Graphics Card Upgrade Question

[Pooky]

My system is as follows:

Gigabyte 965P-S3 Motherboard
XFX Geforce 7900GTX 512mb
Core2Duo E6300 @1.86GHz
4GB DDR2-800 Ram

The question I have is if I upgrade my GFX card, will my games run better?

For instance at the moment Dragon Age lags a bit, and GTA IV is unplayable.

Then, if the answer to that question is yes, I have been seeing a lot of graphics cards for very cheap prices eg. under R700.00
Will one of those be an upgrade? And if so, which one would you recommend?

Thanks!

 

[killadoob]

Upgrading your vga card would help loads dude. 4650 maybe.

That cpu is also going to struggle with gta iv, that game is harsh on a cpu.

 

[Pooky]

And will that card just plug in where the other one is?

 

[killadoob]

Yup.

http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=74_224&products_id=39577 Not sure if it needs extra power maybe some who has one can confirm that.

 

[cerebus]

Upgrading will help, upgrading to a r700 gpu will probably not give you enough of a boost though.

 

[Pooky]

This is about the right price range: http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=74_224_544&products_id=40077

Will that help?

I have a 500W power supply.

 

[cerebus]

Look..as I said... it will help but not such an astonishing amount that it's really worthwhile imo. You'll want to spend a minimum of r1-1.5k to make it really worthwhile. What if you sold that 7900 for 400 or so and added it in?

 

[Pooky]

Yeah I could do that... What card would you recommend?

 

[cerebus]

Well if you could make r1,1-1,2k then go for a 4850 new or a 4870 2ndhand. Your choice is pretty easy

 

[Chevron]

Don't go less than a 4670. But even a 4670 will give a boost. You could get a 4850 but then you'll get a cpu bottleneck. Which is ok if you plan on getting a new cpu sometime in the coming year.

 

[Pooky]

How much of a boost will a. 4650 give?

 

[Pooky]

And nvidia?

 

[cerebus]

Pooky man... read some blimmin graphics cards reviews pls. Google knows all.

 

[Pooky]

I have read reviews but I don't know what all that stuff means and how I would compare it to my 7900GTX... All I need is for someone to tell me what graphics card for around R500-R600 will give me better performance than my current one...

 

[kaaskop]

I got a second hand 4850 for R750 bucks, look on prophecy forums. Give that P965 Mobo a go with some overclocking. I had one and they can go far.

 

[cerebus]

Considering you could sell your current card 2ndhand for r4-500 you aren't going to have much luck finding a better new card in that same price range now are you? And as for going the forums route by all means see if you can get a 4850 for r800 or so.

 

[Pooky]

Yeah I guess you are right.... I am just impatient...

What about killadoob's suggestion of this: http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=74_224&products_id=39577

Would that be good?

 

[kaaskop]

Anything from HD3850 upwards will be better. So HD3850, HD3870, 8800GT, 9600GT, 9800GT ect. Should be able to get one quite cheap.

 

[Pooky]

PC Zone have a 4650 1gig for R699.00 can I run that off my current 500w power supply?

 

[LiengLiengZA]

sure thing....