New Graphics Card or nah (11 year old PC)

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kiwiace

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#296291 5-Jun-2022 14:36

Hi,

I'm pretty happy with my 11? year old desktop but I'm starting to find games that it doesn't meet min requirements for (they still seem to run at a pinch so far)

Is it sensible to put a new graphics card in for a desktop of this age? I played with userbench and it seems to think its not crazy (this graphics card seems like a good deal, $400 at computerlounge, but thoughts welcome)

I'm mostly wondering if there are any gotchas (I have a 650w PSU so I think thats fine, and it has a 6+2 pin according to the manual which should provide 8 pin power to this card OK?)

cheers

gehenna

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#2922995 5-Jun-2022 14:46

Your PCIe slot won't support the speeds that modern cards are capable of. So you're effectively neutering the card you get. Better off upgrading the motherboard and CPU at the same time.

Gurezaemon

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#2923002 5-Jun-2022 14:58

This site (https://pc-builds.com/bottleneck-calculator/) suggests that you're probably at your sweet spot as regards your GPU. Any upgrade from that would be bottlenecked by your CPU.

If you go for the 6600, you'll have a significant bottleneck (43.4%) caused by your CPU. As in you're wasting a lot of performance (and money). Any meaningful upgrade would require both parts of the equation to be upgraded.

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MaxineN

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#2923003 5-Jun-2022 15:02

gehenna:

Your PCIe slot won't support the speeds that modern cards are capable of. So you're effectively neutering the card you get. Better off upgrading the motherboard and CPU at the same time.

Z77 + a Ivy Bridge CPU will do PCI-E 3.0 16x it won't be that much of a bottle neck!

But that 3570 is absolutely going to hold anything above a 1650 or a 6600XT behind.

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Jase2985

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#2923051 5-Jun-2022 15:20

you will just end up having the CPU as the bottleneck when playing 1080p titles.

Not to mention you only have 8GB of ram, you will quickly use all of that.

SpartanVXL

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#2923059 5-Jun-2022 16:57

If you had a i7 you might’ve been okay with another 8GB of ram but with 4c/4t you’re quite cpu limited except for older/indie titles.

It would be better to put any money used towards a new platform.

ratsun81

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#2923061 5-Jun-2022 17:22

MaxineN:

gehenna:

Your PCIe slot won't support the speeds that modern cards are capable of. So you're effectively neutering the card you get. Better off upgrading the motherboard and CPU at the same time.

Z77 + a Ivy Bridge CPU will do PCI-E 3.0 16x it won't be that much of a bottle neck!

But that 3570 is absolutely going to hold anything above a 1650 or a 6600XT behind.

You want to be real careful, some of the latest graphics cards have dropped the amount of pci-e lanes in expectation that its being used with pci-e 4.0 so dumping a new card into an old system even further gimps the new hardware...

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MaxineN

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#2923063 5-Jun-2022 17:45

ratsun81:

You want to be real careful, some of the latest graphics cards have dropped the amount of pci-e lanes in expectation that its being used with pci-e 4.0 so dumping a new card into an old system even further gimps the new hardware...

The 6600xt only has 8 lanes which isn't that much of a problem in a 3.0 slot.

If this was the 6500XT then you'd have real problems because there's only 4 lanes.

Nvidia cards have always been 16x with that odd 750TI where it was only 8

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ratsun81

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#2923067 5-Jun-2022 18:17

MaxineN:

ratsun81:

You want to be real careful, some of the latest graphics cards have dropped the amount of pci-e lanes in expectation that its being used with pci-e 4.0 so dumping a new card into an old system even further gimps the new hardware...

The 6600xt only has 8 lanes which isn't that much of a problem in a 3.0 slot.

If this was the 6500XT then you'd have real problems because there's only 4 lanes.

Nvidia cards have always been 16x with that odd 750TI where it was only 8

yep exactly, i was more making the point its not a clear cut "sure just upgrade".

For the OP yes a low end current GPU will be an improvement. which one you get is up to you and budget as well as looking to the future...

It might be worth a new platform. AMD is a good call especially if you can hold out until Q3/Q4 when the new generation launches and hopefully price reductions make it ok.

kiwiace

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#2923074 5-Jun-2022 18:58

Thanks all - great thread of replies. Really liked the bottleneck calculator and the details about lanes.

Definitely can wait a bit - A lot of what I play is Xcom/Civ where frame rate doesn't matter much as long as the game runs! So I think I'll wait and get a completely new box, maybe once those new chips are out.

cddt

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#2923235 6-Jun-2022 14:47

Just FYI the HD 7850 is roughly on par with the best iGPUs available today (e.g. Vega 8 in 5000-series mobile).

I would be tempted to upgrade in the opposite order if you can't do it all at once. New mobo+CPU+RAM, then use current GPU until you can get a new one.