best graphics card i can run on a E8400 Chip?

[myth8892]

Have not been doing much computer stuff over the last couple of years
However, I am wanting to play guildwars 2 when it does come out, saving for a house as well so i don't want to rebuild a full system..
I was wondering what would be the best graphics card i could get without bottlenecking?

E8400 (not overclocked)
running a crappy 250 gts graphics card now
silverstone 750 power supply
will be running windows 7 shortly
using a 24 inch monitor at 1920 X 1200 resolution


I know i am behind the times, I use to always keep my system current and very high end
I prefer just to buy a graphics card for now, until i get into my home i hope in about 3-4 months, than i will be keeping this comp in the bedroom while i build another gaming system for my gaming room...
would love to run guildwars2 as best as i can , but honestly i been so out of touch with stuff today, I really don't know what type of graphics card i should get...

any and all help would be very much appreciated from any of the guru's that would reply

Thanks once again for any help at all

[Artas1984]

I have recently made 30 SLI GTX560 VS HD6970 benchmarks on 1600x1200 and 1920x1200 resolutions, but so far have posted the 1600x1200 results only:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ames-tested%29

Once i will get 1920X1200 results online, you might want to check what can you expect in games. As i have tested the Phenom II X4 or X6 is slightly slower than Core 2 Duo E8400 in games if MHz are equal (i had E8400 before overclocked to 3600 MHz and tested many games on it).

[Boulard83]

HD 7870 (over 300$)
GTX 560 TI 448 or GTX570 (under 300$)

[p0tter]

The 7850s @ $250 are getting good clocks.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...C-results-here.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18389760

Draws low power from a single pce-i too.

[CrazyNutz]

It depends on the game title. Some games such as battle field bad company 2 multiplayer, and battle field 3 multiplayer will not work very well on a dual core no matter what. However other games that are not very threaded will love your e8400 especially when overclocked towards 4ghz. So that being said I would suggest something in the 560 or 7850 range.

[Zipelgas]

dedfinately forget those crappy GTX560 and 560ti cards now, 7850 is the best bang for your buck, these things OC like beasts and once they are OC-d theyr on GTX 580 levels plus their cheap/cool/quiet.

[M31]

Definitely consider overclocking the E8400, i still have one that must be well over three years old now at 4GHz, it can still play a lot of games comfortably if you balance the graphic card properly as others have suggested, will tide you over while you prioritise on house build ETC

[Andrea deluxe]

gtx560ti 2048mb

[PnoT]

I just upgraded from an E8400 myself @ 4.2Ghz to a Q6660 @ 3.6Ghz and was wondering the same thing. I'm readying up on some of the new 670s that seem pretty interesting.

[Chickenfeed]

I sold my friend my Q6600 system with an 8800GT and later my HD5870. Even at 3.6 the 5870 was significantly bottlenecked. I had a 8400 running at 4.2 and it was noticeably faster in games that didn't leverage 3+ threads heavily but tanked in ones that did (ie GTA4 at the time). When I went from the 8400 to my 920, even at stock the 5870 ran substantially better. I'd overclock it if you are comfortalbe with that and invest in an inexpensive gpu ($200 tops) That should get you by until you throw together a new system down the road. If the first Guild Wars is any indication, the sequel should be very scalable as well so you should be able to have a decent enough experiance with the game in the mean time. Just my 2 cents.

[PnoT]

I sold my friend my Q6600 system with an 8800GT and later my HD5870. Even at 3.6 the 5870 was significantly bottlenecked. I had a 8400 running at 4.2 and it was noticeably faster in games that didn't leverage 3+ threads heavily but tanked in ones that did (ie GTA4 at the time). When I went from the 8400 to my 920, even at stock the 5870 ran substantially better. I'd overclock it if you are comfortalbe with that and invest in an inexpensive gpu ($200 tops) That should get you by until you throw together a new system down the road. If the first Guild Wars is any indication, the sequel should be very scalable as well so you should be able to have a decent enough experiance with the game in the mean time. Just my 2 cents.

I play mainly SWTOR for now and was interested in doing Guild Wars 2 when it hits and having enough fps to get into big battles is what's I'd want to shoot for. So even at 3.6 the Q6660 isn't going to feed a new 670? Is it the chip architecture, as in being so old, vs. the newer ones that's the problem or 3.6Ghz? I really haven't pushed this quad yet but it didn't take anything to get to 3.6 i could probably push out more if that would make a difference in your recommendation.

Hell I could probably pick up something on the cheap now that a lot of people are moving to Ivy.. hmm

[Chickenfeed]

Hell I could probably pick up something on the cheap now that a lot of people are moving to Ivy.. hmm

I'd recommend this myself. A Q6600 will definitely hold back current generation cards even in excess of 3.6 ( not many will do much more than 3.8 on a good day ) Its entirely down to particular game but in general most MMOs tend to be quite cpu limited. My friend was playing WoW in particular and during peak hours I easily was in excess of 60fps (in capital city hubs) with a i7 920 and my 5870 where with my q6600 he was getting half that. I wouldn't invest too much in a gpu on an older platform unless you tend to upgrade the rest and keep the card in the near future. I've made this mistake a few times when I was younger ( i was using a x850xt to play guild wars at launch with a 2.8 P4 and it ran like crap... put it in a s939 amd 64 system and it was *much* better )

[Jake211049]

i was in a similar situation to you myth, after a year or so (more really) away from the hardware scene i was faced with a system that used a E6600 and a GTX8800, got a 3gb GTX580 cheaply, played some mass effect/skyrim/COD 4/5/6 (been away for a while see) performance was better with the new card yes, but nowhere near on what it really should have been, friend gave me his spare (never OCd) G0 Q6600, after some OC'ing it was clearly superior but still rather unimpressive, i actually played the first GW2 beta weekend on that machine and honestly mate, i had to play on the lowest graphical settings, so i did the smart thing and got a i5 2500k on a nice MSI P67 mobo, performance with the new cpu is just completely uncomparable and this is before i finish fully OC'ing it, also sent back the 580 and getting a 670 (which i will ofc OC (once it bloody gets here).
Point is a i5 2500K build is not that expensive (was on a fairly tight budget meself) and for the price is just fragging unbeliveble performance.

[Ket]

It all depends on your budget. A 1GB GTX460 overclocked will still give very good performance you'll just have to tone down on AA. From a overclocked GTX460 I'd say the only cards worth looking at are a 7850 or GTX670. Any cards inbetween you really won't see much of a stp forward.