- Oct 7, 2010
- 8
- 0
- 18,510
I have always built a complete PC all at once in the past, but I'm a bit short of cash at the moment and also well out of touch with the latest kit as it's been a few years since I built one.
My current machine has an Asus P5K-E mainboard with an Intel Q9550 and 4GB RAM, 2xSATA drives and a 520W PSU, running Vista x64. The GFX chip blew up a little while back and in desperation I ran out and bought the first thing I could find on a shelf locally... a 9800GT. This is now holding me back when playing anything written in the last 5 years! I spend a lot of my time on flight sims, but also Fallout, Bioshock, Assassins Creed and the like...and some god sims.
I want a new card that won't break the bank (£100-150/ $150-250), will be compatible with my current setup and won't require additional power than my 520W...or I need to factor in £50 for a PSU out of my budget.
I have read that to ensure compatibility with my board's PCIe slot, which is v1.1 I think, I should stick to nVidia - but that might be wrong as I have also read elsewhere that a BIOS update will make my board compatible with v3.0 but I don't want to be stuck with an unusable card.
So it boils down to a GTX 650, 660 or a budget 760 at a push. I'm not sure I'll 'feel the benefit' from a higher-end card with my current setup, and I've not got slider-OCD so I'm happy with less than full settings and 10-20fps is fine by me. I just want to get away from the seconds-at-a-time lagginess I have with this card and drag myself into the 2010's
Thoughts?
My current machine has an Asus P5K-E mainboard with an Intel Q9550 and 4GB RAM, 2xSATA drives and a 520W PSU, running Vista x64. The GFX chip blew up a little while back and in desperation I ran out and bought the first thing I could find on a shelf locally... a 9800GT. This is now holding me back when playing anything written in the last 5 years! I spend a lot of my time on flight sims, but also Fallout, Bioshock, Assassins Creed and the like...and some god sims.
I want a new card that won't break the bank (£100-150/ $150-250), will be compatible with my current setup and won't require additional power than my 520W...or I need to factor in £50 for a PSU out of my budget.
I have read that to ensure compatibility with my board's PCIe slot, which is v1.1 I think, I should stick to nVidia - but that might be wrong as I have also read elsewhere that a BIOS update will make my board compatible with v3.0 but I don't want to be stuck with an unusable card.
So it boils down to a GTX 650, 660 or a budget 760 at a push. I'm not sure I'll 'feel the benefit' from a higher-end card with my current setup, and I've not got slider-OCD so I'm happy with less than full settings and 10-20fps is fine by me. I just want to get away from the seconds-at-a-time lagginess I have with this card and drag myself into the 2010's
Thoughts?
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram