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Want to buy a newer graphics card for an old PC

Last response: in Systems
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Hi

hope this is the right sub cat.

I want to buy a new graphics card for my wife's PC.
Details:
Mainboard: MSI K9A_Platinum
CPU: AMD Athlon FX62
Ram: 2GB Dual Corsair
GPU: ATI Radeon X1950 Pro
PSU: 550W

I would prefer a NVIDIA GPU due to bad experiences in the last years (driver issues, bugs in games coz of ATI card, ...).
Normally I would just buy the best GPU available but my wife do not need an super PC. She plays Sims3 and a lot of adventures. Sims 4 is also in mind. She wants to play Diablo 3 too and actually she plays left 4 dead and Dead Island with me and 2 friends.

So why I am telling you this?
I want to have a gpu for her which can handle these games. Greatest graphic settings are not necessary but more than low and normal is preferred. Currently, she can play these games already (except Diablo 3 which does not run) but with lowest settings and sometimes fps below 20. Sims 3 is the worst of all. Having a bigger family with a huge house is not playable. Dead Island is also very laggy.

I am planning to put in 4 or 6 GB Ram. A tip for that would be nice too because I am not up to date with hardware questions anymore. Must not be the best ram but dual channel would be great.

Upgrading the PSU if necessary is no problem.

I am planning to give around 150 to 200€ for the gpu. Less would be nice. Found a nvidia gtx650 for 150€ but I do not know if it fits (PCI E 3.0?)

Hope you guys can help me with that.

More about : buy newer graphics card

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that card should run fine on the board and yes it play those game on normal. should be able to do max. if im not mistaken, i had a gt 630 and that card was running skyrim on high and battlefield 3 on medium with 30 fps for both games. best $80 i ever spent
Graphics card Expert

TO be honest your motherboard only has PCIE 1.0 I think so any graphics cards will be slowed by it.

Your processor is slow as well and to run a better GPU a branded psu is probably worth having.

For anthing above low or normal you would need a whole new system.

Thank you for your help.

I do not have Skyrim and BF3 so I cannot compare the graphics but actually Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 1 is running on highest settings.

@ Darvus Pravus
Advice taken but I do not buy a new system, which has to run 60% adventures, 10% ego shooters and 30% 3d iso RPGs. The FX62 maybe is not the fastest but still can handle a new old gpu. It does not have to be the gtx 650.

The FX62 is around 6 years old. So if I can buy a GPU which is just 4 or 5 years old, I must get a better performance + new ram and maybe new PSU. Not every GPU which was released after the FX62 is to fast for it.

And even if the GPU does only run with 80% or 70% of capacity. I do not care. Cannot do much wrong with 150€. I just do not want to throw money out of the window.

Maybe you could take a look here:
http://www.alternate.de/html/product/listing.html?navId...

there are a lot of cheap (old?) gpus. There must be some which fits my need.
The Upcoming Sims 4 and Diablo 3 just should run quite fine, than I and she are happy. :) 

What is about MSI N620GT-MD2GD3/LP? It is PCIE 2.0 and needs 300W min (50€). Or this Gainward Geforce GTX 650 GS (100€).

Do not know, how much performance I can expect from the GTX because it needs a PCI-E 3.0. The GT only does need a 2.0 but is much slower anyway. The GTX also needs 400 W, which could cause a problem with her 550 W PSU.

So if I get a 50% max performance of the GTX and an 75% performance of the GT, I would take the GTX because 50% is more than the 75% of the GT.

Any ideas?
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