Worth upgrading GFX card?

[ShyguyXPC]

yes... and your point is what?

most of those are cheap piece of crap units, most likely like what is in your system already, if you want to risk frying all the hardware in your system, then by all means go ahead and buy them, but like we've been saying its best to buy a quality unit and significantly lessen the chances of that happening. especially when you put in hardware with more of a demand for reliable and proper amp/voltage ratings etc, like the Radeon 4830 (or just about any card that needs an external plug from the PSU)



here, this is about as cheap as they go for any quality units, 400W should be enough, has a 6 pin PCIE connector for the card above, and should be enough amps for the card too...

Newegg.ca - FSP Group SAGA+ 400R 400W ATX12V Power Supply - Power Supplies

[endrien]

k.. Btw, I just found my PSU
Avalon Software & Computers Inc., St.john's, Newfoundland
Its actually 350, not 300

[ShyguyXPC]

its an SPI aka Sparkle, made by FSP aka Fortron Source.

This is it, here.

Newegg.ca - SPARKLE ATX-350PN-B204 350W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply - Power Supplies

has plenty of amps on 12V rail, but even still not sure if 350W is enough to run that system with that card. might be 50/50 whether its ok or not.

just curious, how'd you find out what the PSU was?

[endrien]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShyguyXPC

its an SPI aka Sparkle, made by FSP aka Fortron Source.

This is it, here.

Newegg.ca - SPARKLE ATX-350PN-B204 350W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply - Power Supplies

has plenty of amps on 12V rail, but even still not sure if 350W is enough to run that system with that card. might be 50/50 whether its ok or not.

just curious, how'd you find out what the PSU was?

Read below post

[endrien]

I think I might get
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127420
How long do you think this card will stay current good?

EDIT: After close inspection, I found a small sticker saying SPI 400w
So that means Im all set

[anonymous7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by endrien

I currently have a PC with
2.2ghz Pentium dual core CPU
8600gt 256mb ddr3
3gb ddr2 ram

With the crap cpu, would it even be worth upgrading the graphics card to something more high end?

crap cpu? thats a decent cpu.

most people tend to jump off when looking at their own cpu. they rely too much on cpu. i mean they look too hard on cpu.


athlon64 3200+ / pentium4 3.0ghz is still well and your low end intel dual core is even more FINE!


my old athlon64 3200+ with 4gb of ram and x850xt plays every shader 2.0 games maxed out with guarenteed smooth and high frame. i even install my newly-extra 8600 GTS on it and plays modern games like world at war, airborne and jericho max setting awesomely! and guarenteed smooth and 100% playable.






i mean yeah if you can get a powerful cpu then go for it. powerful cpu i can think of that is helpful and cpu intensive is just crysis on very high setting and cryostasis maxed out. but i repeat cpu is not that all important when you already have a decent cpu like low-end intle dual core, x2 4400, pentium D ect....


cpu.... other than gaming is great for encoding videos. makes encode faster and do some graphic modeling.

[ShyguyXPC]

the card should be fine for a couple years, but depends on the games you run.

currently its on the low end of the midrange cards on the market.

but I just got mine installed in my 2nd system this afternoon and even though I'm struggling with some overheating issues ( I bought mine Open box from newegg, so there could be some issues with it I have to fix), from the few demo's and benchmarks I ran with it, it was leaps and bounds over the old Radeon 2600 Pro, one of my games I doubled the frame rate, while running game at max settings, instead of about 75% of max, as I did on the old card. but that game is 5 years old too.

anyways, it should be good for sometime...

but if your concerned about it a bit, see if you can afford a Radeon 4870, it should be a good jump up from it, or even a Geforce GTX 260. either one is similar range to each other, and prices have fallen quite a bit on the cards. Radeon 4850 falls somewhere between the 4830 and 4870. for the Radeons though try to find one with 1GB memory, incase you upgrade to higher resolution display in the years to come.

you'll need to make sure your PSU can handle these cards though, the 4830 it should be ok with, but the others are more powerful and need more power as a result. make sure the Amp Rating on 12V rail is enough for the cards.

[Aaron_8015]

Quote:

Originally Posted by anonymous7

crap cpu? thats a decent cpu.

most people tend to jump off when looking at their own cpu. they rely too much on cpu. i mean they look too hard on cpu.


athlon64 3200+ / pentium4 3.0ghz is still well and your low end intel dual core is even more FINE!


my old athlon64 3200+ with 4gb of ram and x850xt plays every shader 2.0 games maxed out with guarenteed smooth and high frame. i even install my newly-extra 8600 GTS on it and plays modern games like world at war, airborne and jericho max setting awesomely! and guarenteed smooth and 100% playable.

i mean yeah if you can get a powerful cpu then go for it. powerful cpu i can think of that is helpful and cpu intensive is just crysis on very high setting and cryostasis maxed out. but i repeat cpu is not that all important when you already have a decent cpu like low-end intle dual core, x2 4400, pentium D ect....


cpu.... other than gaming is great for encoding videos. makes encode faster and do some graphic modeling.

I fear you are missing the point......

The idea behind a good cpu is that it wont bottleneck a high end gpu. Sure the rig you mentioned above will play games fine on that old gpu. But there is no point in spending the money on something you will not use to its fullest.

Also of note thats a Pentium D not to be confused with the core duo line of cpu's.

[ShyguyXPC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by anonymous7

crap cpu? thats a decent cpu.

most people tend to jump off when looking at their own cpu. they rely too much on cpu. i mean they look too hard on cpu.


athlon64 3200+ / pentium4 3.0ghz is still well and your low end intel dual core is even more FINE!


my old athlon64 3200+ with 4gb of ram and x850xt plays every shader 2.0 games maxed out with guarenteed smooth and high frame. i even install my newly-extra 8600 GTS on it and plays modern games like world at war, airborne and jericho max setting awesomely! and guarenteed smooth and 100% playable.






i mean yeah if you can get a powerful cpu then go for it. powerful cpu i can think of that is helpful and cpu intensive is just crysis on very high setting and cryostasis maxed out. but i repeat cpu is not that all important when you already have a decent cpu like low-end intle dual core, x2 4400, pentium D ect....


cpu.... other than gaming is great for encoding videos. makes encode faster and do some graphic modeling.

anonymous, Shooosh...

CPU is important, but it depends on the scenario, running a higher end GPU requires a better performing CPU, otherwise it'll choke the video cards performance.

thats the other thing about my last post, I forgot to mention, that the current CPU might be a bit of a bottle neck on any of those cards I mentioned, only the 4850 might not be bottlenecked a whole lot, the others though will be.

[endrien]

Its not a pentium d?
Its a Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2200