Gfx card to upgrade old system

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ColGatvol

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Hi Guys

Im looking to upgrade my gfx card to get back into gaming a bit. I don't have much time for gaming and hence cant justify spending R10k+ on a new gaming rig.

My specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz
MCP73VT-PM Mboard
Nvidia 8500GT
4GB Ram
CM RS-460-PCAR-A3 460W

What is the best gfx card I can buy without being bottlenecked by my CPU and without upgrading my PSU.

Mboard specs:
http://www.ascendtech.us/ecs-mcp73vt-pm-lga775-ddr2-motherboard_i_mbecs4mcp73vtpm.aspx

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
No budget.

Wiling to spend let say up to about R3000.

Basically I can afford a new gaming rig, but I can't justify it since I don't get much time for gaming. I don't even get time to use my PS3 either so I don't buy games for it. I just want a rig that if and when I get time to play some games I want something that can at least play the new games. Does not have to run everything on ultra settings.
 
ColGatvol said:
Hi Guys

Im looking to upgrade my gfx card to get back into gaming a bit. I don't have much time for gaming and hence cant justify spending R10k+ on a new gaming rig.

My specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz
MCP73VT-PM Mboard
Nvidia 8500GT
4GB Ram
CM RS-460-PCAR-A3 460W

What is the best gfx card I can buy without being bottlenecked by my CPU and without upgrading my PSU.

Mboard specs:
http://www.ascendtech.us/ecs-mcp73vt-pm-lga775-ddr2-motherboard_i_mbecs4mcp73vtpm.aspx

Any advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

I used to have the q6600 running a GTX 280 and then an ATI 4890 and finally an ATI 6870 eyefinity 6. The q6600 very quickly became the bottleneck. You will be wasting money in my opinion trying to purchase any new dx11 + card with the q6600. It will game, but the cores will max out, so regardless of how much better the GPU is, you will have reached the ceiling of your performance. The q6600 can OC quite nicely to about 3.4ghz with a good cooler (CM Hyper 212+ is an old but good budget cooler for that chipset), that might help a bit. Crysis sucked the life out of my q6600 at its best specs... newer games, I cant tell you how they compare to that. But 4gb ram is not enough, go 8gb.

EDIT... the 460W PSU is also insufficient for a decent machine with a good GPU. I put the money into a Cm 600W Silent Pro M, best PSU I ever bought. Has powered me since my GTX 280 days till now (have a R9 390X on a i7 2600k build)
 
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If need be I will upgrade the ram and whatever else. As far as I know my Q6600 can't OC with the mboard I've got. At least the last time I tried going that route that is what I was told. Please tell me if I'm wrong.

I would love nothing more than splashing out 10-15k on a new rig but it would be stupid as I am not a full-on gamer as I used to be, and there are a lot of other things that should take priority at the moment.

I just want something that wil allow me to get back into gaming.
 
Buy secondhand if you're trying to minimise your investment.

That really is an old platform though...a R3000.00 card is going to be wasted on it.

Edit: Not upgrading the power supply (assuming it's as old as the Q6600) would be a problem.
 
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Just out of interest: Would a Geforce 980X run on a 1200 watt power supply?
 
ColGatvol said:
If need be I will upgrade the ram and whatever else. As far as I know my Q6600 can't OC with the mboard I've got. At least the last time I tried going that route that is what I was told. Please tell me if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

Problem is a q6600 is gonna seriously bottleneck a new GPU, have a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5tZV_BfO3E for example and you'll see the cpu being maxed out while the gpu is idling along at ~45% utilisation.
 
Someone recommended I go with a 750TI, thoughts?

Would I still need a new psu?
 
I have to agree the q6600 just won't cut it.
I tried to play mad max, lords of the fallen and resident evil revelations 2 on one with my gtx 670 and it was pretty laggy.

I'd rather spend the money on a i7-2600 and a mobo on carbonite, you'd still have enough left over of the 3k to get a better gpu than your current one to run games on reasonable settings.
 
Running a Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66 GHz with 6GB RAM and 600W PSU, got myself a GTX 570 early this year, playing Rainbow Six Siege now and my CPU is the bottleneck.

Just to give you an idea, I'm doing an upgrade to the following below, after which my GPU will then be the bottleneck. I may decide to get a new GPU in a few months.

Takealot R 1 499 Asus H97M-E Motherboard - Socket 1150 H97M-E
Takealot R 839 Coolermaster N500 ATX Chassis No PSU - Black CM-N500-KKN2
Takealot R 899 RaidMax 730W PSU 135mm Blue LED Fan RX-730SS
Carbonite (new) R 2 799 Intel® Core i7-4790 Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.00 GHz) tray version
R 6 036 (Total)

@OP, you probably need a complete upgrade (GPU + CPU), or rather shall I say do a complete upgrade to save yourself the frustration.
 
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ColGatvol said:
I would love nothing more than splashing out 10-15k on a new rig but it would be stupid as I am not a full-on gamer as I used to be, and there are a lot of other things that should take priority at the moment.
Click to expand...

Just to add that you can get an i5-4590+MB+8GB RAM for ~R3.5k

EDIT: That price is for brand new stuff, not second hand.
 
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StrontiumDog said:
2nd hand from Carbonite you mean, if you keep your eyes peeled for a good deal?
Click to expand...

No, brand spanking new, manufacturer sealed packaging.

The CPU is from Carbonite but it's brand new (oem tray), R2k. For R2.7k you can get a i7-4790.

MB & RAM is from wootware, rebeltech etc

http://www.wootware.co.za/index.php...1-express-1150-m-atx-desktop-motherboard.html
http://www.wootware.co.za/g-skill-f...bx2-ddr3-1600mhz-cl9-1-5v-desktop-memory.html

http://www.rebeltech.co.za/lga1150/...set-2x-dual-channel-ddr3-1600-2x-sata6g-.html
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/ddr3-133...-ddr3-1600-pc3-12800-cl11-15v-240pin-lif.html

http://www.takealot.com/msi-intel-h81m-p33-h81-chipset-motherboard-socket-1150/PLID28620999
http://www.takealot.com/crucial-8gb-1600mhz-ddr3-desktop-ds-memory/PLID29430881
 
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