Upgrade advise?

[John24]

Hi, could do with some guidence on an upgrade for my brov.

Currently he's got a HD 6450, Athlon II x4 620 @ 3.4GHz and 22" 1080p screen.

These are the games he plays, apparently only one of them he can play at full Res/Settings.

Need for Speed Underground
Need for Speed Underground 2
Grid
Grid 2
Dirt Showdown
Driver San Francisco
Sims 2 Pets
GTA San Andreas
Off Road Drive
Battlefield Free To Play

Need something that will play all that on full settings and also be quiet at idle because my parents use the system too. Budget is whatever is needed to acheive this without getting something overkill.

Also not sure if the CPU is holding that card back or if it would hold back a new one, I could push the OC a bit more if it would help. Any advise appreciated.

 

[arc@css]

I doubt the cpu is holding back the 6450, though it certainly will just about card that's half decent. Try overclocking the cpu, and don't forget to monitor temps.

Maybe others will help out here, but perhaps something like a 7750 won't be constrained by the cpu too much.

 

[John24]

IIRC the CPU only has another 1-200MHz in it with much more volts, would a 7750 be enough to run those games on max providing the CPU wasn't a bottleneck?

 

[arc@css]

IIRC the CPU only has another 1-200MHz in it with much more volts, would a 7750 be enough to run those games on max providing the CPU wasn't a bottleneck?

I doubt only 100mhz or so will make much difference, but it's up to you.

I haven't played much in the way of driving games, though I tend to think they are more gpu bound than cpu. Hopefully someone will drop in with more knowledge / experience.

 

[John24]

Ok cheers arc.

Comparing the spec a 7750 has 4x as many Stream Processors, GDDR5 and a 128-Bit Memory Interface so I'm guessing it would be a decent jump, not sure if it's a big enough jump though. Hopefully someone will be able to clarify.

 

[arc@css]

Ok cheers arc.

Comparing the spec a 7750 has 4x as many Stream Processors, GDDR5 and a 128-Bit Memory Interface so I'm guessing it would be a decent jump, not sure if it's a big enough jump though. Hopefully someone will be able to clarify.

Sorry I can't be of more help. I'm sure someone will help out sooner or later.


Edit : I did just dig up this information. Your cpu is better than the one in this example, but it does give you an idea of what to expect.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2292551

 

[John24]

Thanks for the link but it's just confused me further lol.

I still don't know if a 7750 is good enough to play those games at full settings. He will inherit my x6 Phenom when I upgrade so I don't want to be buying him a new CPU aswell.