Want to upgrade graphics card, no idea to what!

[NBalchemist]

I'm hoping for advice and/or suggestions from some tech-savvy people about graphics cards and probably general computer hardware. I need to upgrade my graphics card, since I'm pretty much only a PC gamer and can't play new(er) games that well. I have Dragon Age Inquisition installed, I've only played it for maybe an hour, it's laggy even on the lowest possible graphics settings. I have to play older games like Fallout NV, Skyrim and Bioshock Infinite on medium/low settings or a smaller resolution or it lags. My current specs are -

 

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

PSU: 460W

Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz

Memory: 8192MB RAM

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

 

I have absolutely no idea what my power supply is or how many fans I have, but I'm hoping to be opening my computer up tomorrow to dust it out with a can of air, I'll try to figure out what they are then. I do have a budget (not sure what it is as I have no idea how much graphics cards cost) but I really don't have a lot of money to toss around. :confused: I'd love to be able to play most, if not all games on at least High graphics, with Ultra of course being ideal, but probably out of my budget. My brother-in-law said I should get another NVIDIA since we already know my computer can use them, but I don't know which one to get. And when I google a model of card, I get a whole bunch of different variations of it! I'm just really confused and need help from people who know this stuff.

 

It should also be noted that I got this computer for about $800 (2 years ago from HP and I think it was on sale), so if upgrading it ends up costing that or more, would it be better to just save up and buy an actual gaming PC instead of upgrading this one?

Edited May 24, 2015 by NBalchemist

[aihema]

as far as it goes for upgrading it all depends on your motherboard and power unit , once you know what you want, what kind of games you play and want to run its simple as picking a higher end of that line of gpu that is in your price range

 

extra note that i7 is a 4 core with hyper-threading ( intel's proprietary simultaneous multi threading )

 

your brother in law is correct nvidia is probably a good choice since you previously had one but that does hinder in cost

 

if it works i suggest something like a 780/770

but before you buy anything read read read read read...reviews are important and sometimes hardware doesn't always go together.

[Carinth01]

Your system isn't that bad, however the Nvidia card should be upgraded to a GTX series. 650 and up will run the game nicely. You may need to upgrade your power supply for the graphics support power links if yours doesn't have them.

[NBalchemist]

as far as it goes for upgrading it all depends on your motherboard and power unit , once you know what you want, what kind of games you play and want to run its simple as picking a higher end of that line of gpu that is in your price range

 

Your system isn't that bad, however the Nvidia card should be upgraded to a GTX series. 650 and up will run the game nicely. You may need to upgrade your power supply for the graphics support power links if yours doesn't have them.

How can I find out info about my mother board? Will it be labelled as the motherboard and have it's info on it? Will I be able to see the graphics support power links if they're there?

[NBalchemist]

I just finished dusting out the inside of my computer, found my power unit, it says 460W.

[NBalchemist]

I'm thinking of getting a NVIDIA GTX 770, the NVIDIA site says it needs 600W, my brother-in-law suggested I get a 750W psu. So then my upgraded specs would be -

 

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

PSU: 750W

Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz

Memory: 8192MB RAM

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770

 

Are these good specs? Would I be able to play new(er) games on at least High quality with them? I pulled the graphics card from the recommended card for the Witcher 3 on steam, since it just came out like 2 weeks ago.

[Coaster]

Before you upgrade your video card, I would recommend you buy a solid state disk. The improvement is enormous.

[NBalchemist]

Before you upgrade your video card, I would recommend you buy a solid state disk. The improvement is enormous.

What is a solid state disk? I've never heard of it.

[obobski]

A solid state disk (or SSD for short) is a different type of hard-drive - instead of using mechanical mechanism (spinning platters) it uses flash memory (hence 'solid state') to achieve much lower latencies and higher bandwidth. It will improve things like boot-up time, application load times (e.g. how quickly does Fallout actually start-up, how quickly do level transitions load, etc) but it cannot improve computationally bound tasks (e.g. running with higher levels of AA, higher resolutions, more demanding games, etc) so I wouldn't suggest it ahead of a graphics card upgrade; you would still end up limited by the GT 630. That said, it wouldn't be a bad upgrade alongside a graphics card. Also remember, as with any hard-drive upgrade, you will need to either clone your existing drive onto the new disk, or reformat/install Windows and re-install all of your applications and transfer files over; the SSD will do nothing whatsoever for files not contained on it.

 

To your proposed upgrades, GTX 770 is a very nice choice, and should have no problems with Fallout/Skyrim/etc at basically max settings (I don't know what resolution you want, and if you want AA or AF, etc). The 750W PSU may be a little overkill, but if it fits in the case that wouldn't be a bad choice either. Make sure you go with a reputable manufacturer (e.g. Antec, Corsair, FirePower, Enermax, EVGA, etc) - a good place to look for reviews of PSUs is JonnyGuru (just google for it). You may consider some other nVidia cards as well: GeForce GTX 660, 760, and 960 specifically. They may work with your existing 460W PSU, and any of them would still be fast enough to get you what you want (I've run my 660SC on a 450W PSU just to test it, and it works fine, for example).

 

Switching to AMD (Radeon graphics) would also be a consideration - the only extra step would be uninstalling the nVidia drivers and installing the AMD drivers (this is really easy to do). There's no big reason to do this, unless you find a really good price on a Radeon or want the gaming bundle (afaik they still offer that).

[NBalchemist]

Thank you for the reply! I'll consider getting a SSD, but I probably won't get it alongside the new card and psu, as those two are a bit expensive already. My brother-in-law knows a bit about computers and he said EVERYTHING in my computer draws power, not just the graphics card, so if the card I want needs 600W to get at least 750W so that there's still power for everything else that needs it.

 

A thing I'm confused about is all the different types of GTX 770 (and every other card, too). When I google it and click the shopping tab to try and get an idea of the price, I see everything from $250 to $550 and from lots of different brands. PNY, EVGA, ASUS, Overclocked, Superclocked, Dual SC w/ ACX Cooler. I'm not sure what any of it means and I think I just want a regular, unmodified GTX 770.

Edited May 31, 2015 by NBalchemist