Replacing GPU in a very old system

[wenvy]

Hi guys. This is for my secondary pc at the office. It is the pc I had made for gaming back in 2008. I have a

Intel Q6600,

4gb (2*2gb) ddr2-800 ram,

Nvidia 8800gtx,

PC power and cooling 610W PSU,

Adata 60Gb SSD

Seagate 250GB IDE HDD (Had it lying around)

Antec 900

LG 21 inch LCD - 1680x1050

Asrock G41C-gs r2.0

Windows 7 64 bit

My 8800GTX just failed. What should I replace it with? I think anything better than a GT 1030 would be a waste considering the other parts. But is that even compatible? The G41 chipset is supposed to be pcie v1.1 only, will that be a problem? And the GT 1030 draws power from the MoBo only, it seems, so will it be an issue?

I've also been suggest to upgrade to 8GB of ddr3 ram which I dont mind considering since the system supports it.

I don't want to upgrade it completely (ie - new cpu means new mobo which means new ram and hdd and then I may as well upgrade PSU, etc, along with new GPU) since it's a secondary PC. It's mostly used for emails, excel and regular office work. Only as a plus if possible, I'd like the ability to play games like DotA 2 or CS:GO, and basic editting in GIMP.

 

[zoltan.boese]

Hello wenvy!

A used gtx 550 ti or a R7 250 coulb be a good replacement, a nice upgrade would be a new GT 1030. A RAM upgrade could also improve your performance, I agree.
PCi-e is forwards and backwards compatible.

 

[BFG-9000]

The only spec differences for power between PCIe 1.1 and newer are for the optional 8-pin power connectors.

The GT1030 will work great, as it's just as powerful as the period GTX285 or HD5870 of the time for the kind of vintage games you are likely to play on that machine, only with a lot more shaders. And it hardware accelerates H.265 so you could even get a 4k monitor and watch HEVC videos in 4k60 (otherwise impossible with such a weak CPU).

8GB would be a great upgrade but be aware it only takes 2Mbit chips for DDR3, so any 4GB stick would need the full 16 chips on it to work. Nehalem and Sandy/Ivy Bridge take the low-density 4Mbit chips but yours won't. Any DDR2 should work but 4GB sticks of that are quite expensive so it's too bad you don't have 4 slots for DDR2.

 

[wenvy]

Hello wenvy!

A used gtx 550 ti or a R7 250 coulb be a good replacement, a nice upgrade would be a new GT 1030. A RAM upgrade could also improve your performance, I agree.
PCi-e is forwards and backwards compatible.

Thanks, Ill look for those options, see if I get some good deals on it. Otherwise Im happy to spend $80 on a GT 1030.

 

[zoltan.boese]

Hello wenvy!

A used gtx 550 ti or a R7 250 coulb be a good replacement, a nice upgrade would be a new GT 1030. A RAM upgrade could also improve your performance, I agree.
PCi-e is forwards and backwards compatible.

Thanks, Ill look for those options, see if I get some good deals on it. Otherwise Im happy to spend $80 on a GT 1030.

You can use this list http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html to compare graphics cards and find similar performing ones