Graphics Card Upgrade

[KOOL]

I'm looking for a little help to steer me in the right direction.  I'm planning to upgrade the graphics card in my system and add two more monitors.  Where can I go to find out which graphics cards are compatible with my system?  Is there a website out there where I can research this?

System incudes:
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
1 x XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770
OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066

I just ordered one Asus VE258Q and plan to get two more later this year or early next.

Any help is always appreciated.
Thanks!

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Tomshardware.com and GPU articles is a good place to start.

However your computer is way too old to be able to run any recent game titles at tri-monitor resolutions properly. Slideshow yes, fluid gameplay no way. Even if you upgrade the graphics card your CPU is hopelessly outdated for triple monitor resolutions.

Desktop use however will work great. Perhaps even AH2 is playable, can't say.

[KOOL]

I was afraid that might be the case. Oh we'll, need to come up with a plan B then.

Thanks

[Bizman]

Perhaps even AH2 is playable, can't say.

I can say: Highly playable. My rig is a lot like yours, the motherboard a tad older but videocard newer. I was planning to get a HD5770 but found the current one almost for steal.

Gigabyte GA-EP35-ds3,
Intel core2duo E8599,
Radeon HD3870 worked well @1920x1200, current HD6970 even better@2560x1600,
GSkill DDR2 1066 2x2 GB

[Bino]

Hi Kool,

I think you'll like the VE258Q.  I know I like mine (see PC Specs).  I run three screens at 5760 x 1080 off a single AMD 7950 card (@ 925 MHz), and Aces High plays very well.  My frame rates are pretty steady at 60 FPS, and will only occasionally drop into the high 40's.

In addition to being very nice for gaming, having all that screen area makes for a very nice desktop experience, too.  

There are a few recent online articles about triple monitor rigs and video cards.  Here are two:

http://www.techspot.com/review/639-triple-monitor-gaming/

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/149864-triple-monitor-madness-gtx-titan-gtx-680-and-radeon-7970-go-head-to-head-at-5760x1080

I'm looking for a little help to steer me in the right direction.  I'm planning to upgrade the graphics card in my system and add two more monitors.  Where can I go to find out which graphics cards are compatible with my system?  Is there a website out there where I can research this?

System incudes:
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
1 x XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770
OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066

I just ordered one Asus VE258Q and plan to get two more later this year or early next.

Any help is always appreciated.
Thanks!

[guncrasher]

KOOL, is that a name brand computer?  I mean a dell, gateway etc or one that you build yourself?  reason I ask is if you build it yourself you can upgrade your mobo/ram/cpu and keep everything else.  if it is a name brand then most likely the only thing you can reuse is your hd and cd rom and maybe your copy of windows.

If I was you I would order the video card and see how it plays with what you have.  I had an e8400 cpu oc like crazy and was able to play the game at full settings with shadows at 2048 using an evga 465 video card.  the e8500 is a very good processor and not as low end as they make it sound.  just make sure the card will fit in your case.

but to make sure post more info about your system specially who build it  .



semp

[KOOL]

I built it.  Here's what I bought what seems like yesterday but turns out it was over 3-1/2 years ago. 
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,279829.0.html

[guncrasher]

kool I would try the video card and oc that system as much as I could.  then upgrade mono/cpu later if needed.



semp

[KOOL]

What vid card would be best suited for my current setup?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I can say: Highly playable. My rig is a lot like yours, the motherboard a tad older but videocard newer. I was planning to get a HD5770 but found the current one almost for steal.

Gigabyte GA-EP35-ds3,
Intel core2duo E8599,
Radeon HD3870 worked well @1920x1200, current HD6970 even better@2560x1600,
GSkill DDR2 1066 2x2 GB

He's going for triple monitor Bizman.

[guncrasher]

what gpu would you guys recommend for an upgrade from sli evga 465's?  I got a 2500k.



semp

[Bizman]

He's going for triple monitor Bizman.

Shucks! That slipped my eye...

Well, then, let's say it might be playable, because my old HD 3870 could run this 30" monitor quite well with better than default settings. The amount of pixels in 2560x1600 is about 2/3 of a Full-HD triplet. And a 5770 with 1 GB should be a better performer than a 3870 with 512 MB.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Shucks! That slipped my eye...

Well, then, let's say it might be playable, because my old HD 3870 could run this 30" monitor quite well with better than default settings. The amount of pixels in 2560x1600 is about 2/3 of a Full-HD triplet. And a 5770 with 1 GB should be a better performer than a 3870 with 512 MB.

Yep which is why I said that AH2 may be playable but for any recent AAA titles with advanced graphics his CPU is going to become a bottleneck most likely. When I migrated my 7850 card to my E8500 rig which was also overclocked to 4Ghz I noticed that the Radeon 7850 I installed to the box didn't achieve even close to the same sort of performance I saw earlyer in an i5 3570k box. So clearly the card was CPU limited.

This is why I suspect that the E8500 is going to choke the system if he upgrades the graphics and goes triple screen.

[KOOL]

I use this rig mainly for playing AH, which is about 99% of the time and the remaining 1% on WOT for a quick game.  RL currently keeps me busy so at most I'm only gaming on this rig about 5 hours a month, which is a far cry from the 40 hours a month I used to play AH (yes I miss it but my priorities are in order).  In about 6 years my kids will be off to college and my free time to play AH on a kickass rig should increase, that is provided I have enough funds to afford it after paying off tuition.   Therefore a major MB/CPU/RAM/GPU/TRIP-Monitor upgrade now doesn't make sense to me because my ROI would be very low.  Instead I intend to leap frog my upgrades over the next several years.  My plan is to first get a new GPU so I move toward a triple monitor rig.  In about 3-6 months get two additional VE258Q monitors.  In about a year upgrade the MB/CPU/RAM.  Then a year or two later rinse and repeat.  Knowing a bit more on my train of thought does this make sense?  If so what is the best GPU that I can put into my current rig that will really fly next year when I upgrade the MB/CPU/RAM?  My budget for the GPU is $300-400. 

[gyrene81]

1st choice... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130784
2nd choice... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150632