Which type of video card for my MOBO?

[desktop]

That 7950 is a nice strong card and great value. If the power supply has the appropriate connectors for them, they'd be a great card. I've been tempted by them a few times myself (to the point of drafting out a PM), but some of my hardware doesn't run well on anything but nVidia. My current plan is to hold out for price drops on the current GTX 970 offerings. If it wasn't for the hardware, I'd probably go for both of those cards myself.

It only has one DVI port.

 

[xvi]

It only has one DVI port.

Some of them do. Technically, most all of them do, if you count the HDMI port(s). Just need a passive adapter for those.

Edit: Could of sworn Kenkickr's Gigabyte card has two DVI ports. That's kind of interesting. The manufacturer has pretty good control over which ports to include on a card. If Kenkickr's cards don't work, I'd recommend looking for a 7850/7870 or 7750/7770. I'll see if I can find any good examples. A used 7970/7950 is still good value, but seems unnecessary to me.

Edit2: ..or get both cards, plug both in, and Bob's your uncle! Two DVI ports.

 

[krusha03]

And now he calls me a Yank. All right, ya wanker. Now it's not a 750, but this EVGA 550 Ti looks sweet.

I see this thread has gone a whole circle and we are back at only vga now, so i wanna just say for this price i think the GTX 750 i linked is still the best offer. You get a mail in rebate ending at $80 and get a new, better and lower power consumption card for less.

Another option is this HD 7770 for $55 after MIR, it uses a bit more power ( 17W vs 8W in multi monitor setup and about 10-15W more while gaming) while still providing decent performance. You can't get any cheaper / better GPU than that and you could still game at 1080p / medium settings with it. Plus according to our own TPU its extremely quiet, check out the review here.


And once again productivity wise SSD is one of the best investments imho. You can get a 128GB for about $55 and 256 for about $90. Finally if you don't game I absolutely dont see the need for a 7950

Looking at it from a cost to benefit perspective, there are other cards out there that will net you two DVI ports for half the price, for example this EVGA GeForce GT 730. If budget allows, I'd suggest a GT 740 or the GTX 750 you linked before simply to eliminate performance as a possible concern. There are a number of AMD GPUs worth considering, but anything from this list (except the old GPUs near the top) would serve the purpose nicely. If further budget allows and you'd like to treat yourself, a SSD would be nice upgrade too. It really depends on what your main complaints are and what your budget is.

That GT 740 is the same price as the GTX 750 after MIR. I agree on the rest thou

 

[XSI]

one more advice: nobody have mentioned OC your 6600 CPU. get new GPU, 750-750ti will use less power then 9600.
add SSD for your system and main programs. overclock your CPU. Enjoy faster system, earn more $$$ change motherboard+cpu+ram.

 

[desktop]

Heh, I'm not the quickest draw on the planet, so I want to apologize for not saying "thank you" to Barbaric for his (or her?) help—so I'm doing it now. Thank you....I did appreciate the time taken to gather all that info for me.

This morning I took another look at my options using all the info you kind folks have given me. Someone mentioned the Gigabyte EP45T-UD3LR and then just using the Quad I have so I would only need to upgrade the mobo. There's a used one being sold on Amazon for $80 (with free shipping) and a new-in-the-box one being auctioned on eBay (currently $76).

I even found some G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series RAM to use with it on Newegg (would give me the 16GB I want). For right now this is the most affordable option if I want more RAM. Plus that board has some other upgrades over my current one.

 

[rtwjunkie]

If you can get that board at a reasonable price, that might be a good option to get a couple more years of use out of your cpu. It should be good for that time with your use. Plus, you will be able to reuse the RAM when you do complete a full upgrade.

 

[krusha03]

Heh, I'm not the quickest draw on the planet, so I want to apologize for not saying "thank you" to Barbaric for his (or her?) help—so I'm doing it now. Thank you....I did appreciate the time taken to gather all that info for me.

This morning I took another look at my options using all the info you kind folks have given me. Someone mentioned the Gigabyte EP45T-UD3LR and then just using the Quad I have so I would only need to upgrade the mobo. There's a used one being sold on Amazon for $80 (with free shipping) and a new-in-the-box one being auctioned on eBay (currently $76).

I even found some G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series RAM to use with it on Newegg (would give me the 16GB I want). For right now this is the most affordable option if I want more RAM. Plus that board has some other upgrades over my current one.

The choice is yours but I wouldn't invest $80 for a new MB for that system.If you absolutely need 16GB, for the same price, or even less, you can get a new 1150/1155 mobo and if you sell your MB/CPU/RAM you may have enough cash for a used i5. i would rather invest those $80 in SSD. I don't use VMs but I use my machines for gaming, CAD, matlab and simpler CFD simulations and i haven't had the need for more than 8GB.

Edit: In the end you have to decide how much $$$ are you willing to set aside for your PC. As shown for $60 you get a new GPU with 2 x DVI, for $120 you get GPU + 128GB SSD, for $150 GPU + 256GB SSD. A new i5 + MB + Ram will cost you another $320 - 360 depending if you want 8GB or 16GB.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I don't think that RAM will work @desktop , reason being is the voltage requirements for DDR3 RAM made when the C2Q CPUs were new compared to todays DDR3. RAM back then used to need 2-2.2 volts, today that is down to 1.5 volts and less. I don't think a P45 chipset MB is compatible with 1.5 volt RAM, whether it's DDR3 or 2.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I don't think that RAM will work @desktop , reason being is the voltage requirements for DDR3 RAM made when the C2Q CPUs were new compared to todays DDR3. RAM back then used to need 2-2.2 volts, today that is down to 1.5 volts and less. I don't think a P45 chipset MB is compatible with 1.5 volt RAM, whether it's DDR3 or 2.

Actually, he will be ok. I also had a Gigabyte P45 DDR3 board that ran 16GB of DDR3-1600 at 1.5 volts. @xvi has it now, I believe.

 

[krusha03]

I don't think that RAM will work @desktop , reason being is the voltage requirements for DDR3 RAM made when the C2Q CPUs were new compared to todays DDR3. RAM back then used to need 2-2.2 volts, today that is down to 1.5 volts and less. I don't think a P45 chipset MB is compatible with 1.5 volt RAM, whether it's DDR3 or 2.

According to this it should be fine. I don't remember about 2V DDR3 ram, only 1.65V

 

[xvi]

Actually, he will be ok. I also had a Gigabyte P45 DDR3 board that ran 16GB of DDR3-1600 at 1.5 volts. @xvi has it now, I believe.

Yep. It's quite happy with a Xeon and some 1.5v DDR3 out of my main rig.