I am running an XPS 420, it is a 4 year old rig.
Windows 7 64-bit
6GB RAM
Q6600 (2.4 Quad Core)
8800 GT
I was able to play Battlefield 3 just fine on low settings, but on higher settings I got crashes. This is probably due to my card, but maybe also because the game was in Alpha and still has bugs to be ironed out. The coming of BF3 prompted me to finally upgrade my machine.
I have two questions. I'm aiming to spend around $250 dollars for a combined GPU and PSU, but cheaper is always better!
1. If I upgrade to a stronger card, would my Q6600 bottleneck me?
It is a quad core, but 2.4 is pretty low compared to what is out today. Buying a new machine isn't an option, but I can afford to upgrade a GPU and PSU. If it is a bottleneck, I've read up on it and many people with my machine claim they overclocked it to 3.0 with no problems at all, some higher using aftermarket cooling.
2. What card should I upgrade to? I'll also need to upgrade my PSU as well so keep that in mind. I was thinking a 550 or 600W PSU would do.
The GTX 460 looks nice, but I notice there are GTX 560 TIs that cost nearly the same price as the GTX 460. I'm not really that knowledgeable about cards so any advice is appreciated.
Windows 7 64-bit
6GB RAM
Q6600 (2.4 Quad Core)
8800 GT
I was able to play Battlefield 3 just fine on low settings, but on higher settings I got crashes. This is probably due to my card, but maybe also because the game was in Alpha and still has bugs to be ironed out. The coming of BF3 prompted me to finally upgrade my machine.
I have two questions. I'm aiming to spend around $250 dollars for a combined GPU and PSU, but cheaper is always better!
1. If I upgrade to a stronger card, would my Q6600 bottleneck me?
It is a quad core, but 2.4 is pretty low compared to what is out today. Buying a new machine isn't an option, but I can afford to upgrade a GPU and PSU. If it is a bottleneck, I've read up on it and many people with my machine claim they overclocked it to 3.0 with no problems at all, some higher using aftermarket cooling.
2. What card should I upgrade to? I'll also need to upgrade my PSU as well so keep that in mind. I was thinking a 550 or 600W PSU would do.
The GTX 460 looks nice, but I notice there are GTX 560 TIs that cost nearly the same price as the GTX 460. I'm not really that knowledgeable about cards so any advice is appreciated.