Graphics Upgrade

[Cemeterygates]

Think it's about time to start slowly upgrading my PC after getting on for 4 years of service, and thinking of starting with the gpu.

Got my eye on an MSI GTS 450 Cyclone, few reviews I've seen seem to say it's a pretty good card for the money (which is an issue atm, can't afford a monster).
Only concern about it is if my PSU will be able to feed it, got a 600w OCZ jobby atm, can't remember the exact model off the top of my head, should it be alright or am I likely to need a beefier PSU aswell?

Current rig is, from what I remember off the top of my head...
Abit IP35 Pro
4GB OCZ Reaper RAM
8800GT 512mb
Q6600 (still standard clocked, so don't think I need to upgrade that for a while)
1x 500gb hdd
1x 750gb hdd
600w OCZ PSU

 

[Cemeterygates]

Or do I go for an XFX Ati Radeon HD 6770??

Helpz0rz

 

[Nate]

I used to have the 8800gts, upgraded a couple of days ago to Asus GeForce GTX 560Ti DirectCU II TOP 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

OC are doing a special where you get BF3 + Batman Arkham City free with it for £199.99
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-267-AS

Runs Skyrim on ultra settings 1920x1200 perfect

 

[Cemeterygates]

Yea, nice deal but it's over my budget, I can scrape together about £100 for a new card.

 

[Nate]

I have a 600w ocz psu running that so don't think you'll have much trouble.

But maybe running the 8800gt as sli? would that work? search for your card on ebay!

 

[Cemeterygates]

Not sure if my board is SLI compatible tbh and also I'd like a new card anyway for warranty purposes aswell as a performance boost.

 

[Embattle]

I would suggest once you've got the new card you consider ocing your processor.

 

[Cemeterygates]

Yea, that was the plan as I've got a cooler on it that should enable me to clock to 3.2 stable.

So there shouldn't be any compatability issues with my current rig then?

And which is the better card, the 450 or the 6770?

 

[Moriath]

AFAIK THE 450 ISNT THAT GREAT BUT THE 460 IS A MUCH BETTER CARD THAN THE 450 I THINK ... DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT ATI CARDS THO
oops had caps on from a game ... cba to retype

 

[Cemeterygates]

Bit of a stretch on the budget though...

 

[Syri]

The radeon 6770 is actually just a re-badged 5770, with an upgraded hdmi port (hdmi 1.4 instead of 1.3), so I'd probably go for a 5770 if you're considering the ATI ranges. If you can manage to push a bit more though, the 6850 is supposed to be pretty good for the money, and they usually fit around the low £100s bracket.
I'm not sure how the nvidia cards fit in, as I've not used any for quite a while.

 

[Cemeterygates]

Cheers Syri.

Nobody seems to of answered the compatability thing though, all should be ok with my current rig? Can't see space being an issue, it all sits in an Antec 900...

 

[Moriath]

thy will all run with your rig .. but the cpu might start becoming a bit of a bottleneck as its quite old now ..

Any gfx card single core should be fine with your rig tbh ... its just the cpu bottleneck you have to watch for .. and that would vary from game to game as some use cpu more some gpu

 

[Cemeterygates]

I intend on overclocking the cpu to 3.2 as I have the cooler to do it, so should negate that problem a little...

However, would it perhaps be wise to apply some new thermal paste before doing so with it being a nigh-on 4 year old rig?

 

[Moriath]

not head of thermal paste having a use by date in resepects to if its already there you dont need to bother unless you replacing the cran / heat sink where you will need to remove old and put in new

 

[Cemeterygates]

I have had the cpu cooler off in the past though, due to an issue of it not firing up resulting in the cpu overheating and shutting the system down.

Think I'll get some new paste just to be on the safe side, get rid of exsisting, apply new, overclock.