A little bit of help for a Graphics card?
- Thread starter Solo-Wing
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Fair enough, I skimming through the article and I thought I read tri core. anyway, that's nice then, a good upgrade, check your PSU because it might not have enough juice, that's the thing about big upgrades, you start wanting to change one thing and next thing you know it's a completely different computer.Solo-Wing said:
I would say just save your money and replace the whole thing. Even with the new GPU, everything else is just going to bottleneck.
Yeah OP, at that resolution, a 520 is going to be way better for you than your current CPU. Just save up and build a whole new PC. You probably could get away with salvaging your current GPU temporarily if cash is that tight. None of that is to say the 520 is an excellent card, but it's hardly the weakest link in your computer. Even if you got the best card that money could buy, you just simply wouldn't reap all the benefits from it because your CPU is too weak.
I suppose it also depends on what games you are playing. My Pentium D served me quite well, but I had to replace it 3 years ago. It would be near agonizing for me to continue using it as my main gaming machine, but my little brother is quite happy to be using it for Minecraft.
I suppose it also depends on what games you are playing. My Pentium D served me quite well, but I had to replace it 3 years ago. It would be near agonizing for me to continue using it as my main gaming machine, but my little brother is quite happy to be using it for Minecraft.
Save up a few hundred and get yourself a new CPU, motherboard, and more RAM first (I could be wrong, but I think Vista and 7 32-bit versions only support up to four gigs of RAM, so look into that before you buy eight). If you're on a budget, AMD CPUs tend to be significantly cheaper than Intels while offering only marginally reduced performance. I scored a quad-core AMD (3.5 GHz) for something like $170, and it runs great. You'll also want your PSU to be at least 650W-700W or so to comfortably support most modern GPUs (make sure it has an 8-pin connector), but you can probably get away with your current GPU for now. I'm running a 9800 GX2 from four years ago, and it can still hold its own against modern 600 series cards.
My rig uses a 900W PSU, I do think I got like 100 W of wiggle room (In case I wanted to add another hard drive or upgrade something) but still, be carefull, it's always better to overshoot it than undershoot it.Solo-Wing said:
My friend on his massive fuckaton rig uses 2 PSUs so that might work for you (Keep the 430W and add the 300W one, if you don't know how to setup multiple PSUs google it.)
I'm using a GTX460 and its great for me, was quite cheap and I can run Battlefield 3 on max settings smoothly as well as every other game I've tried, I haven't had any problems with drivers or anything either so I strongly recommend this card.
Hrm... yup.... exactly what I expected when I saw a thread asking for graphics card help. Transitioned instantly to "your gear is horrendous and should be destroyed for the good of human kind"
/eyeroll
Ok, heres my honest help, Scale back what you want to put into the thing video card wise. being a 500 series, that is actually fairly new. You might want to try to bump up to say a 540 or 550, but beyond that it will scrap your budget.
Then take what you saved, and put it to putting your box right at 4gb of ram total, with faster ram. You can get much faster DDR2 ram.
I have a similar box I use for my HTPC, 520 gfx, 4gb ram, Pentium D 3.0 and I can use it to run Arkham asylum, The old republic, New Vegas, and more modern games just fine.
So card wise, perhaps something like
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150615
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231144
Would be a MUCH better improvement than a 150$ video card can offer.
Edit: Best offer of help? Dont ask PC hardware questions on this forum. Seriously, it always goes the way of ePeen waving contest built to make you (inadvertently perhaps?) feel guilty about your gear (master race insecurity perhaps?)
In short you will get bombarded with a lot of bad Unrelated information before you get anything even resembling help.
Edit 2: Yeah, Pentium D is the first series of dual core processors. They range from DCs from 1.5-3.0 ghz per core. /eyeroll again.
/eyeroll
Ok, heres my honest help, Scale back what you want to put into the thing video card wise. being a 500 series, that is actually fairly new. You might want to try to bump up to say a 540 or 550, but beyond that it will scrap your budget.
Then take what you saved, and put it to putting your box right at 4gb of ram total, with faster ram. You can get much faster DDR2 ram.
I have a similar box I use for my HTPC, 520 gfx, 4gb ram, Pentium D 3.0 and I can use it to run Arkham asylum, The old republic, New Vegas, and more modern games just fine.
So card wise, perhaps something like
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150615
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231144
Would be a MUCH better improvement than a 150$ video card can offer.
Edit: Best offer of help? Dont ask PC hardware questions on this forum. Seriously, it always goes the way of ePeen waving contest built to make you (inadvertently perhaps?) feel guilty about your gear (master race insecurity perhaps?)
In short you will get bombarded with a lot of
Edit 2: Yeah, Pentium D is the first series of dual core processors. They range from DCs from 1.5-3.0 ghz per core. /eyeroll again.
