Is a new graphics card all that I need to game with this system?

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thesynapse

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I got given an old Dell Precision T3500 workstation recently. Inside it at the moment it has:

24GB of memory
Dell 0XPDFK A01 motherboard
Xeon W3503@2.4Ghz chip
QuadroFX580 (512mb) card.

Needless to say, it doesn't hold up well for gaming! I need to make an improvement so it's actually usable for gaming but I'm on a small budget (really trying to get away with £100 ish or a bit less).

1) Am I right in assuming that it's the graphics card that is the main bottleneck here (I know it's not the memory!)?

2) Then, which card? I've looked at the value for money charts here on Tom's Hardware am am considering shelling out for either a R9 270X for about £130 or a R7 250X for about £70 so far.

Someone I work with is offering to sell me an HD7870 for £100. Is that a good deal? Is it THAT much better than the R7 250X? Am I better off getting the newer R9 270X? Or is there not much difference between the R9 270X and the 7870?

Any advice/tips? Things I have not noticed/not considered?

Many thanks in advance.
 
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Gaming performance won't be top-notch, because it's a dual-core Xeon with no hyperthreading, but it'll definitely play most games at medium settings just fine. Memory will definitely not hold you back! Since you were given this system, it would definitely be worth upgrading.

The R9 270X is equivalent to the 7870 - I know this because I have two of them in Crossfire right now. Both cards are much better than the R7 250X, and as long as your coworker isn't giving you a bad card, spending the extra £30 for a 7870 would definitely be worth your money.

Since you're gaming on a lower-end workstation, I'm guessing it has slower, enterprise-class hard drives. They are incredibly durable, but depending on the model may be slower than a new...
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tomosh22

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I was about to say exactly that.
 
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Eximo

Eximo

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HD7870 is equivalent to an R7 270X, so it is a pretty good deal at 100. Cheapest 7870 I can find new is about 120. Cheapest R7 270X is about 125.

Not the best CPU ever, only a dual core at a relatively low frequency, it will probably be a significant bottleneck in some of the newer games if you get any of the video cards you have listed.

If you aren't getting a new powersupply, you might look into the GTX750Ti, very low power card yet powerful.
 
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Jak Atackka

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Gaming performance won't be top-notch, because it's a dual-core Xeon with no hyperthreading, but it'll definitely play most games at medium settings just fine. Memory will definitely not hold you back! Since you were given this system, it would definitely be worth upgrading.

The R9 270X is equivalent to the 7870 - I know this because I have two of them in Crossfire right now. Both cards are much better than the R7 250X, and as long as your coworker isn't giving you a bad card, spending the extra £30 for a 7870 would definitely be worth your money.

Since you're gaming on a lower-end workstation, I'm guessing it has slower, enterprise-class hard drives. They are incredibly durable, but depending on the model may be slower than a new off-the-shelf consumer hard drive. A new graphics card should be your first priority, but for general usage, it might be worth looking into a new hard drive as well.
 
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photonboy

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1) Is this 64-bit Windows 7/8?

I'm not certain how good support would be for gaming on any other Operating System, such as Windows XP 64-bit.

2) Here's how the Asus GTX750Ti compares:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_750_Ti_OC/25.html

It's similar to an HD7850 but the Asus model will overclock even further so it's slightly faster (when not bottlenecked by the CPU).

Recommended: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx750tioc2gd5

OR just use this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ICUGOP0/?tag=pcp0f-21
 
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thesynapse

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Wow, that's a lot of great feedback people - much appreciated!

I knew that there are a lot of bottlenecks in there, it's just a case of identifying which one to deal with first. Seems like graphics card is the way to go first, then motherboard/chip, then hard drive.

Will look at that x750Ti for comparison. Cheers for that tip.

It's windows 7 on 64-bit.

Just looked inside the case and it's a 525w psu. However, I think there's only one spare 6 pin power connector (it's the chunky 2x3 pin thing right?) and if I remember correctly the 7870 needs 2 of these but the 750Ti doesn't need them at all, correct?
 
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thesynapse

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The more I think about it the more I'm thinking that, considering all the other bottlenecks in my setup, I may not see any benefits in the 7870 over the 750Ti for a while and the 750Ti is a safer bet for instant compatibility in my old system w/o needing to upgrade the psu.

Thoughts?
 
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