Graphics card help!

[NeilJames1978]

Hi there people, I have just managed to push a bit more from my ageing system:
Q9450 was at 3.2g now stable at 3.4g cpu
Asus Rapage Formula x 48 mobo
OCZ Reaper ram 1066 DDR2 was running at 800mhz now 850mhz (wow!)
Zotac 550 TI overclocked to 1062mhz clock 1203 ram clock 2125 shader
750w Thermaltake PSU
A+ Monolize case (2x 10" fans on side)
Big ass tower cooler with fan (can't remember make)
I have seen a Palit GTX 660 OC for £169 which I belive would make a huge difference to my system, would this be a good idea or would the rest of my system let me down and "bottleneck" me? Also running p95 stress test for a few hours at 100% load and my CPU got about 56 degees C am I asking too much with my new overclock or am I in acceptable peramiters with that temp?

 

[SeraphX]

56 degrees c for your chip is nothing, start worrying when it hits 70-80

I do think your system would bottleneck the 660 tbh.

I think you would do better to update your system to something a bit more modern tbh, at least an i5.

 

[Doomedspeed]

The 660 will improve your FPS and won't be too help back (if at all) by your CPU..

I'd take is was the first step to a new system, grab haswell when it comes out.

 

[NeilJames1978]

Yea lots of people are telling me to hold off till the new Intel chips come out to be fair, how about a couple of budget radeons seing as I have a cross fire motherboard? I've got the 750w psu to handle it.

 

[decto]

I'm not so sure on crossfire but I found a s775 quad held back SLI 560's compared to an i5. A single card was little different in performance from Q6600 @ 3.4 => i5

Plenty of life in the old system yet until next gen intel.

I'd avoid multi GPU setups in the midrange, a single card is usually faster for a similar price.

7850+ or 660+ will do you well.

If you plan to upgrade the rest of the system in a few months you could always go for a 79xx or 670. While you may not get the best out of them now, the upgrade will set them free and in the interim you can cane the AA

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