Good Mid-Range Video Card for Older Games?

I do not have really have any PC games that with a more recent release date than 2007. I am interested in finding a video card that can run games from that era on max settings, 1920 x 1200 resolution, and with fairly liberal amounts of AA. Probably the most intensive ones I have are F.E.A.R., CoD2, BF2, Company of Heroes, or the updated Source engine based games (including the recently released Black Mesa mod). The price range I'm looking at is probably ~$200. My system's other components are:

Core 2 Duo e8500 processor

4 GB RAM

600w PSU

Any suggestions?

if your not out for the world get an hd 7770 simply put.. nothing will probably be as good a value

On the cheap side but will more than get the job done for you-

AMD 6850, AMD 6870, Geforce GTX 460 1GB (256-bit), GTX 560

In the upper part of your price range and will give you performance to spare-

AMD 7850, GTX 560 Ti (384 core)

if your not out for the world get an hd 7770 simply put.. nothing will probably be as good a value

ionusX

The 7770 only has 72 gb/s of memory bandwidth. That will hurt you at that high resolution with high levels of AA, which is what OP said they are looking for.

[QUOTE="ionusX"]

if your not out for the world get an hd 7770 simply put.. nothing will probably be as good a value

hartsickdiscipl

The 7770 only has 72 gb/s of memory bandwidth. That will hurt you at that high resolution with high levels of AA, which is what OP said they are looking for.

Hey said 2007, so a 7770 is more than enough. A higher end gpu would just be bottlenecked by his dual core cpu anyways. A 7770 can max out any game from that time except crisis, which still gives the 7970 a crappy ton of trouble.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

[QUOTE="ionusX"]

if your not out for the world get an hd 7770 simply put.. nothing will probably be as good a value

blaznwiipspman1

The 7770 only has 72 gb/s of memory bandwidth. That will hurt you at that high resolution with high levels of AA, which is what OP said they are looking for.

Hey said 2007, so a 7770 is more than enough. A higher end gpu would just be bottlenecked by his dual core cpu anyways. A 7770 can max out any game from that time except crisis, which still gives the 7970 a crappy ton of trouble.

I know what he said. I've also played most of the games that he listed using various GPUs, paired with dual and quad-core CPUs. My last CPU was an E8400. Some of the games that he listed will make a 7770 choke at 1200p with 4x or 8x AA. Besides, why recommend a $130 GPU that's significantly weaker than other options that are well within TC's stated price range? Where's the wisdom in that?

[QUOTE="blaznwiipspman1"]

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

The 7770 only has 72 gb/s of memory bandwidth. That will hurt you at that high resolution with high levels of AA, which is what OP said they are looking for.

hartsickdiscipl

Hey said 2007, so a 7770 is more than enough. A higher end gpu would just be bottlenecked by his dual core cpu anyways. A 7770 can max out any game from that time except crisis, which still gives the 7970 a crappy ton of trouble.

I know what he said. I've also played most of the games that he listed using various GPUs, paired with dual and quad-core CPUs. My last CPU was an E8400. Some of the games that he listed will make a 7770 choke at 1200p with 4x or 8x AA. Besides, why recommend a $130 GPU that's significantly weaker than other options that are well within TC's stated price range? Where's the wisdom in that?

because its a waste of money thats why. I doubt any of those games would give a 7770 trouble...remember a 7770 is only slightly weaker than the 6850, around 5-10%. It might even be faster now with the latest driver updates. The 7770 isn't $130 either, its been on a couple of sales recently for as low as $90 after rebatehttp://forums.redflagdeals.com/ncix-msi-radeon-hd-7770-1gb-pci-e-w-dvi-hdmi-displayport-video-card-89-99-ar-1222968/

Currently it sells for about $105 after rebate http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=72479 The 550 ti is also not a bad option since you can find pretty reasonable deals for it.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

[QUOTE="blaznwiipspman1"]

Hey said 2007, so a 7770 is more than enough. A higher end gpu would just be bottlenecked by his dual core cpu anyways. A 7770 can max out any game from that time except crisis, which still gives the 7970 a crappy ton of trouble.

blaznwiipspman1

I know what he said. I've also played most of the games that he listed using various GPUs, paired with dual and quad-core CPUs. My last CPU was an E8400. Some of the games that he listed will make a 7770 choke at 1200p with 4x or 8x AA. Besides, why recommend a $130 GPU that's significantly weaker than other options that are well within TC's stated price range? Where's the wisdom in that?

because its a waste of money thats why. I doubt any of those games would give a 7770 trouble...remember a 7770 is only slightly weaker than the 6850, around 5-10%. It might even be faster now with the latest driver updates. The 7770 isn't $130 either, its been on a couple of sales recently for as low as $90 after rebatehttp://forums.redflagdeals.com/ncix-msi-radeon-hd-7770-1gb-pci-e-w-dvi-hdmi-displayport-video-card-89-99-ar-1222968/

Currently it sells for about $105 after rebate http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=72479 The 550 ti is also not a bad option since you can find pretty reasonable deals for it.

A sub-$200 7850 or 560 Ti will take a dump all over the 7700 at 1200p with AA, and that's within the OP's price range. Who knows if they might decide to play some newer games afterall? The smart move is almost always to get the best-performing product under your price limit. 72 gb/s of memory bandwidth man. 72.

Also- Quoting after rebate prices is a joke.

[QUOTE="blaznwiipspman1"]

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

I know what he said. I've also played most of the games that he listed using various GPUs, paired with dual and quad-core CPUs. My last CPU was an E8400. Some of the games that he listed will make a 7770 choke at 1200p with 4x or 8x AA. Besides, why recommend a $130 GPU that's significantly weaker than other options that are well within TC's stated price range? Where's the wisdom in that?

hartsickdiscipl

because its a waste of money thats why. I doubt any of those games would give a 7770 trouble...remember a 7770 is only slightly weaker than the 6850, around 5-10%. It might even be faster now with the latest driver updates. The 7770 isn't $130 either, its been on a couple of sales recently for as low as $90 after rebatehttp://forums.redflagdeals.com/ncix-msi-radeon-hd-7770-1gb-pci-e-w-dvi-hdmi-displayport-video-card-89-99-ar-1222968/

Currently it sells for about $105 after rebate http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=72479 The 550 ti is also not a bad option since you can find pretty reasonable deals for it.

A sub-$200 7850 or 560 Ti will take a dump all over the 7700 at 1200p with AA, and that's within the OP's price range. Who knows if they might decide to play some newer games afterall? The smart move is almost always to get the best-performing product under your price limit. 72 gb/s of memory bandwidth man. 72.

Also- Quoting after rebate prices is a joke.

just because his budget is $200 doesn't mean he should spend all of it. Id save up the rest of the $$ for a cpu, mobo and ram upgrade down the line. Who cares if those cards take a dump all over the 7770, he's only looking to play 2007 games lol...also memory bandwidth isnt everything, the number of transistors packed into a card is much more important, it is what determines the horsepower of the card itself. Everything else like shaders and cores/ memory bandwidth etc is used for the fancy effects.

A Radeon 7770 will be fine. Anything more will just be bottlenecked by your dual core CPU and a total waste of money. And those older, 2007-ish games don't take much to run. The games you mentioned ran well on my 640mb 8800GTS, which is much, much weaker than a 7770.

My 1GB GTX 460 still plays newer games superbly, i won't be upgrading anytime soon but when i do i'm looking at a GTX 670. Anyways you can't go wrong with the 460 and for it's price it's a steal.BattleSpectre

Yeah, I love my 460. Still going strong after two years. The issue with getting a new 460 nowadays though is that the 256-bit model has become hard to find. The 7770 has about the same level performance, and is cheap and readily available.

[QUOTE="blaznwiipspman1"]

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

I know what he said. I've also played most of the games that he listed using various GPUs, paired with dual and quad-core CPUs. My last CPU was an E8400. Some of the games that he listed will make a 7770 choke at 1200p with 4x or 8x AA. Besides, why recommend a $130 GPU that's significantly weaker than other options that are well within TC's stated price range? Where's the wisdom in that?

hartsickdiscipl

because its a waste of money thats why. I doubt any of those games would give a 7770 trouble...remember a 7770 is only slightly weaker than the 6850, around 5-10%. It might even be faster now with the latest driver updates. The 7770 isn't $130 either, its been on a couple of sales recently for as low as $90 after rebatehttp://forums.redflagdeals.com/ncix-msi-radeon-hd-7770-1gb-pci-e-w-dvi-hdmi-displayport-video-card-89-99-ar-1222968/

Currently it sells for about $105 after rebate http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=72479 The 550 ti is also not a bad option since you can find pretty reasonable deals for it.

A sub-$200 7850 or 560 Ti will take a dump all over the 7700 at 1200p with AA, and that's within the OP's price range.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

[QUOTE="blaznwiipspman1"]

because its a waste of money thats why. I doubt any of those games would give a 7770 trouble...remember a 7770 is only slightly weaker than the 6850, around 5-10%. It might even be faster now with the latest driver updates. The 7770 isn't $130 either, its been on a couple of sales recently for as low as $90 after rebatehttp://forums.redflagdeals.com/ncix-msi-radeon-hd-7770-1gb-pci-e-w-dvi-hdmi-displayport-video-card-89-99-ar-1222968/

Currently it sells for about $105 after rebate http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=72479 The 550 ti is also not a bad option since you can find pretty reasonable deals for it.

Lox_Cropek

A sub-$200 7850 or 560 Ti will take a dump all over the 7700 at 1200p with AA, and that's within the OP's price range.

Yes, it will. I had a CPU just like his and paired it with both a 5870 and a GTX 460 1GB while playing some of those very titles at 1080p w/AA. The stock 5870 was decidedly faster than the stock 460, even when paired with a highly-clocked C2D.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

[QUOTE="blaznwiipspman1"]

because its a waste of money thats why. I doubt any of those games would give a 7770 trouble...remember a 7770 is only slightly weaker than the 6850, around 5-10%. It might even be faster now with the latest driver updates. The 7770 isn't $130 either, its been on a couple of sales recently for as low as $90 after rebatehttp://forums.redflagdeals.com/ncix-msi-radeon-hd-7770-1gb-pci-e-w-dvi-hdmi-displayport-video-card-89-99-ar-1222968/

Currently it sells for about $105 after rebate http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=72479 The 550 ti is also not a bad option since you can find pretty reasonable deals for it.

blaznwiipspman1

A sub-$200 7850 or 560 Ti will take a dump all over the 7700 at 1200p with AA, and that's within the OP's price range. Who knows if they might decide to play some newer games afterall? The smart move is almost always to get the best-performing product under your price limit. 72 gb/s of memory bandwidth man. 72.

Also- Quoting after rebate prices is a joke.

just because his budget is $200 doesn't mean he should spend all of it. Id save up the rest of the $$ for a cpu, mobo and ram upgrade down the line. Who cares if those cards take a dump all over the 7770, he's only looking to play 2007 games lol...also memory bandwidth isnt everything, the number of transistors packed into a card is much more important, it is what determines the horsepower of the card itself. Everything else like shaders and cores/ memory bandwidth etc is used for the fancy effects.

Wrong. While the transistor count and architecture is obviously important to performance, the memory subsystem is the single most important factor when it comes to how a card performs at high resolutions with high levels of AA. That's why the GTX 660 Ti is so undesirable in comparison to the 7950.

[QUOTE="Lox_Cropek"]

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

A sub-$200 7850 or 560 Ti will take a dump all over the 7700 at 1200p with AA, and that's within the OP's price range.

hartsickdiscipl

Yes, it will. I had a CPU just like his and paired it with both a 5870 and a GTX 460 1GB while playing some of those very titles at 1080p w/AA. The stock 5870 was decidedly faster than the stock 460, even when paired with a highly-clocked C2D.

The 7770 is basically a 5770 and not exactly ideal for 1200p, get the 6870 or 7850 as mentioned in the thread and you'll play those games fine and dandy. 7770 is not going to win you over when you realize you're getting 22fps at the resolution you want. In fact I own a 5770 and played Bad Company 2 at 1680x1050 and it was hitting 100c and I was just barely getting 30fps on medium settings... Trust me do not get the 7770 it's like 7% better than the 5770.

Edit: Oops misread the TC thought you said Bad Comapny 2 instead of BF2... 7770 will do okay with the games you have but I'd still prefer the better cards I mentioned.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

[QUOTE="Lox_Cropek"]Not with that CPU.

Lox_Cropek

Yes, it will. I had a CPU just like his and paired it with both a 5870 and a GTX 460 1GB while playing some of those very titles at 1080p w/AA. The stock 5870 was decidedly faster than the stock 460, even when paired with a highly-clocked C2D.

Did you not get the part about how I personally owned and tested those GPUs with an E8400? Your input is not appreciated, because it has been invalidated by experience.

Besides, an E8500 is faster in single and dual-threaded apps than a Phenom II X4 955. Are you saying that someone wouldn't see a difference between those GPUs while using that CPU?

[QUOTE="Lox_Cropek"]

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

A sub-$200 7850 or 560 Ti will take a dump all over the 7700 at 1200p with AA, and that's within the OP's price range.

hartsickdiscipl

Yes, it will. I had a CPU just like his and paired it with both a 5870 and a GTX 460 1GB while playing some of those very titles at 1080p w/AA. The stock 5870 was decidedly faster than the stock 460, even when paired with a highly-clocked C2D.

A 5870 is a better card than my stock 384 core GTX 560 Ti. The trouble is finding a new one is hard since AMD has moved on to later models.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

[QUOTE="Lox_Cropek"]Not with that CPU.

jun_aka_pekto

Yes, it will. I had a CPU just like his and paired it with both a 5870 and a GTX 460 1GB while playing some of those very titles at 1080p w/AA. The stock 5870 was decidedly faster than the stock 460, even when paired with a highly-clocked C2D.

A 5870 is a better card than my stock 384 core GTX 560 Ti. The trouble is finding a new one is hard since AMD has moved on to later models.

Yeah, slightly faster than a reference 560 Ti. I wasn't suggesting that the OP get a 5870, as there are better options now.. Just illustrating how a 3ghz+ C2D isn't so slow that it will render a faster GPU worthless.

[QUOTE="blaznwiipspman1"]

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

A sub-$200 7850 or 560 Ti will take a dump all over the 7700 at 1200p with AA, and that's within the OP's price range. Who knows if they might decide to play some newer games afterall? The smart move is almost always to get the best-performing product under your price limit. 72 gb/s of memory bandwidth man. 72.

Also- Quoting after rebate prices is a joke.

hartsickdiscipl

just because his budget is $200 doesn't mean he should spend all of it. Id save up the rest of the $$ for a cpu, mobo and ram upgrade down the line. Who cares if those cards take a dump all over the 7770, he's only looking to play 2007 games lol...also memory bandwidth isnt everything, the number of transistors packed into a card is much more important, it is what determines the horsepower of the card itself. Everything else like shaders and cores/ memory bandwidth etc is used for the fancy effects.

Wrong. While the transistor count and architecture is obviously important to performance, the memory subsystem is the single most important factor when it comes to how a card performs at high resolutions with high levels of AA. That's why the GTX 660 Ti is so undesirable in comparison to the 7950.

The 660ti and the 670 have very similar performances, infact they're the same card with the same number of transistors but the 670 has a higher memory bandwidth and also 32 ROP's compared to the 660ti's 24 ROP's. Everything else about these cards are the EXACT same thing. So with that said the difference in gaming b/w these 2 cards is at MAX 10% in favour of the 670. How much of that 10% is attributed to mem bandwidth and ROP? Im not an expert so I don't know. Transistors ARE more important....its the reason why a card like the 7950 which goes on sale frequently for $270 can keep up with the $400 670 gtx once overclocked. Face it, nvidia milked the cows, squeezed as much as they could. They made a cheaper card and upsold to their loyal customers