Machine spec, upgrade choices?

[J_4mes]

I made a thread recently about graphical artifacts I have been seeing throughout everything I play (and even on browsers where I get streak vertical lines of 'miscolouring' that shouldnt be there) and I have come to the 95% conclusion my card has just bitten the bullet and is dieing, which there is nothing I can do about.

Im resenting having to do it but im concidering upgrading my machine because I have not got the means to buy a new computer, however I know my specs are boardering the level of not being able to upgrade so I wanted to ask for some extra advice.

My specs
-----------
PSU - OCZ-450 12U EU (So I assume its a 450Watt, but correct me if im wrong!)
Motherboard - 939 socket AMD NF4K8AC-8EKRS
Processor - AMD Athlon 64 processor 3000+


The perpose would be for gaming, any advice on what I could possibly move up to on a restricted budget? Preferably only changing the graphics card, however If there are any reasnable suggestions for changing other parts by all means do mention!

 

[Rustyy117]

Hmmm.... Well I would say your PC really has come to its end and is time for a complete re-build, however as you don't have the money at the moment I'll recommend the HD4670. It may still get bottlenecked by your 2Ghz, 512MB L2 Cache CPU but its the slowest gaming card I would recommend.

I wouldn't recommend you upgrade your CPU as your motherboard is also outdated.

There's not much point in chucking money at a 939 rig.

 

[J_4mes]

Thanks for a quick reply, Yea I feared it's about time I just threw the whole lot away. Did a quick bit of research on the HD4670 if its necessary that I get rid of this current 7900GS that I have and one question. Does the HD4670 have to be GDDR3, I vaguley know what it means but i cant remember the significance

 

[Rustyy117]

Most HD4670's are DDR3, I believe Sapphire do a DDR4 version, The higher the number after DDR the better/faster basically.

GDDR stands for Graphics Double Data Rate.

DDR4 version: http://www1.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=279

DDR3 Version: http://www.saverstore.com/product/20042947/7725665/HD4670-PCI-E-512-DDR3-HDMI-CRT-DVI-ArCo

 

[megamanx00]

Good think your motherboard is PCI-E . Anyway, as far as I know only Sapphire provides a GDDR4 version, but for that price you may as well go for a 5670. The 1GB version of the card runs slightly slower than the 512MB version simply because the 1GB DDR3 version uses a slightly slower memory speed (1600 effective vs 2000 effective). Here is such a 4670

BIOSTAR VA4673NH51-B $62.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141114

That should be enough to hold you over till you upgrade the rest of your system. Getting anything more powerful doesn't make too much sense until you upgrade the rest of your system as even the 4670 will be held back by your old CPU. You may want to consider overclocking your CPU to extend the usefulness of your computer.

 

[J_4mes]

Im looking at that link now, Tempted to purchase one to replace this current card, but the only question I have right now is how much of a bottleneck would I expect by the rest of my system holding the card back? (Without overclocking the processor)

 

[J_4mes]

I live in the UK so I found a UK link site, because Im pretty sure I cant buy from newegg

http://www.vipergaming.co.uk/asus-radeon-hd4670-512mb-pcie-20-hdmi-hd-4670-p-5749.html

But pretty sure its the exact same card

 

[Rustyy117]

Yes its the same card.