Upgrade 7600GS to ???

[Guest]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: next few weeks

BUDGET RANGE: 100-200 AUD but am flexible if its worth it

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, watching movies

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: 7600GS, PSU: ATX-430WA (also on sticker says sun pro if you need to know) +5v 38amp, +3.3v 28amp, +12v 17amp

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: INTEL P965 (dg965ry is written on motherboard), 1gig ram ddr2 which is being upgraged to 2gig 800hz very soon, CPU Core 2 Duo 6400 2.13GHz, one cm fan large case, running three hdd currently if that is relevant.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: ebay or where ever will ship to australia

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Australia

PARTS PREFERENCES: no preference.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1440x900

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: basically i just want the best card that my current system can handle. Im will to spend a bit extra on card if it will work with current system. Just recommend any card you feel would suit me and then i can check on prices in australia. Have been gaming on consoles till now and would like to give pc gaming a go now. Also the 7600gs fan is struggling to spin so its time to replace it and making some seriously weird clicking and scrapping noises (visually the fan gets pushed to spin and then slows down and pushed and slows etc....) so the purchase will be pretty soon.

I appreciate all input greatly. i am not that great with this stuff. bit of n00b still but trying to learn it all

PS have a laptop with 9600gt in it would like better performance than that if possible at the very least.

thanks in advance

 

[Lmeow]

Try an ATi Radeon HD 5750, they should be under $200 AUD. If possible, (don't think so, probably over $200 AUD) try to get an HD 5770.

 

[jyjjy]

17 amps on the +12v rail is quite low. An HD5750 may work but you will be pushing things. An HD5670 or one of the low power 9800GTs without a power connector is probably the most I would recommend. For comparison those should be nearly twice as powerful as the mobile version of the 9600GT.
Whatever card you get is going to be limited by your processor on a lot of current games. 2.1 ghz is low by today's standards. Ordinarily I would say overclock it which the processor can handle quite well but your board is Intel so it is highly doubtful it allows for overclocking. Looking up the board on the Intel site it doesn't even list your current processor(or any core2duo) on the compatibility chart so I can't even guess at an appropriate upgrade if you were interested. I guess you'll have to live with being cpu limited in the more intensive current games until you are ready for a new system.

 

[wa1]

Agree with jyjjy, 9800GT or HD5670 are a good option...

 

[Shadow703793]

Imo, upgrade the PSU first, then get a better card like a 5850/5770,etc later. I personally wouldn't trust a good graphics card with a no name PSU.

 

[jyjjy]

Did you really just recommend an HD5850 for someone on a 2.1ghz cpu?