I'm specifically looking for a ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 Graphics card, however could be convinced to buy a similar one, must be pci 2.0 or 1.0 the better the card, the better for me, im hoping to spend no more than 100 inc. shipping, but well see. If anyone has one they are not using that would be good, currently using a geforce 7900gtx, its old yes, but im currently saving for a new house so money is limited! -must have hdmi out of course
PCI-Express 3.0 will be out on AMD's next gen 7000 series cards, MSI has also released motherboards now with PCI-E 3.0. You probably shouldn't get a PCI-E 1.0 card because 2.0 has more efficient compression and signalling rates, and additional bandwidth. Cant find any cheap 5770 cards. I think this is your best bet for right around $100: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500187
I remember when dual 5770's were all the rage, still decent setup. I just saw the PCI-E 3.0 coming out on the new boards and etc. Happy.
I didnt even know PCI-E 3.0 was coming out already lol, apparently MSI released the first PCI-E 3.0 motherboard on July 8, 2011: http://www.gizmag.com/msi-z68a-gd80-g3-motherboard/19158/
I dont think it is true PCI-E 3.0 though. The PCI E lanes are inside the CPU, and the CPU doesnt magically change to 3.0 once you add a special chip on the board. Internally, the CPU is still at 2.0 speeds, but the multiplier chip is doubling the lanes and changing to 3.0 speed enhancements. With the 1155 socket, no matter how many slots you have and what it says bandwidth is, you still only get a maximum of 16 lanes total to be spli between all cards, and it runs at 2.0 speeds.
PCI-E is backwards compatible with all versions. So 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, and 3.0 all work in your board, however the card only runs at 1.0 speeds since that is all your motherboard supports. A 5770, or something around that performance level will probably max out your bandwidth on the motherboard. So any better card and you wont really see much difference since it cant get enough bandwidth. And actually, instead of a GTS 450 you should get one of these if you can afford it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102939 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161379 It is the same as a 5770, but newer so it gets some better driver optimizations in current drivers. Same price as the 450 but better.
After rebate this 6770 is $100 with shipping. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131434
my only concern is a read about some issues with 2.1 specifically on a 1.0 board, hopefully it will work as ill learn towards that card for sure
Pretty much any somewhat modern card is PCI-E 2.1 though. You probably wont be able to get away from that. 2.1 just has some minor updates to 2.0 spec anyway. Nothing drastic.
I, myself use a PCI 2.1 card in a PCI 1.0 (x16) slot in my computer, and can confirm that it still works extremely well.
