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What to upgrade?

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Hi I want to upgrade my graphics card but I'm not sure what else I would need to upgrade as I don't have much knowledge about the technical stuff. I am a gamer and I want my desktop to be able to play games like Battlefield 3 on the highest settings.

Here are my specs (please let me know if I have missed something out)

- abit AB9 QuadGT
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
- Intel P965 Express Chipset
- 2GB of RAM
- Dual DDR2 800Mhz
- PCI-Express x16
- 500 Watts
- NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS

I have been using this desktop for 5 years now so the new games are lagging. Again, I'm just starting to learn about this stuff so apologies for my lack of knowledge. Please give any recommendations and thanks in advance.

~Brian

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Hi, welcome to the forums.

Your GPU is the bottleneck. An 8800GTS was a great value back in the day but it just can't cope with modern games.
The Q6600 is a good old CPU, excellent for overclocking. If you have a home build system, you might consider throwing a decent CPU cooler on there and OCing that bad boy.

The other issue could be RAM. 2GB of ram really doesn't cut it anymore, 4GB is standard. If you could up the RAM it might help.

What PSU do you have? Depending on the amperage, you may be able to upgrade the video card without doing a PSU swap.

Hope that gives you a bit of an idea on what to upgrade. RAM and GPU. Get back to me on that PSU and i'll let you know what you can handle. Cheers.

I would suggest upgarde to a Radeon 6850 Video ~$14x...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

we have couple system using i5-2500K and 6850 and can set to High - Ultra setting under 1920x1080

and the Power supply Requirement is 500W... so that is almost the highest you can go without change yoru power supply.... but that also depends on how Good is your 500W PS ... you use a 8800GTS before ... and it is power comsume at that age...

CPU still OK ... it your system is stable I won't suggest you do any overclock... if you don't do it before... your cpu benchmark score is even better than a AMD A6-3500 APU... or close to an i3 540 CPU performance....

Memory can go for 4GB if you running on window 7... if not you can stay on 2GB first... and change the video card in first step....

striker410 said:
Hi, welcome to the forums.

Your GPU is the bottleneck. An 8800GTS was a great value back in the day but it just can't cope with modern games.
The Q6600 is a good old CPU, excellent for overclocking. If you have a home build system, you might consider throwing a decent CPU cooler on there and OCing that bad boy.

The other issue could be RAM. 2GB of ram really doesn't cut it anymore, 4GB is standard. If you could up the RAM it might help.

What PSU do you have? Depending on the amperage, you may be able to upgrade the video card without doing a PSU swap.

Hope that gives you a bit of an idea on what to upgrade. RAM and GPU. Get back to me on that PSU and i'll let you know what you can handle. Cheers.


Hey thanks for replying.
My PSU is 500watts but I'm not so sure now as it has been 5 years of using it
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striker410 said:
5 years? You should probably buy a new one. Capacitor age will have dropped it's efficiency and output significantly anyway.
I would suggest something along these lines.
PSU: CX500 $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
GPU: XFX 6870 $160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


Okay so upgrade the GPU, change the PSU, upgrade the RAM, overclock the CPU and I'll be good to go?
Thanks so much for your suggestions.

traumaiv said:
make sure if your upgrading cpu to buy a compatible motherboard cant believe that part was not mentioned!

Well seeing as he isn't upgrading his CPU or mobo, I CAN believe it wasn't mentioned =p
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