New Graphics Card

[Heiro de Bodemloze]

Hey

I have got a PC that is generally very good, but my GPU really slows it down for playing games etc. I have a GeForce GT 530.

I am thinking of getting a new one, better, but don't want to spend to much on it. It would also be great to learn some from it .

So useful websites, guides, etc that I can learn from?

Cheers

[Totalheadache]

please list rest of pc specs but most important your screen/monitor size, psu make/wattage. a dxdiag would suffice for the rest of the info..

budget?

for gpu reviews go here

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_categ...ideocards.html

[Love Mountain]

Heir of Alexander. Here are some review sites.

http://www.anandtech.com/
http://hardocp.com/
http://www.techpowerup.com/
http://www.guru3d.com/
http://vr-zone.com/

These are generally regarded as "the" review websites. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of other websites that offer good reviews. Such as but not limited to, Xbit labs, hexus, legitreviews, overclock3d, hardwareheaven but, the ones I listed are the most consistent out of all. Of course with a healthy does of my opinion, but in general you can't go wrong with the websites I listed.

Some other reading you might want to get into before you upgrade is,

http://www.overclock.net/t/502403/gr...-updated-daily

I would also like to know your system specs such as,

Your CPU, your manufacturer(Dell, HP, you built yourself), your hard drive, your current motherboard if possible, RAM amount, and anything you might think is useful. In order to help you make a smart purchase we require as much information as you can give us. Thank you

[Bolkonsky]

We need your screen resolution, and the rest of your PC's specs including the power supply wattage. Also a general idea of a budget would be nice.

[Heiro de Bodemloze]

Here's a screenshot from Speccy;



Power Supply Wattage I have to open it for, right? Then that might be a bit hard.. sorry.

[Love Mountain]

Here's a screenshot from Speccy;


Power Supply Wattage I have to open it for, right? Then that might be a bit hard.. sorry.

I'd get more RAM while you're at it as well. You can get 8 gigs under 50$ nowadays.

With dat resolution I'd say a 7950 or 660TI is a good choice. If you're constrained budget wise to be able to afford a 300$ GPU, then the 7870 is a solid performer.

[Bolkonsky]

I'd get more RAM while you're at it as well. You can get 8 gigs under 50$ nowadays.

With dat resolution I'd say a 7950 or 660TI is a good choice. If you're constrained budget wise to be able to afford a 300$ GPU, then the 7870 is a solid performer.

If it's a low budget there's the 7850, you can get them for $170 with a rebate now.

[karamazovmm]

that is going to be entirely needed

[Bolkonsky]

Hmm, with a 2300 and a GT 530 my guess is that it's about 350w, max. You're gonna need to upgrade if you're putting in a better GPU. Which means at some point you're gonna need to open the case, which means you might as well do that now and check. It's usually listed on the side. (Voltage * Amperage = Wattage)

[Totalheadache]

oh and while you're at it replace original stock heatsink for cpu. 46 c is pretty toasty. ofc 46 under load is fine.

p.s if you can get an aftermarker cooler you might be able to oc that cpu a bit...although not sure re i5 2300

[Bolkonsky]

oh and while you're at it replace original stock heatsink for cpu. 46 c is pretty toasty. ofc 46 under load is fine.

p.s if you can get an aftermarker cooler you might be able to oc that cpu a bit...although not sure re i5 2300

Maximum safe operating temp is 72...probably just a bit of dust in the cooler, canned air will work fine. Also you can't overclock the 2300 anyways, it's locked.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

actually you can clock it a bit,

i think you can push it up another 300 Mhz and with a bus clock of say 102-105 (it really depends as it controls EVERYTHING) but utlizing turbo + increased turbo multipliers and base clock is it worth it? sometimes

at 5x 28 = 140 MHz aka 105 x 28 would be 2940, add in turbo where you should be able to bump the multiplier by 3 more it should net you single core speeds of 3400 + 34x 5 = 3570 on a single core an increase of 470 Mhz on a single core.

But considering bus clocking can up an OS install i recommend just leaving it be.

[Bolkonsky]

actually you can clock it a bit,

i think you can push it up another 300 Mhz and with a bus clock of say 102-105 (it really depends as it controls EVERYTHING) but utlizing turbo + increased turbo multipliers and base clock is it worth it? sometimes

at 5x 28 = 140 MHz aka 105 x 28 would be 2940, add in turbo where you should be able to bump the multiplier by 3 more it should net you single core speeds of 3400 + 34x 5 = 3570 on a single core an increase of 470 Mhz on a single core.

But considering bus clocking can up an OS install i recommend just leaving it be.

You can take it to the turbo clock without touching the bus clock. So 3.1 if you want to call that overclocking, since technically the turbo is already at 3.1ghz.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

all chips can have Turbo pushed by another 3x or 4x if i remember right so in from what i remember it can be pushed to 3.4 on a single core up from 3.1

some have hit as high as 3.6 but thats extremely rare

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=696439

in alot of cases pushing the multi higher depends on the motherboard its weird, just like on some boards enabling the XMP profile causes ALL cores to clock up to the max Turbo frequency instead of one core

that said he should be able to get 3.3-3.4 ghz i would expect by playing around i just dont think its worth the hassel considering how limited the options are with that chip.

better off just focusing on GPU + PSU

[Totalheadache]

mmm if the op could hit 3.4-3.6 that would be a nice boost with a mid-range card. would I do it...most probably.

also def worth learning about in the grand scheme of things. i.e future pc build