Just a new graphics card, or do I need a whole new system?

[lordmetroid]

At the moment I got a system from late 2005 and am considering buying some new hardware, allowing me to actually play the new games. I've got the not all that impressive:
Athlon 64 3500+, 2.21Ghz
GeForce 6600 GT, 256 MiB
1 GiB DDR RAM

My initial plan was to upgrade the whole kit and get an E8400, 4 GiB RAM and an 8800GT but as I am extremely strained on capital and becoming more so as times passes by my options a decreasing.

Would a purchase of simple a new graphics card be sufficient to gain an extraordinary performance boost, cause now I can barely play Quake Wars.
Would there be any problems if I purchased a too new graphics card?

 

[kad]

At the moment I got a system from late 2005 and am considering buying some new hardware, allowing me to actually play the new games. I've got the not all that impressive:
Athlon 64 3500+, 2.21Ghz
GeForce 6600 GT, 256 MiB
1 GiB DDR RAM

My initial plan was to upgrade the whole kit and get an E8400, 4 GiB RAM and an 8800GT but as I am extremely strained on capital and becoming more so as times passes by my options a decreasing.

Would a purchase of simple a new graphics card be sufficient to gain an extraordinary performance boost, cause now I can barely play Quake Wars.
Would there be any problems if I purchased a too new graphics card?

1- What is your mobo?
2- what is your PSU ?

 

[arson94]

Are you even on PCI-Express yet? You definitely need some PCI-Express as the best AGP card you can get is the HD3850. You'd really benefit more from a dual core CPU, some DDR2 RAM, and PCI-Express x16 2.0 graphics cards.

But, I understand the no money problem... I just wouldn't think you'd benefit enough from just a better graphics card to justify the money. But I could be wrong...

 

[shadowthor]

the video card might be bottlenecked by the cpu.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Good deal here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130231555130&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

 

[lordmetroid]

1- What is your mobo?
2- what is your PSU ?

Yes, I have a nForce4 equipped motherboard with PCIe. Currently running the system on the 350 Watt PSU that came with the chassis.

 

[pcgamer12]

Just get a GA-P35-DS3L, 8800GT(S) 512MB, Corsair/Antec/PCP&C PSU, and a E7200.

 

[pcgamer12]

Don't forget 2GB RAM, 4GB is best.

 

[arson94]

I'm just not sure how high of a graphics card you can use before gaming is limited by your CPU and not your GPU.

 

[vegettonox]

Ignore what everyone else said. Just double your ram and pick up a decent new video card and your fine. total retail would cost you roughly 250-300 bucks as long as your psu is 800 watts or better.

 

[Conumdrum]

Looks like your GPU slot limited, CPU bottlnecked, older ram, and your PSU is too small. I'm sure the only good AGP GPU you can get needs more +12 rail amps than your PSU can handle.

Time to start anew. And your old case might not have the cooling ablity needed anyway.

Save your pennies, lots of fun older games out there still.

 

[arson94]

800W? the only thing lordmetroid needs to ignore is the bullsh*t you just posted vegettonox.

You're best bet would be to see if a friend has some RAM and a newer video card you can borrow to test just to see if the games play any better. Really, that's you're best bet. Most people haven't tried what you're asking so most of what we're saying is educated guesses / speculation.

But honestly, you wouldn't see extraordinary performance boosts from just a newer GPU. You'll need to upgrade your RAM too and DDR is more expensive now than DDR2. I'd just take it like a man, sacrifice some game play for now until you earn the cash, and do the whole kit-n-kaboodle upgrade you had planned from the get-go.

 

[Conumdrum]

Roadrunner is spammin, but not that bad for the price.

 

[roadrunner197069]

LoL. I got to share the deals. You cant get that great of a deal elsewhere.

 

[ThreatDown]

Save for a new build, updating the graphics and old ddr ram (And DDR1 ram is VERY overpriced compared to ddr2 which is cheap as hell, you can get 4 gigs for 80 bucks) on that would be a WASTE of money, trust me I have been in a similar situation and dumped cash into a similar rig and discovered I needed to upgrade soon after anyway.

That single core athlon will bottleneck most new graphics cards. Save up for a new rig with a cheap dual core (Intel e2xxx or athlon X2 5000+) 2 gigs of ddr2, a 9600GT (Or 4850 is you can go higher) decent 400-500 watt psu.

It will be a better investment of your hard earned money at this point to build a new rig, that one will not last long.

 

[ThreatDown]

sorry, comcast went crazy on me and double posted

 

[copasetic]

I'm with ThreatDown, time to start saving for a new rig. There's really nothing in there that can be upgraded without being bottlenecked by everything else. If you put money into this by buying a low-mid range card you'll just end up replacing that in another 6 months anyway. And a new card will definately need a new power supply too.