New video card and psu or new computer??

nights013 · 03-26-2009, 04:47 AM

I am looking to upgrade my video card to to either NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT.
What I am wondering is if this will make much of an improvement on graphically demanding online video games. I know i need to upgrade my Power Supply Unit too because my current one wont be able to handle these.
So for the money investment into both the PSU and the new video card..will it be worth it to upgrade or start saving for a new computer entirely? Will the new psu and video card make a dramatic improvement? My current system is about 3 years old. I want to play games like Warhammer online and Aion (which comes out later this year) with full settings.
THANKS!

Here are the specs of my current comp:

HP Pavillion a1130n
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ / 2.39 GHz
64 bit processor
2 Gig RAM DDRSD RAM
400mhz

My current graphics card is:
Nvidia GeForce 6600 256mb

So im looking at spending 350+ ish? on these items..Will the upgraded graphics card bottleneck my computer since its so old or will I notice a big improvement?

**vladimirb** · 03-26-2009, 05:43 AM

Hello and welcome to TSF... =)

You can go for 9800GT + some of these PSUs:

Recommended Supply: Seasonic 600 watt

Recommended Supply: PC Power & Cooling 610 watt

Recommended Supply: Seasonic S12-650 Watt

Recommended Supply: Coolermaster Real Power Pro 650 watt

Recommended Supply: Corsair 650-TX -650 watt

More info you can find here:

Power Supply Information and Selection

~~connor-53~~ · 03-26-2009, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nights013

I am looking to upgrade my video card to to either NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT.
What I am wondering is if this will make much of an improvement on graphically demanding online video games. I know i need to upgrade my Power Supply Unit too because my current one wont be able to handle these.
So for the money investment into both the PSU and the new video card..will it be worth it to upgrade or start saving for a new computer entirely? Will the new psu and video card make a dramatic improvement? My current system is about 3 years old. I want to play games like Warhammer online and Aion (which comes out later this year) with full settings.
THANKS!

Here are the specs of my current comp:

HP Pavillion a1130n
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ / 2.39 GHz
64 bit processor
2 Gig RAM DDRSD RAM
400mhz

My current graphics card is:
Nvidia GeForce 6600 256mb

So im looking at spending 350+ ish? on these items..Will the upgraded graphics card bottleneck my computer since its so old or will I notice a big improvement?

I would say re-build, it will help in the long run as well as now. Drop by the building section for an estimate.

Tumbleweed36 · 03-26-2009, 08:18 PM

With an Athlon 3800+, I would certainly start the rebuilding process and not spend the cash for a good power supply and video card on this older technology.

It just won't IMHO serve you well in the cash/efficiency ratio. You can do it with the things given you to you by my team mate vladimirb, but the cost is not worth using the old rig for this upgrade. I think you will be throwing good money after an old upgrade that is still quite old technology.

**vladimirb** · 03-27-2009, 02:58 AM

I gave you this little suggestion mate, but I do agree more with Tumbleweed36 because you will feel a bottleneck of your CPU and slow DDR 400Mhz RAM as well as your Motherboard with lame chipset...

With suggestion which I gave you first, you can buy these parts [graphic card + PSU] and if you feel bottleneck, you can always buy new rig later [Motherboard, CPU and RAM mainly]...
But if you can, buy them all together =)
You will be happy with the boost trust me =)

Ddavij · 03-27-2009, 03:14 AM

The 256MB graphics card wont help much in online gaming.
I used to have a 128MB nVIDIA 5700LE which was S***
I upgraded my computer's motherboard to a GIGABYTE EP31-DS3L with a nVIDIA 9500GT 1GB (GIGABYTE) and added DDR2 800MHz 1GB RAM and kept my Intel P4 3Ghz processor.
If you upgrade your graphics card to AT LEAST a 512MB you will see a good change in speed, online gaming and even high tech solo games. I'd recommend a 1GB GDDR2 Graphics card with a bus speed : PCI-e 16X

Since i upgrading my graphics card i was able to play Call of Duty: World at Wat at FULL SETTINGS - FULL RESOLUTION, and im telling ya, this game demands a good graphics card for smooth - HIGHLY graphic experience..

like i stated above, with a new graphics card, you will see a increase in speed, especially in vista. If your current motherboard doesnt support PCI-E 16x, if i'd were you id get a new one, if it does GREAT!

Try to see if you can upgrade your memory to DDR2, see if you motherboard supports that, make sure the Ram is around 800MHZ then after all these modifications, you'll have a high-end gaming PC -- ( I recommened getting a Dual core or even a quad, ive got a Pentium 4 @ 3 Ghz which is still really good)

Hope this helps :D

**emosun** · 03-27-2009, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ddavij

The 256MB graphics card wont help much in online gaming.
I used to have a 128MB nVIDIA 5700LE which was S***
I upgraded my computer's motherboard to a GIGABYTE EP31-DS3L with a nVIDIA 9500GT 1GB (GIGABYTE) and added DDR2 800MHz 1GB RAM and kept my Intel P4 3Ghz processor.
If you upgrade your graphics card to AT LEAST a 512MB you will see a good change in speed, online gaming and even high tech solo games. I'd recommend a 1GB GDDR2 Graphics card with a bus speed : PCI-e 16X

Since i upgrading my graphics card i was able to play Call of Duty: World at Wat at FULL SETTINGS - FULL RESOLUTION, and im telling ya, this game demands a good graphics card for smooth - HIGHLY graphic experience..

like i stated above, with a new graphics card, you will see a increase in speed, especially in vista. If your current motherboard doesnt support PCI-E 16x, if i'd were you id get a new one, if it does GREAT!

Try to see if you can upgrade your memory to DDR2, see if you motherboard supports that, make sure the Ram is around 800MHZ then after all these modifications, you'll have a high-end gaming PC -- ( I recommened getting a Dual core or even a quad, ive got a Pentium 4 @ 3 Ghz which is still really good)

Hope this helps :D

nights013 · 03-28-2009, 03:04 AM

awesome. thank you for the input everyone! yeah i didn't want to invest too much trying to salvage my system if it wouldn't be worth it. is there anything in my comp i can salvage?? like can I reuse ram that i bought to put in it or is newer ram any better?? ty again
time to start saving :)

**wrench97** · 03-28-2009, 04:13 AM

Newer motherboards are only going to support DDR2 so you won't be able to keep the ram.

03-26-2009, 04:47 AM	#1 (permalink)
nights013 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 3 OS: xp	New video card and psu or new computer?? I am looking to upgrade my video card to to either NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT. What I am wondering is if this will make much of an improvement on graphically demanding online video games. I know i need to upgrade my Power Supply Unit too because my current one wont be able to handle these. So for the money investment into both the PSU and the new video card..will it be worth it to upgrade or start saving for a new computer entirely? Will the new psu and video card make a dramatic improvement? My current system is about 3 years old. I want to play games like Warhammer online and Aion (which comes out later this year) with full settings. THANKS! Here are the specs of my current comp: HP Pavillion a1130n AMD Athlon 64 3800+ / 2.39 GHz 64 bit processor 2 Gig RAM DDRSD RAM 400mhz My current graphics card is: Nvidia GeForce 6600 256mb So im looking at spending 350+ ish? on these items..Will the upgraded graphics card bottleneck my computer since its so old or will I notice a big improvement?

03-26-2009, 05:43 AM	#2 (permalink)
vladimirb Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Banja Luka, Serb Republic Posts: 3,715 OS: xp pro sp3, Server 2003, Windows 7 Professional x64bit My System	Re: New video card and psu or new computer?? Hello and welcome to TSF... =) You can go for 9800GT + some of these PSUs: Recommended Supply: Seasonic 600 watt Recommended Supply: PC Power & Cooling 610 watt Recommended Supply: Seasonic S12-650 Watt Recommended Supply: Coolermaster Real Power Pro 650 watt Recommended Supply: Corsair 650-TX -650 watt More info you can find here: Power Supply Information and Selection __________________ MCP - MCSA Cisco SMB Account Manager

03-26-2009, 08:18 PM	#4 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,720 OS: XP Professional	Re: New video card and psu or new computer?? With an Athlon 3800+, I would certainly start the rebuilding process and not spend the cash for a good power supply and video card on this older technology. It just won't IMHO serve you well in the cash/efficiency ratio. You can do it with the things given you to you by my team mate vladimirb, but the cost is not worth using the old rig for this upgrade. I think you will be throwing good money after an old upgrade that is still quite old technology. __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.

03-27-2009, 02:58 AM	#5 (permalink)
vladimirb Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Banja Luka, Serb Republic Posts: 3,715 OS: xp pro sp3, Server 2003, Windows 7 Professional x64bit My System	Re: New video card and psu or new computer?? I gave you this little suggestion mate, but I do agree more with Tumbleweed36 because you will feel a bottleneck of your CPU and slow DDR 400Mhz RAM as well as your Motherboard with lame chipset... With suggestion which I gave you first, you can buy these parts [graphic card + PSU] and if you feel bottleneck, you can always buy new rig later [Motherboard, CPU and RAM mainly]... But if you can, buy them all together =) You will be happy with the boost trust me =) __________________ MCP - MCSA Cisco SMB Account Manager

03-27-2009, 03:14 AM	#6 (permalink)
Ddavij Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Melbourne Posts: 12 OS: Win XP SP2 /Vista Ultimate SP1	Re: New video card and psu or new computer?? The 256MB graphics card wont help much in online gaming. I used to have a 128MB nVIDIA 5700LE which was S*** I upgraded my computer's motherboard to a GIGABYTE EP31-DS3L with a nVIDIA 9500GT 1GB (GIGABYTE) and added DDR2 800MHz 1GB RAM and kept my Intel P4 3Ghz processor. If you upgrade your graphics card to AT LEAST a 512MB you will see a good change in speed, online gaming and even high tech solo games. I'd recommend a 1GB GDDR2 Graphics card with a bus speed : PCI-e 16X Since i upgrading my graphics card i was able to play Call of Duty: World at Wat at FULL SETTINGS - FULL RESOLUTION, and im telling ya, this game demands a good graphics card for smooth - HIGHLY graphic experience.. like i stated above, with a new graphics card, you will see a increase in speed, especially in vista. If your current motherboard doesnt support PCI-E 16x, if i'd were you id get a new one, if it does GREAT! Try to see if you can upgrade your memory to DDR2, see if you motherboard supports that, make sure the Ram is around 800MHZ then after all these modifications, you'll have a high-end gaming PC -- ( I recommened getting a Dual core or even a quad, ive got a Pentium 4 @ 3 Ghz which is still really good) Hope this helps :D

03-28-2009, 03:04 AM	#8 (permalink)
nights013 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 3 OS: xp	Re: New video card and psu or new computer?? awesome. thank you for the input everyone! yeah i didn't want to invest too much trying to salvage my system if it wouldn't be worth it. is there anything in my comp i can salvage?? like can I reuse ram that i bought to put in it or is newer ram any better?? ty again time to start saving :)

03-28-2009, 04:13 AM	#9 (permalink)
wrench97 Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2008 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania Posts: 18,883 OS: Win7	Re: New video card and psu or new computer?? Newer motherboards are only going to support DDR2 so you won't be able to keep the ram. __________________ Power Supply and Selection