Suitable GPU for an old PC

[SeriuzBuzinez]

Hey guys,

I am looking for a suitable GPU for my PC which is around 3 - 4 years old, I want something which will not bottleneck with the other hardware, and something which could possibly run some new games such as SimCity as well as some of last years games like Skyrim to a pretty good standard, price ain't really an issue but I don't want to spend a fortune on something which won't be 100% utilised by the rest of my PC ..... I used to have a 9600GT but it died so picked something dirt cheap up to carry on ( no on-board graphics :( ).

Heres my specs

Mainboard : Asus Berkeley

Chipset : Intel G31/G33/G35

Processor : Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2400MHz

Physical Memory : 3072MBDDR2-SDRAM

Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce 210

Hard Disk : SAMSUNG HD103SJ (1000GB)

Hard Disk : Seagate ST332082 0AS (320GB)

DVD-Rom Drive : HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GSA-H60L

CD-Rom Drive : DTSOFT Virtual CdRom Device

Monitor Type : Hewlett Packard HP w2207 - 22 inches

Network Card : Intel 82801IB/IR/IH (ICH9 Family) Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Operating System : Windows 7 Ultimate Professional Media Center 6.01.7601 Service Pack 1 (32-bit)

DirectX : Version 11.00

Windows Performance Index : 4.1 on 7.9

[LimeDk]

7850 7870 should be fine

[killerx525]

What's the power supply model, the case and the budget?

[Kev]

Well, if you got a 400 Watt or higher PSU then go for a 7850. If that's to much then go for an older 6850 or 6870.

[Luke]

Well' date=' if you got a 400 Watt or higher PSU then go for a 7850. If that's to much then go for an older 6850 or 6870.[/quote']

A 6870 on a unknown PSU? That card has 150W TDP He could be running a 300W OEM PSU for all you know that doesn't even have that power on the 12V rail.

[Luke]

I need to know the model of your power supply and at least an approximate idea of what your budget is before recommending anything.

[Guest]

Your old card draws about 100w at max and most likely died of overheating - I've got one in a 775 build that is going down a similar road of overheating. Problem you'll have on the bulk of the new cards is that they're going to be bottlenecked by your existing system. What are you looking at in terms of a budget? Saying price is not an issue doesn't really help, $100? $150?

[SeriuzBuzinez]

Hey guys sorry for replying so late,

My pc has a 350w PSU and the case is mid-size ATX, all the specs are in this document here

My budget is around £200 for the GPU as this is a fairly old pc, don't want to spend a fortune on it, I may upgrade the RAM as well... it won't hurt really.

[TechFan@ic]

Hey guys sorry for replying so late,

My pc has a 350w PSU and the case is mid-size ATX, all the specs are in this document here

My budget is around £200 for the GPU as this is a fairly old pc, don't want to spend a fortune on it, I may upgrade the RAM as well... it won't hurt really.

With that low of a PSU you're only option is to get an HD 7750 .

[shirokado]

id personally recommend getting the 7750, this model to be exact, this requires little power and is pretty powerful for the price

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-FX775AZNP4-FX-775A-ZNP4/dp/B007Z3T5JC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358372045&sr=8-1&keywords=hd7750+xfx

i personally use amazon, cause i have prime, but you are free to use NCIX or other sites as well.

[ToxicPT]

Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - 149.99£

XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - 39.95£

189.94£ - Overclockers UK

Maybe then, when you get CPU + Board + Ram, you may want to take those plus the hard drives with you :)

[SeriuzBuzinez]

Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - 149.99£

XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - 39.95£

189.94£ - Overclockers UK

Maybe then, when you get CPU + Board + Ram, you may want to take those plus the hard drives with you :)

Thanks!!

I think this is what I am going to do :D well within my budget too!!! :D

[ToxicPT]

Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - 149.99£

XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - 39.95£

189.94£ - Overclockers UK

Maybe then, when you get CPU + Board + Ram, you may want to take those plus the hard drives with you :)

Also your pc is quite old for memory upgrade, and you're fine for 3GB ram.

When Haswell comes out, you may want to utilize this upgrade and some components you have already.

[Opsilon]

Hey guys sorry for replying so late,

My pc has a 350w PSU and the case is mid-size ATX, all the specs are in this document here

My budget is around £200 for the GPU as this is a fairly old pc, don't want to spend a fortune on it, I may upgrade the RAM as well... it won't hurt really.

Dude you have a 350w psu on a core 2 quad? wtf is that... oh nvm, your pc can do a lot if you OC it a bit, my friend has a 4 year old core 2 duo @4ghz, works epic, sure it's not an i5 but still, get 6 gb of ram ( if triple channel ), or 4 gb ( if dual ), NV gtx 650ti/660 or AMD HD 7770/7850 and you will have a nice pc for next 2 years (if nothing dies that is )