Is it worth it to upgrade the video card/power supply?
July 28th, 2013
I was wondering if some of the more computer savvy folks can tell me whether or not it’s worth my money to upgrade my current computer to a better video card. I’m not much of a PC gamer but I wouldn’t mind messing with a few games here in there. I recently got RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 (Yes I know it’s like 10 years old) and I have some trouble running it smoothly when the game gets really busy. I have to lower the quality for it too run smooth but it kind of looks like… well it looks like ass! Not the good kind of ass either!
Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 240 Processor – 2.80GHz
RAM: 3GB RAM
Video: nVidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
OS: Windows 7
The computer itself runs super quick overall. I’ve never had any issues with it in terms of slowdown. That being said, I don’t really use it for overly demanding tasks other then videos.
So… would it be worth it to upgrade to a better, relatively cheap video card? Can I play today’s game on this rig if I do an upgrade?
Thanks,
Christopher
Buy a cheap little graphics card like the ATI 6570 or 6770. You can get a 6570 for £50 or a 6770 for £80.
I’ve got a 6850 and overclocked it, it runs any of the latest games maxed out (usually unless its a bad console port) at 50-60fps constantly.
Also, if you get a graphics card like that you might want to consider getting a new power supply. If your current one is under 400W, you will probably need to buy a new one. I would recommend getting a 500W for your build.
step up your GPU and RAM, everything else is fine
Definitely upgrade the graphics card before anything else, you’ll get the most benefit from that.
Thanks for the help everyone. Much appreciated!
Christopher
I would suggest HD 5670 or 6570 or 6670 because your Athlon II X2 will bottleneck a higher card.
You can also try using softwares Like Game Booster.
http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html
Shah_Jahan replied: I would suggest HD 5670 or 6570 or 6670 because your Athlon II X2 will bottleneck a higher card.
You can also try using softwares Like Game Booster.
http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html
Hmmm. I wish I read this before hand. I actually went out and got at new power supply, corsair 600W and a Gigabyte nVidia GTX560. Cost me just about $300 Canadian. All in all, everything seems to be running great now. I downloaded the demo of Mass Effect 3 and the game runs smooth as butter! I guess the RAM is the next step but I’ll hold off for the time being.
It’ll be nice to do a little PC gaming from time to time!
Thanks again guys!
You should seriously consider upgrading your cpu and mobo because your athlon will bottleneck your 560
lol @OP you paired a 560 with a dual core. total overkill.
CXChrisman replied: Shah_Jahan replied: I would suggest HD 5670 or 6570 or 6670 because your Athlon II X2 will bottleneck a higher card.
You can also try using softwares Like Game Booster.
http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html
Hmmm. I wish I read this before hand. I actually went out and got at new power supply, corsair 600W and a Gigabyte nVidia GTX560. Cost me just about $300 Canadian. All in all, everything seems to be running great now. I downloaded the demo of Mass Effect 3 and the game runs smooth as butter! I guess the RAM is the next step but I'll hold off for the time being.
It'll be nice to do a little PC gaming from time to time!
Thanks again guys!
nexty step would be Mobo RAM and CPU.
So I went a little overbored the with video card eh? Damn! I use to know a lot about this stuff, I swear! Guess that’s what happens when you walk into the local computer store and say “I need a new video card…” without providing any of the specs of what computer you have. Is the 560 video card that I bought good because I’m seriously thinking about just holding onto it and building my own custom rig over the next few weeks. Learn a little something in the process.
That being said, I would still like an upgraded card on the machine I specified. So the 6670 is a good one to get for my current set-up?
Thanks for being patient with me!
Christopher
You can buy a 2GB HD 5670 for $69.99 here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129216
OR you can buy HD 6670
Yeah, 560 is a good card and you can use it for your new gaming rig.