Is it worth upgrading the GPU on an older pc

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I have a Intel Q8200 quad core 2.33GHz with 2GB RAM DDR2 and a ATI HD4850 PCI-E (+- 2008)

The cards giving a bit of trouble, so I may need to get a new one. I've been looking at the HD7770 (+- R1700) or even a P7 260x (+- R2214) Obviously my system is a little out dated now, so will I even be able to run those cards, and is it worth getting the P7, or will my pc just bottleneck any performance increase? Will I even see much improvement with the HD7770?

Bonus question, What would be a good nvidia card to try at more or less the same price point? I'm a linux man, so it may be worth looking at them, seeing as how they seem to be more linux friendly.
 
It's worth upgrading because you can easily carry your GPU over to your next system. It would be between the GTX 750, 750Ti and 760.
 
Wyzak said:
It's worth upgrading because you can easily carry your GPU over to your next system. It would be between the GTX 750, 750Ti and 760.
Click to expand...

What about bottlenecking with his current system.
 
It's definitely worth it, I'd say. Unless you can afford to upgrade everything, you'll get a nice boost out of a mid-low end card. Obviously you'll bottleneck on something much stronger like an R9 290, but that won't be a problem with a 750ti I think.

However just looking at your specs, you'll also really want to upgrade the ram. Minimum of 4gb, but preferably 8gb. Otherwise you really will bottleneck.
 
ponder said:
What about it?

Initially he can OC his CPU a bit for some relief until such time as he upgrades his mb, cpu (& ram).
Click to expand...

775 sockets are horrible overclockers, even just a little bit.

And they already run hot due to their 45NM die size.
 
Rickster said:
775 sockets are horrible overclockers, even just a little bit.

And they already run hot due to their 45NM die size.
Click to expand...

That's just not true. He could take his CPU to 3.4ghz by raising the bus to 344mhz (@7 multiplier). That depends on whether his board can really support overclocking though.
 
cerebus said:
That's just not true. He could take his CPU to 3.4ghz by raising the bus to 344mhz (@7 multiplier). That depends on whether his board can really support overclocking though.
Click to expand...

I must have had a rubbish MB back then.
 
Thanks everyone. Yeah I'm a gamer, but I'm still running windows xp (32bit), so I can't play any of the latest games anyway.
As far as I know that can only support something like 3GB RAM?
I can't afford to upgrade my whole PC right now, as much as I would love to, but hopefully within the next year or two. I'll get windows 9 then and do it properly, but I am looking at something to tie me over in the mean time. I don't mind if the card doesn't run at its full potential, because as it is im still able to play everything in my library on my HD4850, but I don't want to get into the situation where the performance is worse, for whatever reason because the components aren't compatible or something. That said a nice boost would be a very welcome bonus though.
 
Rickster said:
I must have had a rubbish MB back then.
Click to expand...

Probably an Intel or Gigabyte board, can't remember any which clocked according to the achievable results. I still own my Asus P5B Deluxe and it can clock the living... still working though. The MSI's also had a good clock... many clocked with Foxconn boards.
 
Remember that not all chips overclock the same. You might of had a dud.

Try and get a second hand card, something that can play games and can be run on your system.
Never buy individual parts in increments in hopes of building a PC up, rather save all that money and build one in one go, that way your components won't be too dated that quickly.
 
ave said:
I have a Intel Q8200 quad core 2.33GHz with 2GB RAM DDR2 and a ATI HD4850 PCI-E (+- 2008)

The cards giving a bit of trouble, so I may need to get a new one. I've been looking at the HD7770 (+- R1700) or even a P7 260x (+- R2214) Obviously my system is a little out dated now, so will I even be able to run those cards, and is it worth getting the P7, or will my pc just bottleneck any performance increase? Will I even see much improvement with the HD7770?

Bonus question, What would be a good nvidia card to try at more or less the same price point? I'm a linux man, so it may be worth looking at them, seeing as how they seem to be more linux friendly.
Click to expand...

A Radeon with the newer GCN would be a nice upgrade, but consider that AMD stopped performance improvements for Windows XP over a year ago. Moving to Windows 7 at a minimum would give you more current driver support.

Nvidia still supports XP for now, but the next round of drivers will drop it somewhere in a July update that will be pushed out.

Given that you like dabbling in Linux, Nvidia is the better choice. Anything running the GCN architecture has atrocious performance under Linux (although this is being worked on by AMD), so much so that my HD6870 can occasionally match the score of a Radeon R9 280X. Depending on what games you currently play and what game clients you use, you might be able to switch over to Linux entirely and never pay for Windows again.

ave said:
Yeah I'm a gamer, but I'm still running windows xp (32bit), so I can't play any of the latest games anyway.
As far as I know that can only support something like 3GB RAM?
Click to expand...

XP 32-bit will support 4GB RAM, it just won't access all of it. You'll get something between 3.2GB to 3.5GB of accessible memory.

If it's just something to tie you over, have a look at these options:

AMD:
Sapphire Radeon HD7730 1GB GDDR5 @ R880
PowerColor Radeon R7 250X 1GB GDDR5 @ R1199

NVIDIA:
ASUS Geforce GT630 1GB GDDR3 @ R812 (this is the one based on Kepler, not Fermi, slower than the HD7730 thanks to the memory and only slightly faster than Intel's HD4600)
MSI Geforce GTX650 1GB GDDR5 @ R1370

If you intend to keep using them:
EVGA Geforce GTX750 Superclocked 1GB GDDR5 @ R1817
PowerColor Radeon R7 260X 2GB GDDR5 @ R1699
 
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XP 32-bit will support 4GB RAM, it just won't access all of it. You'll get something between 3.2GB to 3.5GB of accessible memory.
Click to expand...
PCIe address space is any thing from 256mb to 768mb, and then it still depends on the rest of the hardware, chipset and bios, south of 3gb is a bit more optimistic, considering 1.5gb is the min as address space, won't allow access to that reserved portion of the memory.
 
NAG - Wesley said:
A Radeon with the newer GCN would be a nice upgrade, but consider that AMD stopped performance improvements for Windows XP over a year ago. Moving to Windows 7 at a minimum would give you more current driver support.

Nvidia still supports XP for now, but the next round of drivers will drop it somewhere in a July update that will be pushed out.

Given that you like dabbling in Linux, Nvidia is the better choice. Anything running the GCN architecture has atrocious performance under Linux (although this is being worked on by AMD), so much so that my HD6870 can occasionally match the score of a Radeon R9 280X. Depending on what games you currently play and what game clients you use, you might be able to switch over to Linux entirely and never pay for Windows again.



XP 32-bit will support 4GB RAM, it just won't access all of it. You'll get something between 3.2GB to 3.5GB of accessible memory.

If it's just something to tie you over, have a look at these options:

AMD:
Sapphire Radeon HD7730 1GB GDDR5 @ R880
PowerColor Radeon R7 250X 1GB GDDR5 @ R1199

NVIDIA:
ASUS Geforce GT630 1GB GDDR3 @ R812 (this is the one based on Kepler, not Fermi, slower than the HD7730 thanks to the memory and only slightly faster than Intel's HD4600)
MSI Geforce GTX650 1GB GDDR5 @ R1370

If you intend to keep using them:
EVGA Geforce GTX750 Superclocked 1GB GDDR5 @ R1817
PowerColor Radeon R7 260X 2GB GDDR5 @ R1699
Click to expand...

Thanks for the post and links- that was extremely helpful. I didn't realise that AMD had stopped xp support so long ago.

I see they are Powercolor. I've never heard of that, how does that compare to Asus or gigabyte for example.
 
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ave said:
Thanks for the post and links- that was extremely helpful. I didn't realise that AMD had stopped xp support so long ago.

I see they are Powercolor. I've never heard of that, how does that compare to Asus or gigabyte for example.
Click to expand...

PowerColor is run by Tul Corporation, which also handles the VTX3D brand. They're usually on par with Sapphire and their Devil versions are on par with anything from the MSI Hawk or Lightning families. PowerColor used to have a following locally but they pulled out of SA in 2009-ish (can't remember when exactly) and worked on building their brand in Asia. Where they used to be a third-rate player they are now one of AMD's closest partners.
 
NAG - Wesley said:
PowerColor is run by Tul Corporation, which also handles the VTX3D brand. They're usually on par with Sapphire and their Devil versions are on par with anything from the MSI Hawk or Lightning families. PowerColor used to have a following locally but they pulled out of SA in 2009-ish (can't remember when exactly) and worked on building their brand in Asia. Where they used to be a third-rate player they are now one of AMD's closest partners.
Click to expand...

Okay, that's interesting. Their prices seem pretty good as well.
 
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