What's the "max" graphics card available for my PC? (Core i7 920)

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astcd3

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Feb 8, 2018
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I'm looking to upgrade my desktop PC which is a fair bit old and was wondering what's the maximum-performance graphics card that I can put into it today? I figure since the PC is old that I can't put the latest & greatest cost-no-object card into it anyway, so I'm just looking for the highest-performing card that will still go into it, without necessitating a motherboard upgrade. 😉 I'll upgrade the power supply if I really have to (it's a 475W PSU), but would prefer not to.

My deskop PC is Dell's XPS 435 (from 2009), which is spec'd as follows:
- Intel Core i7 920 (2.67 GHz) w/ PCI-E x1 and x8 slots
- 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, and Windows 7 x64 (I've intentionally kept it on Win 7 for backwards compatibility with older games that I still play and don't want to upgrade it to 10 yet)
- 475W PSU

The video card the PC originally had was an ATI 4850 512MB. That card broke down one day (not sure how), so I replaced it with an nVidia GT730 as a stop-gap solution to get the PC up & running again. I don't have a preference between ATI or nVidia, but would like a GPU that has comparable performance to the old 4850, if not more. 😉 What would be the best GPUs from both nVidia and ATI?

And as I said, I'm looking to upgrade only the graphics card in this PC (currently it still has the GT730). I really would prefer to not spend money on any other PC upgrades (motherboard, PSU, etc).
 
Agreed, GTX1060 is your best bet. You will not need to upgrade the PSU, and it is approximately 6.5x faster than 4850, and more than 10x than 730. For the most part, your CPU will be able to feed it properly; on more CPU-intensive titles less so, but it will be a huge upgrade nevertheless, granting you ability to max out details on pretty much anything you throw at it. Get a 6GB version of the card by all means.
 


Thanks! Unfortunately it seems like right now is a bad time to buy a graphics card with the cryptocurrency stuff going on, which I just found out about. Guess I'll just have to wait for prices to go back down to a sane level, however long that takes.

Btw, is there a comparable AMD/ATI GPU to the GTX1060? I'll probably end up going with nVidia anyway, but just curious about the competition.
 
RX480/580 are the most similar from AMD, but their prices are even more insane.

You can also get a 1050Ti, which is nor too far from MSRP unlike most higher-end cards, and it will still be a hefty upgrade over your old 4850, let alone 730.
 
If your just doing 1080p... the 1050 TI can be great value for sure. My 1050 (no TI... but there pretty similar) IS A POWERHOUSE. On occasion I may need to lower some setting once in a while... but then it's flawless 60 all the way.
 


The 1050 Ti does look like a better option as far as price goes, so I might go with that. Btw, would all these GPUs (GTX1050/1060 or RX480/580) be enough for me to crank the original Crysis all the way up at 1080p and still get a playable frame rate? I know Crysis is old now, but it's sort of my reference point. 😉
 
This might be helpful, although Toms isn't giving it much attention right now it's fairly accurate: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gpu-hierarchy,review-33383.html

Given the age and capabilities of the current CPU I'd definitely not go above a GTX1050Ti class card.

You'll get good frame rates out of Crysis but not maxed out at 1080 rez, it's just too demanding for a GTX 1050Ti, aim one notch lower in the main game settings and see what happens.
 
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