Buying a new budget Graphics Card - Dec 2013

[Whistler118]

Hello all.

I have decided its time to upgrade my rickety old PC with a new graphics card. My current card is a Nividia GT320 which surprisingly holds up with the best of them but with the 'new generation' it has finally given up. I have been looking around but would like some extra guidance to what to buy and where to buy it from.

I am looking for a budget card around the price range of £75-150 (max. $245). I need it for gaming and preferably games such as Battlefield 4 and Arma 3, however, for these game I'm not expect maxed out graphics.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers all.

 

[PP Mguire]

What's this rickety PC you speak of? If the parts are too old it might be worth it to just scrap the whole machine which I'm guessing is a pre-built from the OEM card you have.

 

[Whistler118]

Thank you replying so quickly!

I say rickety its 3 and bit years old. Its a Packard Bell ixtreme M3730. Specs are:

Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q8300 2.50Ghz
Nividia GeForce GT320 1024MB
1 TB HDD
4GB DDR3 RAM

Is that all the info you need? What do you think?

 

[PP Mguire]

I have a Q8400 sitting next to me in a PC which is used to cover the central air vent.....if that says anything. It'll be ok for most games, but it will start to struggle later due to its older design.

That being said, if your OEM box has a good PSU (500w or better) you can buy this.
MSI GTX 660 GAMING 2GB Twin Frozr IV PCI Express Nvidia Graphics Card - N660 GAMING 2GD5/OC - Scan.co.uk

You could always benefit from going cheaper and getting an extra 4GB of RAM as well.

 

[Whistler118]

Ha! Yes the processor is a little old but depending on how it runs with "new generation" stuff I might overclock it to squeeze a bit more life out of it.

How do you check PSU?

Good idea about RAM. Out of interest do you know the increase of speed if I put another 4GB of RAM on?

 

[PP Mguire]

Overclocking the old Core 2 won't really help much. Can't prolong the inevitable that long, and if you have the OEM board in there you can't OC it.

Take the side panel off and read the label.

RAM doesn't make your machine faster unless it's a big jump like DDR to DDR3. Increasing your capacity gives programs and Windows more room to breath so things aren't being swapped to the HDD which is much slower.