Looking at GT 730 or GT 740 for old Dell XPS 410

[txsarge17]

I am giving my children my Dell XPS 410. It's good for streaming video and older games, but the HIS HD 4670 512Mhz GPU is ultimately weak. I'm thinking of a low TDP GPU to make the games they can play smoother (Dragon Age 1 & 2, Mass Effect 1-3, ect.). I am considering the Nvidia GT 730 or 740 (both gddr5 versions). I know the 740 is superior, but at a $35 difference, is it even worth it on this machine? I'm not intending to upgrade to a 64bit OS so I'm pretty much stuck with 4G ram and older games. With this system, will either of these cards even show a noticable difference? I could instead switch to an SSD...

PSU isn't a problem. My current HD 4670 is higher TDP than either of these cards.

CPU: Core2Quad Q6600
Mem: 4G 800Mhz
GPU (current): HIS HD 4670 OC @ 512Mhz
OS: Vista 32 bit
PSU: stock 375w

 

[Eximo]

Those are nice choices. I agree with not spending any more than that.

GT740 is basically a slower GTX650, so actually pretty decent entry level gaming from 2 years ago. GT730 is unchanged from the GT630 essentially. A purpose built budget card.

GT740 should be about twice as fast as the 4670. C2Q should do pretty well in all but the latest CPU bound games.

 

[txsarge17]

Those are nice choices. I agree with not spending any more than that.

GT740 is basically a slower GTX650, so actually pretty decent entry level gaming from 2 years ago. GT730 is unchanged from the GT630 essentially. A purpose built budget card.

GT740 should be about twice as fast as the 4670. C2Q should do pretty well in all but the latest CPU bound games.

I just built a pretty good system, so if they want to play the latest and greatest I don't mind them using it. But on this Dell even Dragon Age: Origins doesn't give me good framerates with the 4670. Thank you for the reply!

 

[Nikola Aslanov-1338074]

Really, try to get GTX 750. Only ~ $20 more and is better, newer and uses less electricity than 740. As eximo said - 740 is renamed 650 and while it is not a bad card - it is getting a bit old.

 

[Nikola Aslanov-1338074]

A quad core is a quad core - Q6600 can work some more.
Check the benchmarks here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7764/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-750-ti-and-gtx-750-review-maxwell
Compare 650 (740) with 750 - in almost all gaming benchmarks 750 is over 50% better, in some games close to double the frame rates.

 

[iballew]

DONT get a gt 740. Normally they go for 80-90$ while the gtx 750 goes for 110$ (89$ after rebate). The gtx 750 is twice as fast and more efficient than the gt 740. It will pare well with your q6600.

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=14-125-503

 

[txsarge17]

is this worth going to windows 7 64bit and upgrading to 8G of Ram? i would love to keep this pc around for awhile if its going to be a decent system still.

 

[iballew]

If you want to breathe some new life into that computer, you should think about getting an ssd. They are suppose to be 10x faster than conventional hard drives and will make your computer much more snappy. That would make a much bigger difference than just upgrading the ram.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171646&cm_sp=Homepage_FDD-_-P1_20-171-646-_-01262015

 

[Nikola Aslanov-1338074]

Win 7 is a good OS. Be prepared - You may have some driver issues with it but it seems that install is doable. Check: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/3524/t/19304169
8G RAM and SSD are also good ideas that will speed up the PC. If you do these updates you will end with decent entry level GAMING config.
Worst case is the old CPU or MB failing at some time in the future but even then the SSD and the GPU can be used as a basis for affordable PC with new components.

 

[txsarge17]

If you want to breathe some new life into that computer, you should think about getting an ssd. They are suppose to be 10x faster than conventional hard drives and will make your computer much more snappy. That would make a much bigger difference than just upgrading the ram.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171646&cm_sp=Homepage_FDD-_-P1_20-171-646-_-01262015

Just ordered a 120G SSD for the OS. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[txsarge17]

Thanks to everyone that replied. I'm going to do the SSD for now, and see how much the kids actually do with it. If they don't complain, it will work as is until I get the bug to build another system (it's addictive like a tattoo)!