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General discussion

Help Choosing Graphics Card or maybe Mobo

Sep 20, 2010 3:26PM PDT

Hey all just wondering what graphics card i should get as my old 9800gt has just died i am looking at a gtx 260 but still not satisfied also im not sure if i should get a new motherboard as my current mobo might not be good enough. Really the only thing this pc does is play GTA IV so i need a gpu that will play gta in high/full settings.

Specs:
850W psu
4gb ddr2 ram
Athlon 64 x2 6400+(3.2ghz)
Msi 9800gt (RIP)
1tb hdd
Running win 7 ultimate

Motherboard Specs @
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01237538&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3549636

Thanks

Discussion is locked

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I say it depends on your wants
Sep 25, 2010 3:45AM PDT

If you replace that MoBo, you might as well say "build new".
I'm not a real guru, but I saw no one had responded to you.
I am running W7 Home on older Hardware than that, but I don't game. I'm running athlon 3500+. That is 64-bit, but single core and socket 939. My RAM is DDR 400. I have 4 Gig. of ram and that maxed out my mobo. n-force4 chipset.
I added a GT 220 this year, it is the fastest thing about my machine. My GT 220 has 1G. memory, I wouldn't consider one of those with 512 mb.
This GT 220 shows a windows experience 6.3 . My little processor is the slowest component on this scale, and I have it mildly o'c ed. that Windows experience thing is the only way I know to compare.
I don't know that game that you named, but I expect that GT 240 is all you need for the hardware that you now have.
BOTTOM LINE, only you know if you want add vid. card to what you have or start new. If you want to build new, I would go over to TomsHardware.com and look at some of the builds that they describe. Have fun!

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Gtx 260
Sep 25, 2010 4:30AM PDT

I couldn't see your post while I was typing, so forgot which vid. card you were considering. Yeah, I think that GTX 260 is overkill for your existing hardware. I'm sure it won't hurt the other parts.

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It depend...the 260 should give you a nice boost for
Sep 25, 2010 5:26AM PDT

gaming...and be something you could put into a new system if you buy another system in the next 6-12 months. Assume you'd bring the 850W PSU forward too.

By the way ... if you change the MB you might have to get a new OS unless the OS Win7 Ultimate came with the system.

VAPCMD

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Thanks
Sep 25, 2010 2:50PM PDT

hey there thanks for responding. no i bought win 7 as most of my pc was hand-me-downs all put into a nifty new case but my mate had just bought the new gigabyte 460 gtx pretty cheap (less than $300Au) so we then got 2 to save a little money. if my MB cant handle the 460 i will most likely do a full upgrade (new MB, DDR3 and Gpu).

Link to new card:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3531#sp

anyhow thanks for all your help Ol Rod and VAPCMD

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(NT) Sounds good...thanks for the update
Sep 26, 2010 12:25AM PDT