Graphics Card Upgrade for old PC

TJT · 3 Nov 2020 at 18:45

Hi
I have a 12 year old PC built with components from OC which is still working great. Would anyone know what type of graphics card would still fit and how high a spec could I go that would be compatible with the old components and not bottleneck the CPU? Also what type of memory can be fitted? The PC is only used to run the iRacing sim game.

Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58 UD4 -5
CPU: i7 [email protected] GHz 3.06

Thanks to anyone who might be able to offer some advice.

Terry

TJT · 3 Nov 2020 at 20:20

Thanks very much Vince for your reply - very helpful, although I can't find a Xeon you mentioned quite that cheap but I'll keep looking. I assume I have to stick with ddr3 memory modules with that motherboard. Thanks again.

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:09

mickyflinn said:
What graphics card do you have already and what case?

I have a GTX 750 Ti and an old Antec case, fairly big

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:25

mickyflinn said:
As reccomened by mischief a gtx 970 would double the frames your getting with the 750ti.

Thanks for your reply. Is that with the existing CPU?

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:29

mickyflinn said:
Yes but there maybe a slight variation.

Do you have an ssd ?

No I'm afraid not

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:32

Joxeon said:
Check for X5650

Thanks I found one. Would that still be a reasonable improvement?

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:44

mickyflinn said:
Oh dear , I implore you to get one a mechanical hard drive is the biggest bottle neck on a modern computer, loading times will be faster and system will feel much snappier to respond.

You can get A 500gb ssd for about £45.

Yes, I know. I do have a pretty good spec modern PC including an SSD used for everything else but the old computer is only used for iRacing sim. It's a question of balancing a reasonable improvement against spending too much money on such an old machine. I'm not even sure if you could fit one in such an old motherboard?

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 16:22

mickyflinn said:
You could fit one but the motherboard is limited to sata 2 which reduces the speed.

In the end it your decision but totally understand.

How does it perform in sim racing at the moment ?

I get about 70fps but at fairly low graphic settings which would be nice to turn up a bit for the immersion

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 17:42

mickyflinn said:
Gpu upgrade For sure gtx 970 has 4gb of vram which you should be able to play at higher detail.

Thanks. Would replacing the cpu with a X5650 make much difference do you think?

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 18:23

mickyflinn said:
It adds 2 extra cores and runs at the same clock speed as your cpu. Iracing doesn't benefit from more cores from what I've read but it mite help with background tasks.

For £12 its worth a punt.

It certainly is. I really appreciate all your help and advice. One last question: would that mean that going for the more expensive x5675 or W3690 wouldn't make much difference for iRacing either?

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 19:13

Just leave it at stock I think - I'm trying to learn about these things as quick as I can - slightly frightening when you say 'you will also have to flash the bios on the motherboard to get it to run'. Bit more learning to do!