GFX upgrade on older gaming PC

lunacyfoundme

I'm considering upgrading the GFX card on my PC to add a bit more life to it until I can afford a full rebuild.

Current build it;
W7 x64,
Intel Core 2 Duo 3GHz,
GeForce 8800GTX 768MB,
8GB DDR2 RAM,
Abit IP35 Pro mobo,
700W PSU

I know the CPU will probably be a drag factor on performance for the card but I was thinking of getting the MSI GTX 770 that way when I rebuild I can reuse the card.

Any opinions on this?

yawhat!

Your CPU is going to be a huge bottleneck and not going to be able handle the latest games really.

When you planning on a new build?

lunacyfoundme

Depends on how the finances go. Possibly Jan/Feb 2015. My PC still runs Skyrim at 1920 resolution with medium to high quality textures etc. I usually get between 18 and 35 fps depending on whats on screen. I think a change of card would help a lot and tide me over until I rebuild.

ShadowHearth

Check if you can bump up your CPU to at least q6600, if possible higher. Check adverts.ie
I had very similar PC, but with q6600, I added 6870 to replace 8800GT and it did a huge difference.

yawhat!

whats your max budget you could spend now?

You could upgrade to this to give it another lease of life!

and overclock.

uberpixie

lunacyfoundme wrote: »

Depends on how the finances go. Possibly Jan/Feb 2015. My PC still runs Skyrim at 1920 resolution with medium to high quality textures etc. I usually get between 18 and 35 fps depending on whats on screen. I think a change of card would help a lot and tide me over until I rebuild.

What's your max budget for gfx card? You will greatly benefit from a new gfx card and it will tie you over until your next upgrade.

yawhat!

uberpixie wrote: »

What's your max budget for gfx card? You will greatly benefit from a new gfx card and it will tie you over until your next upgrade.

Not with the processor he currently has!

uberpixie

yawhat! wrote: »

Not with the processor he currently has!

Even on the CPU he has it will make a huge difference. Have a look at any benchmark setups done on old cpus: he might be down 20 to 30 frames by not upgrading the CPU but he will be getting a huge increase in performance over the old gfx card.

And he can reuse the card in his new rig.

Also if he is playing games that are not optimised past a dual core CPU: the gfx card will greatly increase performance. CPU impact is minimal.

True new stuff optimised for quads will run slower but he still be getting much better performance on the nex gfx card.

lunacyfoundme

Its my understanding that most games only use 2 cores anyway so I dont think Id bother ugrading the CPU until I rebuild completely. My budget is about €300 bearing in mind I'll be using the new card in my new build.

I was thinking about this card.

http://www.komplett.ie/product/zkb-01com/20205537/msi-geforce-gtx-770-gaming-2gb-pci-e/details.aspx

robcon

A nice article on Ivy Bridge vs Core 2 Duo And Quad
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-wolfdale-yorkfield-comparison,3487.html

I'd recommend you go down this route if your motherboard is suitable
http://www.overclock.net/t/1431723/mod-lga775-support-for-lga771-xeon-cpus

yawhat!

Nice article!!