GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)
in Desktops ·
crimsonstag84 said:The processor is going to be a massive bottleneck for you, honestly. But if we're talking about what actually makes sense to spend money on right now, this is really your only viable move. It’s low power consumption, and it gives you a foundation you can actually build on later. If you decide to upgrade the rest of the rig down the line—say, moving up to a Celeron G1820 paired with 4GB of DDR3 RAM—you won't have to start from scratch.
I took a look at that listing on the discount site—specifically that second page of hardware deals. It’s an interesting mix, though you have to look closely at what you're actually getting. For anyone hunting for budget components or older parts to keep a legacy build running, there's some stuff here worth noting, provided you know exactly what the specs are.
If that price tag feels like too much for you, just look into the used market. Grab something like an HD 6670 or an HD 5670 instead. Honestly, anything lower than the cards I linked above is just overpriced junk that isn't worth the investment. 😁
Does having two processors actually make a difference here? I’m planning on picking up another 1 GB of RAM—I’m sitting at 1 GB currently—so I wanted to lay out my full system specs for you all. Sorry to bother you with the technical clutter; I just really want to know if I can swap out this current graphics card for something else, maybe something a bit more modest.
General topics.
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 home
Central Processor: Intel® Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Username: HOME
Graphics.
Video adapter: Intel ( R ) 82945 G express chipset Family
Video memory: 256.00 MB
Screen resolution: 1024 x 768
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Processor and Mainboard.
The CPU.
CPU Name: Intel® Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Codename: model 4, Stepping 3
Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
Current clock speed: 2992 MHz
Max clock speed: 2992 MHz
Voltage: 3.3V
Motherboard.
model D2151-A1
FUJITSU Siemens products
Serial number B0278D14
BIOS Version 5.00 R1.07.2151.A1
A1 BIOS Vendor FUJITSU Siemens // Phoenix technologies Ltd.
SMBIOS version 5.00 R1.07.2151.A1
BIOS Date: November 17, 2005
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Memory Device
Memory resources.
Total memory capacity comes out to 1014.49 MB.
Memory usage sits at 711.19 MB.
Free memory: 303.30 MB
Memory usage sits at 70%.
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Display
Video adapter.
Intel ® 82945 g express chipset Family 128
Graphics Processor: Intel ( R ) 82945 G express chipset Family
Intel Corporation products
Video architecture: VGA
A quick word on the DAC if anyone needs it.
Memory capacity: 256.00 MB
Memory Type: Unknown
Display resolution: 1024 x 768 with 4,294,967,296 colors.