Polska

Ok, so I have a fairly dated system. Amd 1700+ (1.47 Ghz) 1 Gb Ram, Agp, Geforce 5500 fx. My dilemma is this.

I am hoping to buy a new system later on this year. The WHEN will depend on my employment status (currently employed, but the company is in jeopardy of being closed). The purchase may happen in 2 months, or it could be at the end of the year.

Lately I have been having an urge to buy a Geforce 7600GT to tide me over until I get my new PC. There is one listed for $174.99 on newegg, so it's not a huge expense. So I have two questions for you folks.

1) Will the upgrade make a large difference in gaming for me.
2) Should I just wait it out and continue to play my dated games in agony.

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=Sarc=

It'll be tough, but I say play in agony. You'd be buying a new AGP card that will have very little resell value when you get your new PC. Plus, you'll still be held down by a slow processor.

Depending on your location in Ontario, you may want to try used parts. There are plenty of used video cards if you're in Toronto. Check out RedFlagDeals' used hardware forum.

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JO Guides & Tutorials
Team Element - It's who you game with.

Buckets

It would make an enormous difference but its up to you if you want to spend the money when you'll be building a whole new system in a few months. If you do decide to upgrade, you might consider getting a 7600gs instead. It'll run you less money and you're going to be pretty severely CPU bottlenecked anyhow.

Example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125039

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130076 (if you want to overclock)

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The artist formerly known as "pecker"

Polska

Ya, I've thought about the gs Buckets, and the prices on new egg are nice. I would definitely want to try to oc it slightly. Like you both pointed out however my biggest reason for not having already gone through with it is the cpu bottleneck.

The money isn't an issue for the upgrade, and I will most likely keep this system until it croaks as a secondary computer, so I will think about it some more over the next couple days. Let's see if anyone else has something to say.

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Buckets

Regardless, the difference in performance between a GT and a GS will probably be negligible with that CPU installed. You would definitely get a nice bump but you might as well save your $75.00 and get the GS.

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The artist formerly known as "pecker"

Polska

Another worry just popped into my head. I forgot that I only have a 250W PSU, I would imagine that could be an issue with this card. I may be able to get a descent PSU form work though on the bright side.

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Polska

Would anyone be able to suggest a solid PSU if I was to get the 7600GS, I never know what to look for in a PSU.

From what I have read I would need at least a 350, so on the safe side lets shoot for 400 or 450.

I'm running on an ASUS A7N266-c motherboard, If you would like to know other specs let me know.

Price isn't necessarily an issue, but let's not go bananas here, it's for an upgrade on an old system .

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Buckets

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The artist formerly known as "pecker"