750ti and Core 2 Quad Q9300

[OwenBurton]

So basically I have this pc that I've been using for at least a year now and I picked it up off of my mate. With this pc i've managed to play some not very demanding games like Gmod CS:GO and Cod Waw happily on low resolutions with the specs of 6gb ram, the core 2 quad and a radeon hd5450. Now I was wondering if I was to buy a GTX 750ti low profile would it be a useful upgrade and would it actually work with these components without being strained by bottlenecking. Thanks, Owen.

[LabRat]

you'll get much better gaming performance to the point that you will then be cpu bound.

[catzambia]

Go for it.

[OwenBurton]

1 minute ago, LabRat said:

you'll get much better gaming performance to the point that you will then be cpu bound.

So it'll definitely be worth the £100? Oh and sorry to be such a pest but even with a 350 watt psu would it work fine as its the low profile version. My pc stays cool enough so I dont need to worry about that.

[OwenBurton]

And 1 last question - My friend as the Low profile 750ti with an amd a6 quad and 8gb ram so will I see similar performance speeds or will mine be much lower? Oh and damn this community is fast at replying.

[LabRat]

depends on the ps, but I'd take the chance. it might be 350watts but it could also be a pile of crap 350watts.

buy the card. you won't regret it.

[glitchmaster0001]

also why not upgrade the CPU to a Xeon X5460 and OC the CPU to 4.0GHz then you can play most AAA titles at medium to high settings plus the mod only costs $20 

[LabRat]

i don't remember the exact speed of the core 2 anymore but the performance should be around the same.

buy the card already.

[catzambia]

Yeah, it doesn't need any external power other than that provided by the pcie slot. If you're really worried, you can grab a cheap evga power supply for 40 bucks that will be much more reliable than the psu in your system now, assuming it's some oem pos. Also, if you're really worried about bottlenecking, and can't overclock on your motherboard you could buy a Q9500 cpu for an extra couple hundred mhz. You should see better performance than your friend in games that really use the CPU, because even a fast Core 2 Quad can beat amd's apus.

[OwenBurton]

2 minutes ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

also why not upgrade the CPU to a Xeon X5460 and OC the CPU to 4.0GHz then you can play most AAA titles at medium to high settings plus the mod only costs $20 

I probably will do in a few months I currently have to pay for gym and everything and as im only 15 its hard to pay for these things. But thanks for the suggestion and genuinely holy crap thanks for the replies

[catzambia]

1 minute ago, OwenBurton said:

I probably will do in a few months I currently have to pay for gym and everything and as im only 15 its hard to pay for these things. But thanks for the suggestion and genuinely holy crap thanks for the replies

Welcome to the Linustechtips forum man!

[glitchmaster0001]

2 minutes ago, OwenBurton said:

I probably will do in a few months I currently have to pay for gym and everything and as im only 15 its hard to pay for these things. But thanks for the suggestion and genuinely holy crap thanks for the replies

id say upgrade the CPU first though. i had a Q9300 in 2 systems both of them bottlenecked my GTX 760 at stock speeds and even OCed 

[catzambia]

2 minutes ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

id say upgrade the CPU first though. i had a Q9300 in 2 systems both of them bottlenecked my GTX 760 at stock speeds and even OCed 

Yeah, but even without the cpu upgrade you'll be seeing a HUGE performance jump from that 5450.

[LabRat]

2 minutes ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

id say upgrade the CPU first though. i had a Q9300 in 2 systems both of them bottlenecked my GTX 760 at stock speeds and even OCed 

you do know what the performance of a  5450 is don't you? I'll send you one so you can try it. then come back and rescind that last statement.

[catzambia]

Yeah, I had forgotten the performance of the 5450 we had in our old HP computer All we could play is minecraft.

To OwenBurton, get the GTX 750. The performance will be fricking awesome and will blow your mind. Enjoy 1080p ultra settings my friend, you can upgrade that cpu later.

[catzambia]

Oh, and you probably already know this, but you'll need to run a driver removing software to clean out the AMD drivers before you install the nvidia drivers, just a reminder.

[OwenBurton]

4 minutes ago, catzambia said:

Yeah, I had forgotten the performance of the 5450 we had in our old HP computer All we could play is minecraft.

To OwenBurton, get the GTX 750. The performance will be fricking awesome and will blow your mind. Enjoy 1080p ultra settings my friend, you can upgrade that cpu later.

 

2 minutes ago, catzambia said:

Oh, and you probably already know this, but you'll need to run a driver removing software to clean out the AMD drivers before you install the nvidia drivers, just a reminder.

Yeah the 5450 is an excuse of a graphics card haha but thanks guys. I'm actually glad I signed up here now. Oh and yeah I know to remove the drivers but thanks for that extra reply incase I didn't. This site is ridiculously supportive, its crazy. Now I just gotta gain a few extra pounds to get the card then I'll be flying.

[aisle9]

A few things to keep in mind about the GTX 750 Ti low-profile cards by MSI and Gigabyte:

-Both cards run hot. The Gigabyte runs hotter because it only has a single fan, but neither one is particularly cool in operation, meaning fan noise might be an issue.

-The MSI card overclocks like crap. With the right fan curves, I can get it Kombustor stable for 10 minutes at a time at +125MHz on the core, +600MHz on the memory. Go into Heaven or any game? Boom, insta-crash. I've got it stable at +50MHz on the core, +225MHz on the memory now, but considering how much juice it seemed to have at the outset, it's disappointing to end up there. The Gigabyte version supposedly overclocks better, but it runs hotter to begin with, so...

 

Now that I've knocked it, I'll give you the good:

-With settings on high, my MSI LP 750 Ti can handle Overwatch in 900p at 50FPS. Dial it down to medium or take the resolution down to 720p and I can get 60fps pretty easily. It's a surprisingly capable little card.

-It. Fits. Anything. Almost. It's a half-width card, which is great, but if you use the VGA adapter it becomes a three-slot card. The cooler takes up a slot below the PCB, and if you use the VGA adapter, you have to go above the PCB to mount it. Not an issue for me because I don't use the VGA adapter, but something to consider. That said, it's by far the most powerful half-width card available to US residents. Now, once that 950 makes its way over...

 

Overall, I really like the card. The overclocking shortcomings are a bummer, but it performs well enough without OC'ing to handle pretty much anything at 720p, with some settings reductions, at playable framerates, and can handle 1080p as well as any other 750 Ti.

[glitchmaster0001]

16 minutes ago, LabRat said:

you do know what the performance of a  5450 is don't you? I'll send you one so you can try it. then come back and rescind that last statement.

uh yea i ran nvidia geforce 6150LE onboard graphics before. try that for once then come back and you'll think the 5450 is a beast of a GPU. and also i do have a HD 4350 (even older than the 5450) card that i used to play minecraft CSGO tf2 and unturned with on low settings. i ran 2 q9300 system before and both of which bottlenecked even my low end GPUs. upgrade the CPU first since it is the cheaper one to upgrade then OC it to 4.0GHz and now you can save up so cash to buy a better GPU instead of the 750TI since now you have more CPU headroom than before. basic logic 

[glitchmaster0001]

15 minutes ago, catzambia said:

Yeah, but even without the cpu upgrade you'll be seeing a HUGE performance jump from that 5450.

but if op does the cheaper option sure he'll have to wait longer but by then he can buy a better entry level card with the extra cash like a GTX 760 used or save up a bit and buy an RX 480. 

[OwenBurton]

3 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

A few things to keep in mind about the GTX 750 Ti low-profile cards by MSI and Gigabyte:

-Both cards run hot. The Gigabyte runs hotter because it only has a single fan, but neither one is particularly cool in operation, meaning fan noise might be an issue.

-The MSI card overclocks like crap. With the right fan curves, I can get it Kombustor stable for 10 minutes at a time at +125MHz on the core, +600MHz on the memory. Go into Heaven or any game? Boom, insta-crash. I've got it stable at +50MHz on the core, +225MHz on the memory now, but considering how much juice it seemed to have at the outset, it's disappointing to end up there. The Gigabyte version supposedly overclocks better, but it runs hotter to begin with, so...

 

Now that I've knocked it, I'll give you the good:

-With settings on high, my MSI LP 750 Ti can handle Overwatch in 900p at 50FPS. Dial it down to medium or take the resolution down to 720p and I can get 60fps pretty easily. It's a surprisingly capable little card.

-It. Fits. Anything. Almost. It's a half-width card, which is great, but if you use the VGA adapter it becomes a three-slot card. The cooler takes up a slot below the PCB, and if you use the VGA adapter, you have to go above the PCB to mount it. Not an issue for me because I don't use the VGA adapter, but something to consider. That said, it's by far the most powerful half-width card available to US residents. Now, once that 950 makes its way over...

 

Overall, I really like the card. The overclocking shortcomings are a bummer, but it performs well enough without OC'ing to handle pretty much anything at 720p, with some settings reductions, at playable framerates, and can handle 1080p as well as any other 750 Ti.

So to sum it up I should probably get it for the mean time and then upgrade when I have more money. Btw which one would you say is personally better then as it seems you are weighing more towards the msi than the gigabyte model.

[OwenBurton]

3 minutes ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

but if op does the cheaper option sure he'll have to wait longer but by then he can buy a better entry level card with the extra cash like a GTX 760 used or save up a bit and buy an RX 480. 

Yeah I agree your way's probably better in the long run but this ways better for the present, but I am remembering what you said :).

[glitchmaster0001]

3 minutes ago, OwenBurton said:

So to sum it up I should probably get it for the mean time and then upgrade when I have more money. Btw which one would you say is personally better then as it seems you are weighing more towards the msi than the gigabyte model.

what i would recommend you is save up more money and buy a better GPU like a RX 470 or RX 480, maybe you can go even in the used market and pick up a cheap GTX 760 for around $80 or $70 

[OwenBurton]

1 minute ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

what i would recommned you is save up more money and buy a better GPU like a RX 470 or RX 480, maybe you can go even in the used market and pick up a cheap GTX 760 for around $80 or $70 

There's a lack in used Graphics cards over in the uk. It seems pc gaming hasn't taken off in comparison to consoles over here, so your way would be quite hard for me.

[OwenBurton]

I just read this review http://www.overclock.net/products/msi-geforce-gtx-750-ti-low-profile/reviews/7291 which is of a pc very similar to mine, besides the ugly looking case which is extremely similar to what schools would use. I think im going to go with getting the 750ti then so thanks for all the suggestions but one last question - Msi or Gigabyte?