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Video card worth upgrading or no?

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  • Graphics Cards
  • Graphics
  • Product
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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March 13, 2013 2:43:47 PM

I have an older computer, actually the motherboard is about 8yrs old now. Anyways i'd like to get a little better performance for games and stuff now I have:

Asus A8n32-SLi
AMD Opteron 180, Dual Core 2.4Ghz
4gb PC3200 RAM
1x Nvidia GTX 465

I was wondering if I would gain anything with adding an extra GTX465 on in SLi, I found a bunch used for only 100 bucks, or is my older processor and RAM going to just bottleneck it to the point where I wont notice a difference? I already have the max ram the mobo will fit and its the best processor I can fit in there too, and I still dont want a new computer if I can stay with this one. For how old it is it still does really good.

More about : video card worth upgrading

a b U Graphics card
March 13, 2013 3:28:22 PM

I had a triple core athlon at 2.3ghz that was bottlenecking a 7770 REALLY bad. The 7770 and 465 are in the same category in toms gpu hierarchy. So yeah I don't think it would make any difference to SLI.
a b U Graphics card
March 13, 2013 5:43:06 PM

Hello iant333,

Sorry to disappoint but your PC is way too outdated at this point. There are several issues from a upgrading perspective, the main one being the "poor price to performance" return ratio. Think about Moore's Law; PC computing power doubles roughly every 18 months. Factor that into about 6-8 years and you should have an idea.

I highly recommend you to consider building a new PC. You can reuse your current graphics card (currently bottlenecked 30-50%), HDD, optical drive and possibly your case.

I would recommend the following if your on a budget. Please keep in mind that you will notice a significant performance improvement across the board even with this.

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 [$129.99 + Free Shipping]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Mobo: BIOSTAR H61MGC [$54.99 + Free Shipping]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Ram: G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 @ 1600Mhz [$34.99 + Free Shipping]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

PSU: Antec VP-450 [$39.99 + $4.99 Shipping]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Case: Thermaltake V3 Black Edition [$39.99 + Free Shipping + $10 Mail in Rebate]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

GPU: Reuse GTX 465 [N/A]

Optical Drive: Reuse? [N/A?]

*Case Fan: Cooler Master 120mm 4 in 1 pack [$13.99]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
*You can only use up to 3 fans on the case mentioned above.

Total Cost: $318.93 USD Before taxes and before $10 Mail-In Rebate

Hope this information helps.

Coffee~
March 13, 2013 7:00:43 PM

Thanks for the help. I think i'll just keep what I have and build another really good one in a few years. Even with the one I have I can run most modern games at max or near to max and it doesn't have much of an issue. Just wondering if I could still upgrade any further but I guess not.
!