GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Alexander Flores3 said:wiredotter14,

Can I get your honest opinion here?
................................................
Money is a bit tight right now, so how much longer can I realistically squeeze life out of this rig?

ASUS P5G41T-M LX2/GB (4xUSB 2.0, 2xPS/2, 3x3.5 mm, 1xLAN, 1xVGA)
PQI 1x2 GB DDR3-1333
Intel Celeron E3400 @ 2.60 GHz (1MB cache)
Intel GMA X4500
Windows 7 Enterprise Build 7600
Genius KB350e
Genius Netscroll 100X
Hama E80 2.0
GNR TS902 19'' WSXGA 16:10 (1280x1024)
Alcatel SpeedStick L850V LTE
.................................................
What kind of graphics card would actually work with this CPU?

How long can you use it? Until it dies.
What will the experience be like? Terrible.
This machine isn't even really up to basic web browsing anymore, let alone anything heavy.

Well, you can use it as much as you want 😬 ...it’s true the PC is pretty weak, but I guess you could speed things up significantly with a few upgrades. Are you looking for a GPU because you want to play some games or something?

If you just want the whole thing to run smoother, I’d definitely grab another 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz (maybe $60$23) and a new 120GB SSD for about $50. Only then would I really start thinking about the processor or the graphics card, since you could always move those parts over to a different setup later on.

It’s worth upgrading if you're aiming for a budget build. A little over two years ago, with some help from Flatron, I took an old piece of junk and dropped a GTX 1050ti in there. I swapped out the ancient dual-core for a used quad-core, added another 4GB of RAM, and tossed in a 350GB hard drive (kept everything else on the old drive and reserved the SSD just for the OS and games). Total cost was maybe $15 or so, plus those two Thermaltake fans I grabbed just to fill up the extra space.

The payoff: I can run all the Arkham games, AC Origins, Odyssey, the newer Tomb Raider titles, and NFS Payback on ultra settings at a steady, playable 30 fps.

I'm honestly thrilled with the bang for my buck here. 👍

William Clark86 said:It’s totally doable for a budget rig. About two years ago, with some help from Robert Rodriguez2, I took an old piece of junk and threw a GTX 1650 in there. I swapped out the ancient dual-core for a used quad-core, added 4GB of RAM, and a 350GB hard drive (kept everything else on my old drive and just used an SSD for the OS and games). Total cost was maybe a hundred bucks, plus those two Thermaltake fans I tossed in just to fill the empty space.

The result: all the Arkham games, AC Origins, Odyssey, the newer Tomb Raider titles, and NFS Payback all ran at a solid, playable 30 FPS on Ultra settings.

Honestly, the bang for my buck was incredible. 👍

What resolution were you actually playing NFS Payback and the AC series on at Ultra settings to get 60fps? Because even much beefier machines struggle with those, especially AC Origins and Odyssey.🤔

swiftfalcon89 said:What resolution were you even running NFS Payback and the AC series on to hit 60fps at ultra settings? Even high-end rigs struggle with games like AC Origins and Odyssey. 🤔

30 fps? Are you kidding me? Where have you even been? 😁

crimsonstag84 said:Well, you can definitely keep using it as much as you want 😬 ...it's true that the PC is a bit on the weaker side, but with a few small upgrades, you can really pick up the pace. Are you looking for a graphics card specifically so you can play some games or something?

If you just want to speed up your general workflow, I would definitely grab another 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz (60-$23) and a new 120GB SSD for about $50. After that, you could start thinking about the processor and the GPU, since those parts can be moved over to a newer platform later on.

To be honest, not really. I spent four years working as a web designer, and we dealt with plenty of heavy-duty software like >, >, >, and >...

Money is pretty tight right now, so it might take a year or two—maybe even three—before I can jump to a more modern setup... I'm going to keep this HDD, but an SSD is definitely happening... as far as gaming goes, the only thing catching my eye right now is >... specifically the third one... I was originally thinking about going with an >...

William Clark86 said:It’s definitely doable to fix that up on a budget. A little over two years ago, with some help from Robert Rodriguez2, I took an old piece of junk and swapped in a GTX 1650, traded out the old dual core for a used quad-core, added another 4 GB of RAM, and tossed in a 350 GB hard drive (I kept everything else on my NAND and just used the SSD for the OS and games). It cost me about $15 plus those two Thermaltake fans just to make use of the extra space I had.

The result: all the Arkham games, AC Origins and Odyssey, the newer Tomb Raider titles, and NFS Payback all running at ultra settings with a steady, playable 30 fps.

I'm honestly super happy with the value I got for what I put in. 👍

Do you happen to know roughly how much a Cooler Master Iceberg cooler goes for these days? My Stock cooler isn't really cutting it... And are there any better cooling options out there than the Iceberg? What kind of prices are we looking at?

Honestly, just grab an SSD and push this build as far as it'll go. That i5 9600k is already getting pretty old, and who knows what the standard will be by the time you're actually ready to upgrade. Also, maybe skip the liquid cooling if money is tight 😬

Robert Rodriguez2 said:30 fps? Man, where have you been living? 😁

My fingers just typed that out on autopilot. 😁
I meant to type 30fps...
Anyway, there’s no way someone was running the last two AC titles on Ultra settings with an old quad-core and a GTX 1650. I’m running an i5 9600k paired with a GTX 1060 on medium settings—even then, I had to mess around with some tweaks in the Nvidia Control Panel to take some load off the CPU because of how much background noise those games generate. Even with that, I can barely keep it above 40fps, especially when I'm hitting cities packed with NPCs and skyscrapers.

William Clark86 said:It’s definitely worth fixing up a budget rig. A little over two years ago, with some help from Robert Rodriguez2, I took an old piece of junk and dropped in a GTX 1650, swapped out an old dual core for a used quad-core, added 4 GB of RAM, and a 350 GB hard drive (kept everything else on my old drive and just used an SSD for the OS and games). It cost me about $20 and those two Thermaltake fans, just to make use of the extra space.

The result? All the Arkham games, AC Origins and Odyssey, the newer Tomb Raider titles, and NFS Payback all run at a steady, playable 30 FPS on ultra settings.

Honestly, you can't beat that value for what I put in. 👍

Man, I can barely hit 30 FPS in NFS Payback on my Core i3 with 4GB of RAM, even when everything is set to low. 🤔🤔

You might be looking at a monitor with a resolution like 1280x1024, 720p, 768p, or even 900p.

Timothy Kim60 said:They might be using a 1280x1024, 720p, 768p, or even a 900p monitor

Maybe just set the resolution to 640x480 😁😁

Bradley Green77 said:Maybe just tell them to set the resolution to 640x480 😁😁

Before all that 😁

swiftfalcon89 said:Before that 😁

hahaha 😁😁😁

🤣

I've got a 22-inch monitor capped at 1680x1050, which is the resolution I always stick to. Honestly, it saves me because if I were running at 1080p, I think I'd lose about 5-10 fps, but it doesn't really matter. My whole point was just that you can get decent gaming performance for very little money, provided you're just a casual single-player gamer.
I was talking about an upgrade, not building a whole new PC.

swiftfalcon89 said:Finger muscle memory 😁
I meant to write 30fps...
Anyway, there's no way anyone was running the last two AC games on Ultra with some ancient quad-core and an NVIDIA GTX 1050. Even with my Skylake i5 and NVIDIA GTX 1060 on medium settings—plus some tweaks in the NVIDIA Control Panel to offload the CPU since that game is so heavy on it—I could barely keep it above 40fps, especially in cities where all the NPCs and buildings start piling up.

AC Origins runs without any issues for me. In AC Odyssey, though, I had to dial back the settings during those massive battles when you join the Spartans or Athenians, otherwise, it starts stuttering. Everything else stays on Ultra.

Otherwise, maybe there's something wrong with your rig. Have you checked your drivers? This is the gameplay I get with my processor and NVIDIA GTX 1050ti (mine is an ASUS model, but I don't think it makes a difference) at 1080p (whereas I usually play at 1050p), and it's hitting over 30 fps

On medium with the exact same setup at 1080p, it hits over 40 fps.

Bradley Green77 said:Man, I can barely hit 30 fps in NFS Payback with a Core i3 and 4GB of RAM, even with everything set to low.🤔🤔

I have an i5 and 8GB of RAM. I wrote "extra" four gigs of RAM.

William Clark86 said:I ran AC Origins without any issues at all. With AC Odyssey, though, I actually had to dial back the settings during those massive battle scenes where you join in with the Spartans or Athenians because the frame rate would start stuttering. Everything else was on Ultra.

Aside from that, maybe there's something wrong with your PC. Have you checked your drivers? This is just my gameplay using my processor and an MSI 1050 Ti (mine is an ASUS model, but I don't think it makes much difference) at 1080p—though I'm playing at 1080p myself—and it stays well above 30 fps.

There isn't really anything left for me to tweak. My settings are dialed in, I've always got the optimal driver for a specific game installed, and my RAM is running in dual channel... The truth is, this game just struggles. It pushes even high-end rigs, let alone these "weaker" setups. An i5 quad-core is becoming a bottleneck in more and more games lately, even when paired with mid-range cards like a GTX 1060 or an RX 580.

We’ve drifted pretty far from the main topic here. This thread is about upgrading an old PC on a budget, and I was just sharing my own experience from an upgrade I did two years ago.

I realize that buying an i5 4c/4t today is a total waste of money. Honestly, it would have been a bad move even two years ago if I’d opted for a brand-new machine—that's exactly why I went with a used one online instead.

Tim Cook,

My situation is pretty straightforward—I just don't have the budget for the latest or most powerful gear right now. The most affordable cooling option I can find is the Cloud9 setup from $97, which actually even supports those old 775 sockets...
I’ve managed to scrape together just enough for some used parts, but honestly, everyone keeps making fun of me for it...
I barely saved up enough to pick up a secondhand 19-inch Dell monitor...

As for the cooling situation...
Every once in a while, whenever we have a power flicker, my power supply fan starts making this annoying whining noise...

So, I'm actually thinking about upgrading to a newer power supply, maybe something around 550-600W, just to make sure it has the 6 and 8-pin connectors available... I really don't want to deal with the headache of using adapters...

I was thinking about this, Tim Cook...
I’ve had my fair share of rough patches lately dealing with some personal stuff...
It felt like I was totally left out of the loop; all my friends would send me photos of their setups with those flashy RGB lights and high-end RTX graphics cards, and one guy even had the nerve to brag to me about how he finally upgraded to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM...

I'm not sure what you mean by having "problems." Maybe it’s just how you're approaching the situation. I know plenty of people running high-end rigs and plenty more using ancient junk, but nobody ever makes a big deal out of it, and they certainly aren't out here spamming photos of their RAM sticks everywhere.

As for cooling, I don't get the obsession with Microsoft for $97. There are plenty of decent coolers out there for $33 that do the job just fine.
It makes zero sense to overspend on a massive cooler if you're still trying to pinch pennies on a 19"
monitor.