Looking to push my old machine as far as possible

[vlads]

PURCHASE DATE: around 4-5 years ago

USAGE: Gaming I would like to play current gen games like Deus Ex, Guild Wars 2, Day Z, metro 2033 , maybe some other new arrivals

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS, 300W generic power supply

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01638225&tmp_track_link=ot_faqs/top_issues/en_us/c01638225/loc:3&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=3823663#N366 ] Here [/url]

OS: Windows vista home basic - service pack 1

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Probably buy on retail since ill be wanting them to install it for me, feel free to post links for reference

PARTS PREFERENCES: Nvidia would be nice, just because its whats already installed. Willing to take recommendations

OVERCLOCKING: I dont think thats possible with my current pc

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1600x900

Budget: $70 (maybe a bit more if i can get a significant boost in performance for a small amount)

Hi Everyone,

First of all i know my machine is really really really old. But hopefully I can still get some use out of it.
The only upgrade that i managed to do personally was installing an additional 2gb ram. But i would like to see if i can get a better graphics card without running into issues that I heard about (cpu bottlenecking performance of card, card not working with my current OS, ect)

Ive mostly gotten by with playing older games like team fortress 2 but my friends got me into DayZ and current gen MMOs like Guild wars 2 and TERA and i would like to run that on my home pc with decent performance.

 

[unksol]

With your setup and budget you options are pretty much a 6670 or 7750.

 

[vlads]

thanks unksol im probably going to get that 6670 that you mentioned

I have a couple of questions though:
1.) while it doesnt mention it in the system requirements it says on the specs that it has "512MB-1GB GDDR5 memory" im not sure if this has anything to do with this but when i got additional ram for my pc the technician said that my unit only supported ddr2 ram. could you tell me if this will cause any issues or work at all?

2.) this is gonna sound more n00bish than my first question but when i googled 6670 i got this website (http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/amd-radeon-hd-6000/hd-6670/pages/amd-radeon-hd-6670-overview.aspx#2 )

but the card that retailer has on stock has the same graphics engine (RADEON HD6670) and same specs but its branded powercolor heres the link 🙁http://www.powercolor.com/au/products_features.asp?id=372#Specification)

is there any difference to this? or should it work the same as the amd one?

 

[rayy1212]

thanks unksol im probably going to get that 6670 that you mentioned

I have a couple of questions though:
1.) while it doesnt mention it in the system requirements it says on the specs that it has "512MB-1GB GDDR5 memory" im not sure if this has anything to do with this but when i got additional ram for my pc the technician said that my unit only supported ddr2 ram. could you tell me if this will cause any issues or work at all?

2.) this is gonna sound more n00bish than my first question but when i googled 6670 i got this website (http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/amd-radeon-hd-6000/hd-6670/pages/amd-radeon-hd-6670-overview.aspx#2 )

but the card that retailer has on stock has the same graphics engine (RADEON HD6670) and same specs but its branded powercolor heres the link 🙁http://www.powercolor.com/au/products_features.asp?id=372#Specification)

is there any difference to this? or should it work the same as the amd one?

Your system ram (ddr2) and Vram in this case gddr5 are not linked so you can use a gddr5 GPU no problem, as far as the power color thing many manufacturers rebuild and copy graphics cards to retail, so all your seeing there is the same GPU from a different manufacturer.

 

[vlads]

Your system ram (ddr2) and Vram in this case gddr5 are not linked so you can use a gddr5 GPU no problem, as far as the power color thing many manufacturers rebuild and copy graphics cards to retail, so all your seeing there is the same GPU from a different manufacturer.

will there be any performance issues from other brands?
it costs just about the same so im assuming itll perform just like the other brands

 

[rayy1212]

No don't expect issues... see how it pretty much works is AMD designs and builds a GPU, then all these different companies can use it to either copy the same card with thier own cooling method or build theyre own pcb for it, all in all they are exactly the same product varying only by clock speed and some added features in some cases.

 

[vlads]

went to the store and got the new stuff installed. works great.

thanks for your help guys

 

[rayy1212]

went to the store and got the new stuff installed. works great.

thanks for your help guys

Your welcome man remember to choose best answer.