Best graphics card for old GIGABYTE 965P-DS3?

[Zillyratt]

I got an old PC that I want to upgrade the graphics card for, so to get the best card I can run on the PC. I do not intend to use it for gaming, maybe just simple games, some video editing, record music and working with photo editing. I have been searching on-line but I just don’t know what card to buy.
I don’t want to buy a card that is too powerful so that the motherboard or the processor is a bottle neck or spend money on a card that is too powerful for the old PC.

Budget $100 - $200.

Current setup:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2400.0 MHz)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE 965P-DS3 (Intel P965 (Broadwater-P) + ICH8(R))
Memory: 7 GBytes (Dual-Channel)
Main Hard Drive: Samsung SSD 850 s50Gb
+ plus other hard drives
Graphics Card: nVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS (G84) - 256 MBytes of GDDR3 SDRAM
Operating System: Windows 7 x64

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[hang-the-9]

You should be safe with a lower end gaming card like the nVidia GT 730 GDDR5, that is currently the low end card to get that is not just for basic office use.

 

[Zillyratt]

Thanks for your reply, sorry if I sound like a right numpty here.
I have been looking at the nVidia GT730 or GT 740, I was trying to compare them to my old card and did not find that much different between, there must be as my card is from 2007 (maybe I was doing something wrong).
I don't mind spending little extra just so I can get as much out of the machine as I can. Would Gefore GTX 750ti be too much for my setup? Is the nVidia GT 730 as high as my system can handle before the system it self becomes a bottleneck?
Is Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 the same as nVidia GT 730?

 

[bob0011]

The GT 730 and gt 740 are not worth there money, for the few extra dollers you can get the gtx 750 and gtx 650 with much better performances in games, and general day to day.

For your price you could get a gtx 750 ti or a newer gtx 950 and a new PSU if you require it.

Another option for you would be to buy a new cpu as well and then you have all the performance you would like without any bottlenecks due to CPU
EVGA 500W $34.99
Used core 2 quad 9550 $55.99
GTX 750ti SC $109.99
Total = 200.97

Links to all the products mention above:
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Processor-2-83GHz-1333MHz-BX80569Q9550/dp/B0012WDMNC/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1456273718&sr=8-5&keywords=intel+core+2+quad

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H33SFJU/?tag=pcpapi-20

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-750Ti-Graphics-02G-P4-3753-KR/dp/B00IDG3IDO/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1456274180&sr=1-1&keywords=gtx+750

If you need any more help just ask

 

[hang-the-9]

For a non-gaming system, going over the 730 is not worth it, but a CPU upgrade would be helpful with overall system speed.

For basic use you don't even have to switch the video card, CPU upgrade will do you more good as would a clean Windows setup if you have not done that in a while. For video editing a better CPU is better than a faster video card in your case.

 

[Zillyratt]

bob0011 - I put my GTX 750ti card in and my PC refuses to load behind the windows logo??

 

[hang-the-9]

bob0011 - I put my GTX 750ti card in and my PC refuses to load behind the windows logo??

What is the power supply in the system? Why the 750Ti in that system? The CPU is the bottleneck not the video card, should have spend less on the video card and upgraded the CPU to a quad core Q model from yours, would have been much better for editing.

 

[bob0011]

bob0011 - I put my GTX 750ti card in and my PC refuses to load behind the windows logo??

Have you tried wile on integrated graphics installing gtx 750 ti drivers, from Nvidia, and then booting with the graphics card installed.

 

[bob0011]

bob0011 - I put my GTX 750ti card in and my PC refuses to load behind the windows logo??

What is the power supply in the system? Why the 750Ti in that system? The CPU is the bottleneck not the video card, should have spend less on the video card and upgraded the CPU to a quad core Q model from yours, would have been much better for editing.

The gtx 750 ti uses less power then the GeForce 8600 GTS so it should not be a problem, max Wattage use of a GeForce 8600 GTS is 105w wile the standard GTX 750ti uses 60w