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Card upgrade on an old system

sdfuk

sdfuk

sdfuk

Associate
Joined
8 Jun 2004
Posts
960
Location
Essex
Hi

I want to do a card upgrade on my system and also is it going to be worth it?

My system has a Q6600, a HIS X2 3870, MB = PK5 premium, and 1000w psu. Not sure if any other info is needed.

Thanks for any help.
Cheers, S.
 
Yeah, and if you get a fairly nice card you could switch that to a new system you may have when the time comes :)
 
Sorry for OTing the thread but are all PCI 3.0 cards compatible with 2.0 systems and also does 2.0 slow down the top of the line cards?
 
Budget is about £150.
The PSU is an Enermax Galaxy 1000w (EGX1000EWL).

I like the look of Dark Souls 2. Not sure if current card would handle the game though.
Cheers, S
 
The Q6600 is a pretty old CPU now, but with a bit of an overclock it should run acceptably in most modern games. Do you have an aftermarket CPU cooler on your Q6600 or just the stock one?

As the guys above have mentioned, what is the make and model number of your 1000W PSU? Most likely it is a decent quality unit, but if its a bad quality 1000W unit then it might be significant risk to a shiny new graphics card. Edit: Excellent PSU - no worries there

As for what graphics card to go for, I wouldn't suggest anything above the R9 270X or GTX 660 level as more often than not you will be CPU limited in games (also this level of cards are good value for the performance you get). The one I would go for personally is the AMD R7 265, this is a relatively cheap card at £110, however it performs rather well in modern games (run at 1080p) - here is a review.
 
Hi, thx, just posting as you did. The CPU has an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro on it.

£110 is not too bad to keep me going for the next year or so, I'll give it a look.

Cheers, S
 
sdfuk said:
Also, is any card upgrade worth it if CPU not up to the job?
Click to expand...

It very much depends on the game.

Some modern games are relatively light on the CPU and will perform well (40FPS+) with a Q6600 or AMD Athlon II X4 level of CPU. For example, games like Battlefield 4, Batman Arkham City, Bioshock Infinite and Far Cry 3 run pretty well with an AMD Athlon II X4 - which indicates they will run just as well with a Q6600.

However, some other games like Splinter Cell Blacklist, Hitman Absolution and ARMA3 don't do so well (at least at stock clockspeeds).

Therefore, it is worthwhile persevering with the Q6600 until you can afford a full CPU/motherboard/RAM upgrade and a new fast/good value graphics card will do a good job to keep you gaming away happily. However, if you do find yourself playing CPU heavy games (for example DayZ, ARMA series, Sim City) then it may be worthwhile tackling the CPU sooner.

The ACF7 is a nice CPU and IIRC the P5K is a decent board for overclocking the Q6600. Do you know what stepping your chip is (can find out using CPU-Z), the options are B3 and G0 - with G0 being the one best for overclocking. Most Q6600 (all steppings) should be able to hit 3GHz with a cooler and motherboard like yours, and if its a G0 stepping then 3.5GHz is very possible.
 
Last edited:
Hi

Thanks for that. Very useful. The revision is G0. I've only had it running at stock speeds to Ill try to overclock it.

Cheers
S
 
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