Needing to upgrade my graphics card...probably my cpu...could use some help

Dustin Williams

Dustin Williams

Geek Trainee
I do property clean outs for a living and usually what I find is trash but a few months ago I found a tower in a box still in the plastic wrap. I'm trying to set a system up to have it ready when The Old Republic launches.

Its a Gateway DX4300-11...specs are

Processor-AMD Phenom II X4 805 / 2.5 GHz quad core

Mainboard-Chipset type AMD 780G

RAM-8.0 GB ddr2

Hard Drive-1 tb

DVDRW16x

Graphics-intigrated ATI Radeon HD 3200

Power Supply-300 watts

Running Windows 7

Expansion slots (copied and pasted)

* Expansion Bays 4.0 (total) / 3.0 (free) x External - 5.25 in,
Internal - 3.5 in
* Expansion Slot(s) 4.0 (total) / 0.0 (free) x PCI Express x16 - DIMM 240-pin,
1.0 (total) / 0.0 (free) x PCI,
1.0 (free) x Processor,
1.0 (free) x Memory,
PCI Express x1

Width 7.1 in
Depth 16.3 in
Height 16.2 in

From what I read the graphics card I'm running isn't gonna cut the mustard for gaming and upgrading to any other graphics card is gonna make me need to upgrade my power supply. I know very little anymore about this stuff and I knew very little to begin with. I was hoping maybe somebody could make some suggestions for my current set up. I can't spend to much money. 400.00 in student loans plus the mortgage and we like to eat on occasion means I can't swing something crazy especially with it being the christmas season and needing to buy for others. I've already picked out one I think might work for me.
XFX HD-667X-ZHF3 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150542


Somebody told me I could get this and not have to upgrade my psu but I do not understand how that would work. Any advice would be appreciated. If any of you have other suggestions I'd be willing to look at that as well. If you need anymore info from me I'll be happy to provide it.
 
That card has very low power consumption so it is possible to use it without upgrading your PSU. If you decide to go with the 6670 though i would get one with DDR5 memory rather than the one you listed which has DDR3. Basicly the best choices without a psu upgrade are the 6670 or a Nvidia GTX 430. both have similair performance.
 
Thanks for the reply. I did some more searching and I'm not thinking of going with the 6770 with ddr5. I had my case open and happened to look at my psu. CNET.com lists my machine as having a 300 watt psu but my psu says 400 watt. I ran the serial number and sure enough it is a 400 watt psu. Then I did some research on how to determine if it had any quality and it came out to 32A. I read a couple places that anything over 30A is what I need. 6770 is recommended to run on 400 watt psu and according to most sites I only need in reality about 338 watts.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo

That is the one I have picked out although I have not purchased it yet...gonna wait and see if there are any black friday deals or anything. If you have any other suggestions now that I realize I have a 400 watt instead of a 300 watt though I'd be happy to consider it.
 
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