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New Graphics Card or New PC?

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  • Graphics Cards
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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What is your suggestion?

Total: 5 votes

  • Buy a new Video Card to get by another 1-2 yr(s).
  • 60 %
  • New gaming rig, a new card won't help that old machine
  • 40 %
October 18, 2013 5:59:32 AM

Below is my PC stats I originally bought everything new in 2009.

Since then my PSU Failed in 2011 and it was replaced by OCZ Fatality 700w

My question is this I tend to play older games: Pirates of the Burning Sea, and World of Tanks. I Also run dual monitors. I was thinking of investing $100-$150 in a new Radeon card like the
7790 - http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD...
or
7850 - http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD...

they have 2.5x to 3x as much performance as my old GTX (which has served me well!)

I was thinking a cheap video card update now and I could easy by a couple more years before I do a Full System Upgrade. I normally don't play the latest and greatest games so I don't need a gtx 690 ti or something super expensive. With no current hardware issues is my idea unreasonable and I need to buy a new one or would a small upgrade help me get by a little longer before going to a new gaming rig again? My wife's laptop is getting old too, and I was wanting to replace it before replacing mine is the reason i'm asking.

Thanks everyone!

MY PC Specs below

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0aNxnmi3ZUBR3ZTR0J2LS1...

More about : graphics card

a c 502 U Graphics card
October 18, 2013 6:09:10 AM

Since you won't be gaming on the newest titles, the 7790 should serve you well :)  (since the 7850 would probably bottleneck your 945)
October 18, 2013 6:10:49 AM

Honestly, looking at the age of most of your components I wouldn't really bother updating your graphics card. You'll just end up bottlenecking everything else if you do and the extra power will be wasted. If your current system still plays all of the games you enjoy just hang on to it for another year, save up some money, and then start building an all new system. You'll enjoy a HUGE upgrade at that point that won't break the bank.
Related resources
a c 198 U Graphics card
October 18, 2013 6:24:19 AM

Check here:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-revi...
A lot depends on the display resolution and the settings you want to apply but if you're on a 1080 display you'll want more graphics muscle anyway.
This is a little more than the CPU can handle, but then again it's in the same price bracket as the HD7790: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... legendary support, unrivalled warranty.
Bottlenecking is often overrated and blown out of proportion, you could go for a HD7790, but you'll not save much cash and a faster card can handle higher levels of eye candy because most of the flashy effects are done by the card rather than loading up the CPU.
October 18, 2013 7:23:31 AM

Captdonno said:
Honestly, looking at the age of most of your components I wouldn't really bother updating your graphics card. You'll just end up bottlenecking everything else ....


Well i'm not exactly upgrading to a GTX 770 or anything like that.

It's a modest upgrade, and I don't see it bottlenecking my system. The board has a PCI Exprss 2.0 16 slot warranting a high transfer rate, and the Deneb is a 3.0ghz quad core it's rarely over clocked now running 2 copies of Pirates of the Burning sea, streaming netflix with a Linux Virtual box up and running at the same time. I'm not sure what bottlenecks your referring too?

Also the Radeon can go in as a upgrade to my HTPC in a year or 2.
a b U Graphics card
October 18, 2013 7:30:33 AM

Bottlenecks are when one component is too slow while the other is too fast , so the fast component has to wait for the old component.
Imagine you m a fit hunky male. Full of energy. But then , you'll have to walk your grandma , saggy skin , weak muscles , to the market. So you waste all your energy since your grandma can only walk at that slow speed. You have the potential to do more but can't.
That's what bottlenecks are like. So the HD 7790 could be the hunky guy, while your old CPU would be Grandma.
October 18, 2013 8:05:33 AM

IRONBATMAN said:
Bottlenecks are when one component is too slow while the other is too fast , so the fast component has to wait for the old component.
Imagine you m a fit hunky male. Full of energy. But then , you'll have to walk your grandma , saggy skin , weak muscles , to the market. So you waste all your energy since your grandma can only walk at that slow speed. You have the potential to do more but can't.
That's what bottlenecks are like. So the HD 7790 could be the hunky guy, while your old CPU would be Grandma.


I have a ASS & BS in CIT and i'm a SQL Developer for a living I know what bottlenecking does mate : )

Bottlenecking always exist in every system, but what you manage is levels of acceptance. Right now I was stating my CPU is not overwhelmed even under the worse stress I invoke in my routines. Upgrading the card would put more stress on the CPU, but considering the current card runs dual copies of my game just fine on medium settings, the worst i would do is run dual copies at high settings considering this game is out date a bit and older graphics thats not going to be a large feat for the 7790. Also i'm running Wot on the lower side of medium and would like to run it at high or close to high settings.

I run a 1600x ?? resoloution on 1 monitor and 1280x?? on other.

Now if i was doing something to MAX out the Radeon 7790 (as a example) then it would be a VERY different story, but based off what i'm running would you fine gentlemen agree I would see the improvement I desire?

Which is:
going from:
POTBS - 2x accounts at 1x Medium & 1x Low settings dualboxing
Wot - Medium-low settings

to

POTBS - 2x accounts at 1x high and 1x Medium or 3 accounts at 1x high, and 2x low.

WOT - Medium-High (Not looking for max, but somewhere between medium-heavy and no less then 30fps)

Thanks!
October 18, 2013 9:11:37 AM

c911darkwolf said:
Captdonno said:
Honestly, looking at the age of most of your components I wouldn't really bother updating your graphics card. You'll just end up bottlenecking everything else ....


Well i'm not exactly upgrading to a GTX 770 or anything like that.

It's a modest upgrade, and I don't see it bottlenecking my system. The board has a PCI Exprss 2.0 16 slot warranting a high transfer rate, and the Deneb is a 3.0ghz quad core it's rarely over clocked now running 2 copies of Pirates of the Burning sea, streaming netflix with a Linux Virtual box up and running at the same time. I'm not sure what bottlenecks your referring too?

Also the Radeon can go in as a upgrade to my HTPC in a year or 2.


The 7790 and 7850 are both PCI-E 3.0 cards. Seeing as your motherboard only has PCI 2.0 that would be your biggest bottleneck as the CPU wouldn't be able to take advantage of the higher data rate in a 3.0 lane. I used to have that CPU, it was great for it's time, but newer processors trounce all over it. You run multiple copies of the same game on different monitors...? Interesting. Well, the short answer is I suppose you will see a small improvement, but it will be negligible as you'll have 1GB spread across multiple monitors. If anything I would go with the 7850 as it's at least 256bit and 2GB of dedicated memory.

Alright, I concede that bottlenecking is used too often...especially on this forum!! So, you'll be installing a new card to work in tandum with a series of components that will not compliment each other. So, I maintain that you should just wait at this point. You'd be upgrading to play older games at a slightly better resolution while not planning ahead for any of the newer computing and gaming architecture.

a c 198 U Graphics card
October 19, 2013 3:07:27 AM

^ Incorrect, none of the cards so far mentioned can get close to pushing even a PCI-E 1.0 slot, much less a 3.0 one, there's no single card configuration out there that needs the bandwidth of PCI-E 3.0 ATM.
Because the OP is not playing at 'ultra' settings 1Gb of VRAM will be enough, more will only really come in handy if he wants to use anti-aliasing and using that on these cards is simply going to slow them down, totally negating the purpose of the upgrade.
!