Repurposing Old PC - Need Advice on Minimum Workable Spec PCIe GPU

[OS_dirk]

I have an old GA-970 Gaming Board and/or old GA-970-UD3 that I'm planning to repurpose as a dedicated game server for multiplayer sandbox/survival-builder games like Ark, Conan Exiles, Rust, Valheim, etc.

 

Unfortunately, the one GPU that I own (GTX-1650) needs to migrate to the new system, since the ~$300 that I could afford to spend on a GPU would only net me... another GTX-1650, only in sketchier condition.

 

Any advice on the minimum threshold on specifications and/or something barely still supported by the manufacturer? In the "cheap" price point of $50 to $100. I see everything between old nVidia Quattro's and GeForce 9 series, and 256mb of DDR to 1Gb of GDDR3.

 

I mainly need the discrete card for the monitor output, but am concerned that with lack of driver support/minimum spec, that the card could end up being a performance drain on the build. (If it were the 2000's I'd unabashedly let the default display driver handle everything, but with a modern-ish card, and modern windows, I'm not sure if that'd create a performance drain)

 

I'm up for any advice you're willing to provide.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Edit: Apologies if this belongs more in the build planning section of the forum.

[jaslion]

I'd honestly sell it as ANY fx series cpu makes for a pretty darn terrible game server due to their extremely poor single core performance. The games you listed are games that can easily overwhelm any fx cpu. Whilst even a cheap i5 2500 would be fine. Those systems are super easily found for under 100$ on ebay an local pickup if not nearly free at this point. Also consumes like half the energy of even a low end fx4100.

 

As for your question any pcie gpu is fine since it's a server thingy you don't need any acceleration.

[da na]

I recommend a Quadro k620 if you are looking for a cheap GPU.

Spoiler

Now if you literally just need a display output you could get by with something way way cheaper. But if for your server you're actually having a game window open or it is GPU intensive you'll want something a bit like this. And as previously mentioned, you may want a better CPU, but I've been running game servers (on lighter games) on a Core 2 Quad and Intel Atom without issues...

[MrMcMuffinJr]

if you want a cheap GPU just for display I would go for an old Radeon HD 7470. we have thouands at work and they rarely fail. They go for like $10 on ebay

[Needfuldoer]

I agree that your money is better spent on a faster, more efficient PC than a GPU. But if all you really need is something cheap to plug a monitor into, one of those cheesy little OEM Radeon cards shouldn't cost much more than postage. That's your least expensive way to go, since your motherboard doesn't have onboard graphics.

 

A dedicated server shouldn't need anything special in a GPU at all. If you're concerned about the Windows GUI bogging things down, you can disable all the special effects like window animation and font smoothing. They're a drop in the bucket for overall system performance, though, not worth losing sleep over.

[OS_dirk]

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

 

I now have a k620 on order, and will otherwise give it a go with the hardware that I have on hand for the time being. - I like the idea of still having a passable gaming rig, if the server doesn't end up seeing a lot of use.

 

I will keep the i5 2500 in mind though for the near future, though, if it turns out that my power bill doesn't agree with running two machines at once, and/or I notice performance issues. (I'm think the ISP bandwidth will probably give up before the CPU does, but I could be wrong)

 

Thanks again.