what should i change in my pc to play new games

tsikavlitas · Mar 19, 2013

my pc has
-cpu: AMD athlon 64 x2 5000+
-motherboard: ASUS m3a78-cm
-2gb ram
-ATI Radeon 3100 graphics card

what should i change to make my pc play decently all the new games ( not nececerelly in the highest graphics & as cheap as possible)

blazorthon · Mar 19, 2013

You'd have to change pretty much everything to play any modern games. Most important would be the graphics (that 3100 is probably integrated and not even really a graphics card), but the CPU and RAM aren't far behind.

stickmansam · Mar 19, 2013

I would say getting an better grpahics card, like a HD 6570 or HD 6670

Also get more ram and then a cpu upgrade

The CPU can work decently for now, my bro plays most games at 720p low with an HD2600 (6450 comparable), 4gb of ram and a e5200 (comparable to your cpu but I OC'd his to 3ghz)

tsikavlitas · Mar 19, 2013

blazorthon :

any graphics card that you suggest? mine is 256 MBytes.. how big should it be?

tsikavlitas · Mar 19, 2013

stickmansam :

any graphics card work in any pc?

blazorthon · Mar 19, 2013

tsikavlitas :

That's the RAM capacity of the graphics. That's not very important in your situation. The problem is that it's extremely weak in RAM bandwidth and GPU performance.

Also, an add to my first post:
You can't change the CPU and RAM to something modern without changing the motherboard too, so that'd need replacement too. Chances are that even a low end graphics upgrade will also require a new PSU. You probably need to replace the whole computer if you want to play modern games. Perhaps you can get away with something like Diablo 3 or Minecraft with a weak graphics upgrade, but I wouldn't expect much more from it.

Unlike what the other member said here, I doubt that a Radeon 6670 is feasible with a PSU as old and weak as what you'd have with such a system as this. A Radeon 6570 is possible, but I wouldn't be sure. It would be a huge upgrade coming from what you have nonetheless, but even better would be a Radeon 7750 which is much faster while using a little less power. That's your best chance, but I can't even guarantee that it is not too much for your PSU.

stickmansam · Mar 19, 2013

^his mb seems to be able to support the phenoms

The 6670 and 6570 will work fine as long as your PSU can handle it (should not be too straining on it), your MB supports it
I have a old Delta PSU that ran my 7850 fine though his mileage will vary with his specific PSU

you can grab a 2gb stick of ram for about $2-25 bucks

What's your upgrade budget?

tsikavlitas · Mar 19, 2013

stickmansam :

blazorthon · Mar 19, 2013

stickmansam :

At best, it'll only support the lower power, old stepping Phenoms which are still crappy CPUs.

If OP is using an old OEM system, then there's not much chance that it has even a decent Delta PSU for safely running even a graphics card as power-light as the Radeon 7850.

More RAM doesn't stop it from being slow RAM. It would definitely help, but like with the Phenom, it'd still be insufficient for anything but a few of the lighter games unless OP doesn't mind playing old games.

tsikavlitas · Mar 19, 2013

will radeon 7850 work in my pc?

stickmansam · Mar 19, 2013

blazorthon :

Apparently he can use a phenom II x4 965 (and even the x6's)

I think an incremental upgrade path would be best if you're on a tight budget

1.upgrade the PSU (if it is an very old one or has very little power output or bad quality one)
2.upgrade the GPU
3.upgrade the CPU (and ram if you plan to stay at this level for a while)
4.upgrade the mb to an nice AM3+
5.upgrade as needed from there

blazorthon · Mar 19, 2013

stickmansam :

blazorthon :

Apparently he can use a phenom II x4 965 (and even the x6's)

I think an incremental upgrade path would be best if you're on a tight budget

1.upgrade the PSU (if it is an very old one or has very little power output or bad quality one)
2.upgrade the GPU
3.upgrade the CPU (and ram if you plan to stay at this level for a while)
4.upgrade the mb to an nice AM3+
5.upgrade as needed from there

Asus says that it supports only the AM2/AM2+ CPUs. There is no AM3 support listed anywhere for it.

EDIT: NVM, I found it, my bad. Odd that it was hidden between Phenom and the older CPUs instead of at the end or at least right before the Semprons, but oh well. OK, Phenom II support does make this easier.

tsikavlitas · Mar 19, 2013

can you tell me what exactly should i but.. like what psu and what gpu?

blazorthon · Mar 19, 2013

tsikavlitas :

You can give us specs on your PSU and maybe we can give a more definitive answer, depending on how much of the important info you can give us. A model number would be great, but even if you can just tell us the +12V power delivery (should be printed onto a sticker on the side of the PSU), we should be able to give a conclusive answer. I doubt that your PSU can handle it, but with more information as asked above, we can be more concrete in answering that.

tsikavlitas · Mar 19, 2013

you mean this 100-240vac?

stickmansam · Mar 19, 2013

The phenoms can be used in AM2+ but only with DDR2 [phenoms can use ddr2 and ddr3] (AM3 uses DDR3 ram which this mb can't use) phenom II's fit into AM2+, AM3 and AM3+

Yeah if you provide the PSU info, that will either set you onto a PSU upgrade or straight to GPU (and then upgrade PSU at a later point in time)

Brand +model#+12v rail amperage

stickmansam · Mar 19, 2013

tsikavlitas :

Something like this should be on the side of the PSU

What we need to know is how much amps does the dc 12v rail output
The example below has 16 amps on it's 12v rail

This example has 7 amps on the 12v1 and 13 amps on the 12v2. The v1 and v2 means that the 12v output is split into two rails

blazorthon · Mar 19, 2013

stickmansam :

Phenom II is only supported by AM2/AM2+ boards with BIOS updates. Not all of them have those updates and I missed where it said that those CPUs are currently supported (which I fixed by editing in the correct info for it in my previous response) because it wasn't in the right place. I know the platform/memory compatibility and how all of it works because I've been through it all with many of the AM2 to AM3+ CPUs and even some older ones too

stickmansam · Mar 19, 2013

Yeah he'll have to do a bios update with his old CPU before upgrading

Gotta love AMD upgrade-ability

Personally only have messed with AM2 and AM3+ mb's

blazorthon · Mar 19, 2013

stickmansam :

Amen to that. If OP was with Intel, OP would be in more serious trouble with this.

With AMD, OP can easily just upgrade the CPU to the cheapest Phenom II x4 around 3GHz with at least a little L3 cache, a Radeon 7750, and another 2GB RAM module. When it's time to upgrade again, get a new mobo+ 2x4GB DDR3 memory kit and another Radeon 7750 GDDR5 with a CPU cooler for some overclocking, the next upgrade is a new CPU, and then new graphics, and the cycle continues... Around $200 per upgrade is plenty to do this much with and each upgrade can easily be one or two years apart.

Oh, and a PSU upgrade or two along the way if current PSU is inadequate, of course.

tsikavlitas · Mar 19, 2013

100-240v-6A 50/60 hz 350 watts

tsikavlitas · Mar 19, 2013

model ss-350 et active pfc f3

blazorthon · Mar 19, 2013

What matters is +12V power delivery which would be measured in either +12V amps or +12V watts (may be abbreviated)

The rest of that isn't as important.

stickmansam · Mar 19, 2013

Hmm Seasonic dosen't have their power output listed

http://www.seasonic.com/product/pc_atx.jsp

tsikavlitas · Mar 19, 2013

HOW CAN I SHOW YOU A PICTURE?

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