Looking for a GPU alternative to Geforce 9500 gt

[John Matt]

I have an old PC an Optiplex 745 Pentium D 3.4Ghz Desktop . It's got 2gb Ram in it . It also got 1 gb 9500 gt . I bought it in 2011 for 70$ . Now I have an XBox 360 . But I wanna Revive that Beloved PC of Mine . I want to Increase the Ram and want to Change the GPU for a better one for Gaming . Help me out People .

 

[BadAsAl]

What are you wanting to play on it? The games minimum requirements will determine if any upgrades would be worth it.

 

[LucaFire]

Adding onto what BadAsAl mentioned, what is your budget?

 

[Eximo]

Well, even the lowly GT730 is faster. I am wary of suggesting anything newer as they might not like the old style BIOS, but the least I would spend on a GPU is probably a GTX1050 or RX460, anything less and you are basically throwing money away.

DDR2 is a little pricey, but you can get up to 8GB in that box. You can add a 2x2GB (Or 2) kit with relative ease.

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/KMh9TW/crucial-memory-bls2kit2g2d80ebs1s00

 

[Corwin65]

Make sure you're running a 64 bit OS if you want to run more than 4 GB of RAM.

 

[spdragoo]

Yeesh, just about anything would be better than that. As long as your current 9500 GT is the PCIe 2.0 version, you should be able to replace it technically with anything (although higher end cards will probably require a PSU upgrade).

Take a look at the list: http://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#sort=a8&c=175,164,366,379

Even a GT 730/GTX 750Ti, let alone a GTX 950 (95W version) or GTX 1050, would drastically improve your performance.

 

[Eximo]

If we want to get fancy, there are some mild savings to replacing the whole thing. A recent i5 will have graphics on par with a GT730, and your typical off the shelf desktop comes with 4-8GB of memory.

So you can spend $150 on memory and a GPU or get a used business desktop for around $250. For a little more, a brand new system for about $350.

Or this, for $400 shipped:
http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/acer-aspire-intel-desktop/440376.aspx

 

[BadAsAl]

The processor is going to be the limiting factor mostly IMO. Throwing a good GPU in there isn't going to help much. So if OP is looking to play semi-modern games even at low settings, replacing the whole thing is probably a better way to go and if done right will leave room to upgrade later to play newer games at higher settings, ala Eximo's post.

 

[spdragoo]

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/opti_745techspecs.pdf

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/333836-28-dell-optiplex-upgrade

Pull that Pentium D & replace it with a Conroe E6600/6700 Core 2 Duo or Kentsfield Q6600/6700 Core 2 Quad, either set should really help it out.

 

[John Matt]

I want a graphic card which can easily fit in my desktop . Like the 9500 gt fits in it easily . I just want it to be playing games like COD MW3 or GTA IV . I want a newer version of GPU which can get me going .

 

[Eximo]

There is only so much a GPU can do to that system. You can get a GT730 that is quite small, even some with no fans (not recommended for gaming).

I've not seen anyone put a late model GPU into such an old machine. I know people had trouble with 750ti in systems roughly that old, and that was two generations ago. (they skipped 800 series)