New mid-range GPU for older computer

CamperJoe

New member
Hey, I would like to upgrade an old computer piece by piece over course of few months. Right now I am thinking about buying new GPU but I don't know if it is a good idea. I mean would it work together? Would it make sense to buy it from performance point of view?

Current components are:
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 BOX
MB GIGABYTE P43-ES3G
RAM Kingston 4GB DDR2-800Mhz 2x2GB


And I am thinking about buying one of these:
MSI R9 380 2GD5T OC (Armor 2X)
SAPPHIRE DUAL-X R9 380 OC
XFX R9 280 DD 3GB DDR5
Sapphire Technology Radeon R9 380OC 2GB DDR5 ITX COMPACT


I've created pcpartpicker list with these parts (hope I didn't make any errors) where you can see details about each component.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33Ghz Quad-Core Processor ($160.93 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P43-ES3G ATX LGA775 Motherboard
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 2GB Video Card ($181.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $342.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-13 12:14 EDT-0400

Thank you.
 
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I had a Q8200 before my current build. Happily sat @2.8 Ghz 24/7. The cards will work with the system, but not at full potential. I had a 7970 Matrix Platinum which was restricted by the older hardware. Biggest problem I faced was the CPU was not capable of AAA games. Would quite often hold everything back due to CPU limitations plus PCIe 2.0 bandwidth and DDR2 memory.

So in short, yes they will work, but ultimately what are you looking at playing?
 
I would probably get a new CPU/board/Ram first over a new GPU. You can use integrated graphics in the meantime. Upgrading the GPU would be a bit of a waste on a setup so old. Also by upgrading all that first it just means you get a more smooth and snappier Windows whereas the GPU wouldn't do anything but help in games.
 
Good to hear, maybe we will try to overclock this CPU when I got new PSU although I am not really sure if this mobo would allow us to do much. Currently it is still running at stock speeds.

So you had this GPU working with Q8200 CPU right? From futuremark bench it is more or less what we are intending to buy, just a bit slower. I am glad to hear that it would work. Can you also tell me more about the CPU/mobo bottleneck you have faced? I can live with slightly lower performance until I buy propper CPU but having maybe 50% of that GPU is probably not worth it.

And now to about intended use case of this system... * Most of the time it is going to be used for work but yes some gaming of AAA titles is also in mind. We are also ok with trimming game settings a bit down. I just don't want to be facing < 30fps on medium or low settings @ 720/1080p.

* - I will use it for work, and from time to time some casual gaming, my girl will occasionally game on it. Nothing hardcore but more than me.



@NeverBackDown Yes that make sense, but current CPU / mobo prices are too high in my local shop and I am not willing to pay 40% more for the same stuff I could buy few months ago.
 
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Q8200 is a very picky CPU as to overclocking. So dont hold out too much hope for it. AAA titles that are optimised for 4 cores will play like crap due to the Q8200 being 2 dual cores strapped together rather than a true quad core.
Games that did work (running the card linked yes) only lost 10-15% of fps over them running on my i5.
If your planning on upgrading CPU etc. in the near future, you have nothing to lose as it will happily transfer then to your new build (nothing worse than having all new CPU etc. then realising you cant game as you have no GPU).
As long as your PSU is capable then the card will happily run on PCIe 2.0 (All are backwards compatible for PCIe).

Ultimately, If your looking to upgrade in the future, and would have been buying this card anyway, then go for it as there is no risk of compatibility issues. Just remember that some AAA gaming titles are heavily dependant on CPU speed and multi core usage.
 
That is really nice to hear, 10-15% fps loss is better than I have expected.

About buying it in the near future, yes I could buy it all today but like I said I will not buy it until the price come at least to where they were few weeks/months ago. Right now I have better options to spend that extra cash. If it would not come back then I will hold onto my current hardware / what I am intending to buy now. After that I would buy some new stuff in 2016. Which means it is a bit of a gamble since individual components may be changed (based on price performance ratio). But yes, unless I could get better "bang for the buck" than I would be buying this card anyway.
 
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If it is mainly used for work and light gaming then I would really suggest doing a full CPU/Motherboard/RAM upgrade over a GPU. the intergrated graphics would do fine at 720/1080p low settings you mentioned.
 
I meant to say more that I would like to avoid situations like low FPS on those settings which means that we would like to be able to use at least medium/high @ 1080 and if needed reduce it to 720 before trimming details down. Anyway what generation you have in mind? Haswell, Broadwell or Skylake?

The upgrade you have mentioned was what I was thinking about too. I was waiting for skylake and than the prices spiked and rest of that story you already know. Anyway skylake ended up as disappointment for me since early "beta" reviews was promising ~ 50% graphics power increase and great numbers at CPU speed as well. It was more than enough to sell me on that. Instead of that we got insignificant CPU boost and slower iGPU.

The main reason I am looking at buying new GPU is because right now I can get it for acceptable price ( ~220 euro ).
 
You should look at a second hand i5 4670/4690k as they go much cheaper than the Skylake CPUs do. It's a good idea especially since you can still buy most of those haswell/devils canyon boards from an etailer new. If you need the i7 for work then do the same thing:)

If you really want Skylake then the 6600k/6700k and a mid range z170 board would be perfect:) Skylake is the biggest improvement since Sandy was. It's iGPU is the same as broadwell excluding the C variant iirc
Assuming you're in the US since your list was in $, basically the 380s are always at that price. Waiting wouldn't really change much since they launched at those prices too
 
One thing I know for sure and that is I won't be buying used parts. The only CPU that I would consider buying right now is i5-6500. Anyway I am not really convinced about it's "bang for the buck". I find it kinda slow for that price.
 
as i didnt read the whole thread, the old q seriese cpu's really dont benifit much from anything above a hd 5770,
you tend to end up with low drops in fps due to the cpu rather than the card, reallu should think about a 2nd gen i5 or better if you can manage that.
but i wouldnt bother with anything more than say a gtx 660 or a hd 7850 with a old Q seriese quad core. and even then your main frame drops would be from the cpu.

not to sure what the new equivalent to that would be.. probably an r9 270 or something i guess.
 
Hmm according to futuremark HD 5770 got 2580 points, R9 270 have 7880 gtx 960/R9 380 (what I am intending to buy) have about 10000 - 11000. That is pretty huge step from 2580 points of HD 5770.
 
One thing I know for sure and that is I won't be buying used parts. The only CPU that I would consider buying right now is i5-6500. Anyway I am not really convinced about it's "bang for the buck". I find it kinda slow for that price.

buying second hand CPUs isn't really a bad thing tbh. As long as you know it works when you buy it you'd be fine. I was against buying used PC parts but after I did, it's amazing how much more you can get for the same amount of money for something new. Motherboards I'd probably always go new though. That's the most iffy thing really. You could even buy new a 4690k/4790k but you won't save that much money compared to Skylake. Also going on ebay you can find some newer Haswell CPUs for cheaper than retail. If you live near a Microcenter you should check this out- http://www.microcenter.com/product/434177/Core_i5-4690K_35GHz_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor
You have to go in the store for that deal but it's extremely cheap! It's where I went for my 3570k and saved $60:)
 
Hmm according to futuremark HD 5770 got 2580 points, R9 270 have 7880 gtx 960/R9 380 (what I am intending to buy) have about 10000 - 11000. That is pretty huge step from 2580 points of HD 5770.

the main issue is the cpu though.
You can have the worlds best gpu and you will still get frame drops because of the cpu.

i really dont see any reason to buy anything more power full than a r9 270 honestly (well hd 7850, but i say r9 270 because i think that is the modern equivalent).
and again like i said in actuall terms of gaming performance thats probably a bit better than the cpu justifies.

i really would consider getting a 2nd gen i5 or better. even an amd 83xx or something so you wont have noticeable drops in frame rate due to the cpu, (dont buy a 81xx amd cpu though)
If you had a cpu along those lines then a 970 would be a decent option or as you said a 960.
 
i really would consider getting a 2nd gen i5 or better.

Yes, I know that but that is currently not a possibility for me since the price is ridiculous and I don't want anything older than Haswell. The only choice I have is to buy that GPU now or don't. I would probaby buy this card anyway when I would be upgrading rest of the system unless I could get a better deal for this particular part.

Other than that I could get i5-6500 but I find it kinda slow for 225 euro. Not to mention i5-6400 which I found in a shop for 304.60 eur. That is just ridiculous... Its almost the price of an i7 not the slowest i5...

@NeverBackDown Yes sometimes it could be a good thing but I don't have a goot experience with it.
 
you will end up in the same boat i was when i upgraded from my core 2 quad.
il explain. i had a 5770. (which is why i specifically mentioned it) and in some games i was getting drops to 30fps at times with the settings on medium/low with average frames of 70, i upgraded to a hd 7870 and spent a long time setting up game details. and was on medium high settings, but still had these drops to 30 regardless what settings i used.
thats when i bought my i5.
after doing some testing the i5 was much faster and removed all the low frame drops. in reality i could have just bought the i5 and kept the 5770 and would have had constant frames of 60fps at the correct settings. and i do regret not doing that to start it.
(i would have had to spend less money in the time frame that i spent it in)
after getting the i5 the 7870 did not last long as i wanted a card that would be balanced better to the i5. so i bought this 780 i have now.
this is a nice balance of hardware for gaming at 1080p I occasionally think about upgrading the cpu but there is no real reason to do that still.

So yeah honestly, i do wish i had bought the i5 instead of the 7870, my old quad could not utilize it fully. and in the end it wasnt quite enough for what i wanted. the 5770 could have played the games i wanted to play at the time at medium low, and with the i5 i wouldn't have had the 30fps drops that forced me to upgrade.
i have a server downstairs with 2 c2q xeons in it. and in that i have a 7850 this is about the best gpu i can put in that because of the same limitations.
the gpu could do with more ram but the actuall power of the card is balanced pretty close to the rest of the system, the ddr2 ram is a bit slow and over all the whole base of the system..

having said all that.
if i had bought a 780 instead of the 7870 With the plan to upgrade to an i5 slightly after. that would have also worked, but all buying a new gpu really does is make you upgrade the cpu sooner than you had hoped.
personally i decided to sell my quad system just about in time so i managed to get a reasonable amount of money back for it. Which meant it hurt less to upgrade..

Any way hope you decide on what is best for you. but i do think that buying a new gpu will just make you wish you bought a new base to work from.
Again 2gen i5 or better or an 83xx amd system would give you a better base to work from, just dont bother with the 1st gen intel or 81xx amd. and if yuo are buying a gpu withe the aim to upgrade the rest of the system later. perhaps think of aiming for a 970 performance card as a min so you dont end up upgrading the gpu again after you upgrade the base system.
 
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Thank you, and to all of you guys as well. I guess that it would probably be better not to buy that card now. I'll probably buy just HDD/SSD, PSU and Case since those are the components that made me to the upgrade in the first place. Then get the rest of the system when the price : performance get back to the acceptable range.
 
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