Is a gtx750ti or gtx1050 good enough for casual gaming?

[coolncoolsui]

Hey guys
Its a long time right now from my big pc build so I wanted to know if I should upgrade my old pc cause I'd like to play games with 30 fps.
So if I buy a gtx 750ti or gtx 1050 with these specs :-
Intel Pentium D 3ghz
4gb DDR2 RAM
will i get decent fps with a gpu upgrade cause right now I have R7 240. I'm just wanting to upgrade the gpu if it should up my performance...my pc build still has time.
Thanks

 

[BFG-9000]

It depends on the games and the resolution. For example at 1280x1024 the 3.0GHz Pentium D 930 can get at least 45fps in every tested old game.

While the 750Ti is 3x as powerful as the R7 240 and the 1050 4x, the bottleneck from a Pentium 4 may be so severe that you see essentially no increase in fps, but could crank up the textures and quality settings with no further loss.

As the Pentium 4 limits you to very simple games + those over 10 years old which do not extensively use shaders anyway, it's poor value to invest in a modern card that mostly has lots more shader power than a vintage card that can be nearly free. The HD4890 or GTX260 from 9 years ago have about the same pixel-pushing and texturing power as a 750Ti so are just as fast in old DX9 games that don't use many shaders. It's impressive that the 750Ti can match them at nearly 100w less, but then if you were interested in power efficiency you wouldn't be running a Pentium 4 in 2017.

If your LGA775 motherboard can accept a Core 2 CPU from 2006 in place of that Pentium D from 2005, it would be 3x faster just like that, and Core 2 Duos are all of $5 shipped on eBay. To give you an idea of the magnitude of this 1-year difference, Intel promises next year's Coffee Lake will be 15% faster than Kaby Lake. If this is true then in 2018 Intel CPUs will finally be 3x as fast as Core 2 Quads from 2007 in Java. Things are looking up now that there's finally competition from AMD again--not so coincidentally for the first time since 2006.

 

[mdd1963]

I'd save your money for a total system replacement, as the Pentium D is going to severely limit frame rates no matter which video card is used.
However, the GTX1050 is a nice budget card when paired with an adequate processor, such as the R3-1200 or so, and, better yet, the R5-1600...

 

[coolncoolsui]

I can go for a Core 2 Duo E8500 for a very low price...So that paired with a 750ti or 1050...will it make my gameplay smoother? Do also mention the settings I'd be able to play on cause if its not that good I'm gonna be saving for complete build but its far ahead in the future so I'm thinking of having something that can get the job done

 

[BFG-9000]

The difference would be huge, even with the R7 240. The closest comparison I could find is this one but note that the 2.93GHz x6800 is slower than the 3.16GHz E8500, and only has 4MB cache instead of 6MB, so the proper comparison is to the 2.8GHz Pentium D. FPS is about doubled for every game.

It would be well worth $6 shipped (or the best 3.33GHz E8600 is $8) if your motherboard can accept it and has 1333 FSB. But what is your motherboard? Maybe it could accept quads, which would again double FPS in certain games like GTA V.

With a quad, the 750Ti would not be bottlenecked because as I mentioned, there were just as powerful cards available back then when quads were new. The 1050 may be, but would be preferable as it costs only a little more and could be moved to a new system, provided it works in your old board.

 

[coolncoolsui]

Mine is an intel d945GCR motherboard
UPDATE : I can even go for a Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz 8M cache..sounds good but how good will it really be? The reviews are good though

 

[BFG-9000]

No quads for you then. While in aftermarket boards the 945GC chipset can support 45nm chips and the FSB may be overclocked, Intel limits you to just 800 FSB and only up to a 2.6GHz E4700. That would still be far faster than dual Pentium 4s though.

The main problem is that chipset isn't supposed to support more than 2GB of RAM. Under System does it say 4.00GB (2.00GB usable)? 2GB isn't really enough for gaming or even 64-bit Windows.

The ICH7 southbridge also doesn't support AHCI, although TRIM works if you use a SSD

 

[coolncoolsui]

It says 3.25 usable so yeah I guess
What would happen if i put Core 2 Quad in my board?

 

[mdd1963]

Do not put in a CPU that is not supported; most likely it would not even POST, but, it is certainly a futile effort due to BIOS issues, voltage regualtion/power delivery, thermal concerns, or all of the above....

There are Penttium/MB combos that will soundly trounce all of the older Core2 rigs for $100 total...