 Since it doesn't seem your a hard core gamer I would honestly try and find like a 8800GT. Older card but VERY nice. Bet you can find one cheap. No need to go and get a brand spankin new card. 285GTX is like a 5 year old card ;-p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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