Project Reality Forums

Hey guys, my old 9600 GT isn't cutting it anymore, at least for me.
So I've decided it'd be time I upgrade it. Now I'm not the guy with a lot of money.
Who can run straight into a 590 and buy it. Those things are like very expensive.
Either way, I need it to fit in my old slot of 9600 GT which is a PCI I suppose.

Anyway here are the specs.

OS: Win 7 64bit
Motherboard: P5K SE/EPU
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.83 GHz
RAM: 6 GB (Upgraded recently from 2 GB)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT (as mentioned above)
Hard Disk: 360 GB - SATA ( Yes I realize I have to upgrade this too )

So basically.
I need help with buying a new graphics card, I can't spend much, and I hope it will successfully replace my old one and be a lot better.

Maybe you should try the GTX 570 ? I'll have it soon with my new PC, still have the 9600 GT in my old PC.

If you want a good card on a low budget go for the GTX 460 mate.
In the future you might go SLi with it and 2x 460's is near enough the same speed/power as a gtx 580 or better.

Just make sure your mobo is compatible, new cards these days are like GDDR5

How much is it?

The price is different everywhere you look.

UK Suppliers:

From Overclockers, Click Here.

From Scan, Click Here.

From Novatech...

Aria.....

Ebuyer...

Amazon...

Your looking for a good one around 140GBP, not sure how much that is, in your country.
Try and go with one with the 1GB though.

Graphic Card Benchmarks (upto date)

Thanks mate. Probably will buy that one.

Make sure you are NOT getting the 768MB RAM version.
The 1GB is the way to go there - I believe there is also a newer version with 2GB but I have no further information on how good that one is.


If you are going for SLI, make sure that your mother board is SLI capable.
Also note: 2 cards will increase heat. You might need to get additional fans (as i had to) to cool down the doubled heat source. Also make sure there is enough room for the cards (those GTX are quite large and some varients need 2 slots). You will want to use two PCI 2.0 16x slots, one for each card otherwise it will render one card inefficient - which then drags down the other.

The SLI topic is not that simple as "just buy them".
There are pros and cons you should really look into first.


On a side note: except for the cooling issue i am pretty happy with my 2x Gigabyte Geforce GTX 460 OC 1Gb (SLI)

[R-COM]SnipingCoward wrote:Make sure you are NOT getting the 768MB RAM version.
The 1GB is the way to go there - I believe there is also a newer version with 2GB but I have no further information on how good that one is.


If you are going for SLI, make sure that your mother board is SLI capable.
Also note: 2 cards will increase heat. You might need to get additional fans (as i had to) to cool down the doubled heat source. Also make sure there is enough room for the cards (those GTX are quite large and some varients need 2 slots). You will want to use two PCI 2.0 16x slots, one for each card otherwise it will render one card inefficient - which then drags down the other.

The SLI topic is not that simple as "just buy them".
There are pros and cons you should really look into first.


On a side note: except for the cooling issue i am pretty happy with my 2x Gigabyte Geforce GTX 460 OC 1Gb (SLI)

Agreed. Don't get the SE version either. the 400 Series does run hot but get either a GTX460 or a GT550 TI if you have the money. i got my 460 for around 120$.

Or get a GTX 560 or 570 !!!

Dug wrote:Hey guys, my old 9600 GT isn't cutting it anymore, at least for me.
So I've decided it'd be time I upgrade it. Now I'm not the guy with a lot of money.
Who can run straight into a 590 and buy it. Those things are like very expensive.
Either way, I need it to fit in my old slot of 9600 GT which is a PCI I suppose.

Anyway here are the specs.

OS: Win 7 64bit
Motherboard: P5K SE/EPU
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.83 GHz
RAM: 6 GB (Upgraded recently from 2 GB)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT (as mentioned above)
Hard Disk: 360 GB - SATA ( Yes I realize I have to upgrade this too )

So basically.
I need help with buying a new graphics card, I can't spend much, and I hope it will successfully replace my old one and be a lot better.

3 6990's. 2094MH/S all the way across the sky.


Or, you can get an ATI HD 4850 for less than 100$ It's what I got right now.

If you want to run stuff maxed, on a budget get the Nvidia GeForce GTX 550ti
I managed to get mine for 100 bucks.