Help with possible upgrades

[zCypher]

Hello,

I'm looking to get a reasonable video card for the occasional game, using a 7600GT right now and just play a bit of CSS gungame, nothing heavy. I'd like to try some newer/better games. even in CSS if I max everything out, it does lag. so I know i need some upgrades.

here are the current specs:

Antec Earthwatts 650w
MSI G31M3V2-L
E5200
4GB DDR2-800
WD TB Black 32/7200
7600GT 256m
samsung 23.5" , 2048x1152 (something like that)

I've been looking at some SSD and WD Black with 64 cache, but having thought about it more, I think it would be better to get a decent video card and another WD Black. That way I can keep it around ~$200.

what do you think? I was looking at some more expensive video cards, but I'm not sure it's worthwhile with my current system.

 

[happy medium]

Sonce you allready have a 7600gt, go with another Nvidia card like a gtx460 1gb.
They are about 160$/ 180$. Should be about 4x better then the 7600gt.

 

[toyota]

even a lowly 9600gt is 4x faster than a 7600gt.

since the OP hardly games and when he does its mainly CSS, I see no point in a $160 gpu. if he is really going to try and play some newer games then sure. problem is some of those newer games might need a little more oomph than an E5200 can deliver.

 

[ibex333]

even a lowly 9600gt is 4x faster than a 7600gt.

since the OP hardly games and when he does its mainly CSS, I see no point in a $160 gpu. if he is really going to try and play some newer games then sure. problem is some of those newer games might need a little more oomph than an E5200 can deliver.

The OP should OC his e5200. My e5200(in sig) burns through any game out there easy at current speed.

 

[toyota]

The OP should OC his e5200. My e5200(in sig) burns through any game out there easy at current speed.

yeah overall an oced E5200 and gtx460 would be a pretty decent combo.

 

[zCypher]

The OP should OC his e5200. My e5200(in sig) burns through any game out there easy at current speed.

How'd you OC it so much? I tried changing some BIOS settings once (only slightly) and it wouldn't even boot up. Of course it is the stock HSF, but it idles under 40c.

Basically I want to find the best video card to match my existing setup.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I'd say look into a minimum of GTS 450 or Radeon HD 5770 and a maximum of GTX 460 or Radeon 6850.

since the OP hardly games

Uhhh, the point of his upgrade is to... well...

I'd like to try some newer/better games.

 

[zCypher]

So the 460 is a good pick? Seems good.
So 470 and up would basically be overkill for my system, right?

 

[toyota]

I'd say look into a minimum of GTS 450 or Radeon HD 5770 and a maximum of GTX 460 or Radeon 6850.


Uhhh, the point of his upgrade is to... well...

how about reading my whole post instead of picking a single sentence out?

 

[toyota]

So the 460 is a good pick? Seems good.
So 470 and up would basically be overkill for my system, right?

a 470 would be a bit silly with an E5200. a 460 is much cheaper, quieter, cooler running, and consumes less power. and of course its much better suited to your system. even with a gtx460, I would certainly oc that E5200.

 

[zCypher]

a 470 would be a bit silly with an E5200. a 460 is much cheaper, quieter, cooler running, and consumes less power. and of course its much better suited to your system. even with a gtx460, I would certainly oc that E5200.

Ok, thanks all for the responses it's exactly the info I needed.

My next question would be, how to pick between the NVIDIA and ATI varieties? Will even notice much difference between the two? I'm assuming that in this segment, the drivers are probably well developed in both cases. I've always thought of NVIDIA as something that goes with Intel and ATI with AMD, but I guess that may not always be the case.

 

[VirtualLarry]

yeah overall an oced E5200 and gtx460 would be a pretty decent combo.

That's what's in my friend's rig that I built him some years ago. E5200 @ 3.625 (was at 3.75, but it degraded slightly), and a GTX460 768MB MSI Twin Frozer. I realize now that I probably should have gotten him the 1GB card, but at the time they cost a reasonable bit more. It comes factory overclocked to 750, and with all 336 shaders enabled like the 1GB cards. He plays at 1920x1200, but I don't think he uses AA at all. Hopefully he's not VRAM-limited at that res, if he disables AA. He mainly plays MMOs.

He used to have a dual-slot EVGA 9600GSO 384MB with 96SP, so I told him that the new card was like double the horsepower of his old card or more. (It actually has around triple the shader power, so F@H would be tripled, if I could ever convince him to run F@H for me.)

I'm trying to convince him to move to Windows 7 64-bit for his gaming purposes, and possibly get an SSD (he currently runs a 250GB Seagate IDE drive).

Maybe an upgrade to a Q8200 quad too, although his RAM maxes out at 400Mhz, I think (DDR2-667 or maybe even 533), so he would be limited to around 2.8Ghz of CPU speed.

Would a Q8200 @ 2.8, be considered an upgrade over an E5200 @ 3.625, for strictly gaming purposes (I know the quad would be slightly better for F@H performance)?

Oh, and OP, that 7600GT has to go. Slooooow old card. Even a second-hand 8800GT/9800GT would make a nice difference, and with everyone else upgrading, you're sure to find one cheap. Or perhaps a 4850. Still, a GTX460 is better still, although it will cost you $160 or a little more, and you would really need to overclock your CPU a bit to match the GTX460 so you're not bottlenecked.

 

[zCypher]

GTX 460 or ATI 6850?

The 7600GT was a hand me down from a friend, so I would not be using the integrated video until I got a good card myself. It was still an upgrade from the integrated, so I was happy.

 

[happy medium]

GTX 460 or ATI 6850?

The 7600GT was a hand me down from a friend, so I would not be using the integrated video until I got a good card myself. It was still an upgrade from the integrated, so I was happy.

I would definitly go for the Nvidia card if you had a Nvidia card previously installed in you system.
I'm on this forums a few hours a day and allways see people with driver problems when going from ATI to Nvidia or vise versa.

In this case the cards are about =, so just go the easy route and stick with Nvidia.

 

[zCypher]

Uninstalling / reinstalling drivers, or even reinstalling the whole OS is really not an issue if I need to do it.

Is there a particular revision of 460, or a specific make or model I should be looking for?

 

[happy medium]

Uninstalling / reinstalling drivers, or even reinstalling the whole OS is really not an issue if I need to do it.

Is there a particular revision of 460, or a specific make or model I should be looking for?

Na, just get the cheapest one you can find with 1gb memory.

Here is a GALAXY model for $155AR and free Just cause 2 game.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162055

 

[killster1]

That galaxy card looks cool has fan that pops up for ez clean. i dont understand why you guys think nvid only since he had 7600gt already, whats so hard about installing new drivers?

Also Quad will help on quad games but go slower on dual core limited games hahaha.

 

[happy medium]

whats so hard about installing new drivers?

To be honest , I dont know, but trouble seems to happen and happen alot.
I seen some people have to do complete reinstalls.

The 6850 and gtx460 are very similar , thats why I said "Just take the easy route" and go Nvidia If fact I think the gtx460 is cheaper now.

 

[zCypher]

At NCIX.com,

for $250 including shipping and tax, i get 1TB Black w/64m cache + EVGA 1GB GTX 460

how's that?

 

[happy medium]

At NCIX.com,

for $250 including shipping and tax, i get 1TB Black w/64m cache + EVGA 1GB GTX 460

how's that?

hey, thats a good deal. I'd jump on that.:thumbsup:

 

[MentalIlness]

So how many moments do you need ?

 

[zCypher]

Just waiting for someone to jump in and say NO don't get that one, this other one is way better!

 

[happy medium]

Just waiting for someone to jump in and say NO don't get that one, this other one is way better!

SO your waiting for someone to troll the thread?

 

[zCypher]

SO your waiting for someone to troll the thread?

Why would it be trolling? There could be a better option that I don't know of and hasn't been brought up in this thread. I'm just open to anyone's ideas before I place the order for this one.

 

[happy medium]

Why would it be trolling? There could be a better option that I don't know of and hasn't been brought up in this thread. I'm just open to anyone's ideas before I place the order for this one.

Gotcha. ok:thumbsup: