Upgrading Graphics Card (Confused)

[mx90]

Hello community,

My old PC specs are:
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E4300 @ 1.8GHz
4GB Kingston DDR2 RAM
Intel Motherboard D946GZIS
Seagate 1TB HDD
XFX Nvidia 8600GT 512MB Graphics Card
Windows 7 x86
Cooler Master cabinet
21inch Samsung LCD Monitor @ 1600x900

Its a very entry level PC, and six years old. I only play two games on my old PC. One is Company Of Heroes and other is Race Driver GRID. Both games I play at 1600x900 resolution with medium-high settings, and get around decent 40-50 fps.

So, the problem is Company Of Heroes 2 is coming in March 2013, and my PC barely meets the minimum requirement. As you know these games depend alot on CPU performance and GPU aswell. Because of Intel Motherboard I cant even think of overcloaking the CPU. I cant spend money on a new PC as I recently bought myself a MacBook Air.

Company Of Heroes is my only priority, I was thinking to upgrade the Graphics Card. With my budget maximum I can go for is Radeon HD 6670 1GB. How much will this card add to the overall performance ? If there will be significant rise in performance I will buy it. Please keep in mind that I will be playing only Company Of Heroes 2 on this old PC. Will probably buy Alienware X51 next year in Sept-Oct. Or should I put on some more fans and overclock the 8600 GT ?

Any help, advice, suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Regards
James.

 

[shoaibams]

HD 6670 is 2 times faster than your 8600GT but still its an entry lvl card.
Games releasing next year will not run well on HD 6670 as it is an entry lvl card as of now, and next year i dont even think this card will give decent FPS even on lowest settings.

company of heros 2 is coming in march 13,so its a long way to go.i would suggest you to save some bucks till march 13 and get a new pc coz your current pc dose not seems to be even an enty level pc for current games.

If you upgrade your GPU with the current specs than your GPU will be highly bottle-necked.so dont upgrade as of now.

 

[mx90]

Yes, you are right, the GPU will be bottlenecked. So I will start saving and get myself a decent gaming PC in $1000-1300 range, like Alienware X51. Thanks for the help mate.

 

[zrobbb]

probably best to avoid Alienware to be honest.

 

[Dude496]

For the price range that you are looking at, you could very easily build your own computer. Building a computer isn't all that difficult...all you need is one phillips screwdriver and be able to follow instructions.

 

[mx90]

Ok, but can you get a small form factor cabinet like the X51 ?

 

[cosmic101]

Hi there,
yep you'll be able to go much smaller if you wanted to, have a look at www.itxgamer.com foe some ideas.

But you can get more value for money with matx format, take your time picking bits and read reviews.
It's can be a lot of fun and toms have a good review of graphic cards each month.

 

[azathoth]

Yes you can, at half the price too.

 

[lostgamer_03]

Yes, you are right, the GPU will be bottlenecked. So I will start saving and get myself a decent gaming PC in $1000-1300 range, like Alienware X51. Thanks for the help mate.

NO, NO, NO. Any gamer with just a little common sense would NEVER advice someone to buy Alienware. I do not say Alienware is bad, nor do I say that you won't be happy for it. But it's the Apple of gaming. You pay a lot and get so little. It's best if you can build it yourself, or choose the components and get the shop you buy it from to build it.
By this way you get exactly what you want and you get it at a fair price compared to what you're paying for.

 

[Dude496]

There are plenty of small form factor cases and micro atx boards on the market. The only problem then would be that you would most likely need to use a low profile video card, which will serioulsy limit your GPU options. I honestly don't understand the fad with the small computers...sure it is something neat to have on the desktop, but there are plenty of places to hide a computer so that size wouldn't be much of an issue. Just my opinion though.

 

[cosmic101]

The small size should not be a problem, and you should be able to use a full size graphic card with out problems.Have a look at lian li cases.

Just don't get a htpc case they are just to small for a gaming rig.
But if you arn't worried about space a atx rig gives you lots of choices and upgrade options, personally i love the matx format not to big and not to small.

 

[hdeezie80]

NO, NO, NO. Any gamer with just a little common sense would NEVER advice someone to buy Alienware. I do not say Alienware is bad, nor do I say that you won't be happy for it. But it's the Apple of gaming. You pay a lot and get so little. It's best if you can build it yourself, or choose the components and get the shop you buy it from to build it.
By this way you get exactly what you want and you get it at a fair price compared to what you're paying for.

Lol I was about to post a message advising against alien ware my self, you can build a very high end rig for $1000, building a PC is like putting lego's together it's much easier than you think. Dell will rip you off, you'll end up with a locked processor, a mid-range graphics card, a tiny case and a 330 watt PSU.

 

[mx90]

Lol thank you so much guys, really appreciated your suggestions. Would never buy Alienware. I will go for standard sized PPC. And yes I will be able to assemble my PC myself as I am Computer Science student, it was taught in first semester, its pretty easy and fun !

Plus, with Alienware you get 1 year warranty. Additional 2 year extended warranty comes at another $300. With assembled PC you will get more warranty on individual parts, like 5 years for processor, 3-5 years for graphics card, etc, right ?

Will a PC with, lets say, Intel Core i5 or i7, 8GB RAM, 1TB hdd, good motherboard, Corsair cabinet, good psu, nvidia 650 or 660, will come under $1000 ?

 

[lostgamer_03]

Lol thank you so much guys, really appreciated your suggestions. Would never buy Alienware. I will go for standard sized PPC. And yes I will be able to assemble my PC myself as I am Computer Science student, it was taught in first semester, its pretty easy and fun !

Plus, with Alienware you get 1 year warranty. Additional 2 year extended warranty comes at another $300. With assembled PC you will get more warranty on individual parts, like 5 years for processor, 3-5 years for graphics card, etc, right ?

Will a PC with, lets say, Intel Core i5 or i7, 8GB RAM, 1TB hdd, good motherboard, Corsair cabinet, good psu, nvidia 650 or 660, will come under $1000 ?

Yes it does!

Kingston HyperX 8GB DDR3-1600 RAM
Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H MOBO
Nvidia GeForce GTX660 2GB GDDR5
Raidmax RX-700AC 80+ bronze certified
Intel® Core™ i5-3570
Raidmax silent Phantom midi tower
Seagate 1000GB SATA3 6Gb/s (7200rpm)

This is my build, and it wasn't expensive at all, just about 950$ if I remember correctly.

 

[lostgamer_03]

It might be cheaper in your country, here in Denmark everything is expensive because of the taxes on everything. So you may even go bigger!

 

[mx90]

Ok, thanks for the reply Lostgamer_30. I should start saving money.

 

[mx90]

The fan on my 8600GT died today. I was experiencing lag in the game, then opened speccy to check the GPU and CPU temp, the GPU temp was 129'C !!! I immidiately turned off the PC and restarted again to check the GPU card and the fan was not running, it was jammed (No dust, coils were black, maybe I will get a replacement fan from eBay, and give it to someone, as the card itself is working good).

So, later I went to computer component shop to check the prices of entry level graphic cards. My budget is $60-70. The Zotac nVidia GT 630 2GB DDR3 is $62 and Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 1 GB DDR3 is $68.

So folks, which card should I buy now ? Keeping in mind the specs of the old PC.

 

[MajinCry]

The 6670 DDR3 version will kill the 630 version. It's also slightly better than the 640, iirc.

Get the 6670. I've got one myself. It's a good card, considering my VTX version has a cooler 1.5" squared. Seems to chug when shadows are enabled on games, but that is most likely something to do with my PC. YMMV.

 

[mx90]

Will definitely buy 6670 1GB then. Btw how much difference in performance does 2GB card make (vs 1GB) ?