new video card, or new pc?

[Trevor Smithson]

I'm looking at getting back into pc gaming and would like some advice from those who've kept up.
Have a system with an AMD X2, 2GHz PC with 4GB of RAM. Can do everything I want it to do with ease
except play advanced games--the video card is an HD2400 and that would be completely hopeless. If I
dropped in a $100 or $200 video card, would the system be able to play recent/upcoming games at
least fairly well? I'm interested in games like Saints Row 3, Arkham City, and Mass Effect 3. I'll
define fairly well as medium settings at 1280x720.

 

[ToolPackinMama]

I'm looking at getting back into pc gaming and would like some advice from those who've kept up.
Have a system with an AMD X2, 2GHz PC with 4GB of RAM. Can do everything I want it to do with ease
except play advanced games--the video card is an HD2400 and that would be completely hopeless. If I
dropped in a $100 or $200 video card, would the system be able to play recent/upcoming games at
least fairly well? I'm interested in games like Saints Row 3, Arkham City, and Mass Effect 3. I'll
define fairly well as medium settings at 1280x720.

I recently upgraded my CPU and video card, and it was enough. Check the
game you want to play for suggested specs.

 

[Jon Danniken]

I recently upgraded my CPU and video card, and it was enough. Check
the game you want to play for suggested specs.

Are video games making use of multiple cores now, and if so, how many do
they want to have?

Jon

 

[Flasherly]

Are video games making use of multiple cores now, and if so, how many do
they want to have?

While looking at Gigabytes for AMD F1 sockets, there's a lot of
options, besides working with cores, alongside compliant videocards
which share dedication to the F1 CPU. Of course a PCIE videoboard
even with some regard by gamer standards isn't hard to find among a
product line flush in rebate offers;- Nor for a few bucks out of
Singapore, a fan and heatsink in case it's somewhat pushed further for
manufacturer's liberal heat specifications in passively cooled units
that'll double for frying an egg. Also a convincing market for the
wisdom in spending $2500 instead of $25. Just nevermind the F1 isn't
generating a storm of excited reviews.

 

[VanguardLH]

Have a system with an AMD X2, 2GHz PC with 4GB of RAM. ... play
advanced games--the video card is an HD2400 and that would be
completely hopeless. If I dropped in a $100 or $200 video card,
would the system be able to play recent/upcoming games at least
fairly well?

You need to look at the minimum requirements for the games you want to
play. You never bothered to mention which OS you have. Going to the
latest most expensive video card doesn't mean you'll be able to play a
game that requires DirectX v11 (Winodws Vista/7) when the latest
available for your OS is DirectX v10 (Windows XP). DirectX is an API
supported by Windows, not the video card.

Sometimes you find a game that requires a minimum version of the Pixel
Shader. You need to ensure the drivers for the proposed video card
support that version, or higher. I have an old video card that only
support PS v2 and many newer games require v3 so I can't play them.

You don't want to buy a new card only to find out it doesn't support the
minimum requirements of whatever new games you intended to get. In
fact, you should look at the games' recommended specs as your own
minimum specs to make sure you have a pleasant experience with the game.

 

[Paul]

I'm looking at getting back into pc gaming and would like some advice from those who've kept up.
Have a system with an AMD X2, 2GHz PC with 4GB of RAM. Can do everything I want it to do with ease
except play advanced games--the video card is an HD2400 and that would be completely hopeless. If I
dropped in a $100 or $200 video card, would the system be able to play recent/upcoming games at
least fairly well? I'm interested in games like Saints Row 3, Arkham City, and Mass Effect 3. I'll
define fairly well as medium settings at 1280x720.

That's not a very powerful processor.

Games can be CPU limited or GPU limited. You need to find
reviews for each game, to see which limitation they suffer from.

*******

Saints Row 3 System Requirements
CPU/Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+
Video Card Required: Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 / ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB
Minimum RAM (Memory): 2 GB
Hard Drive Space Required: 16 GB
DirectX Version Needed: 9

A 4800+ runs at 2400MHz or 2500Mhz, a bit higher than your 2000MHz PC.

*******

Arkham City PC system requirements

Minimum System Requirements

# CPU: Dual-Core CPU 2.4 Ghz
# RAM: 2GB
# Graphics Card: NVIDIA 8800 or ATI 3800 with 512MB of VRAM

Recommended System Requirements

# Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7
# CPU: Dual-Core CPU 2.5 GHz
# RAM: 4GB
# Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or ATI Radeon HD 6850
with 768MB+ of VRAM (DirectX 11 compatible)

The quoted processor, would likely be a spec for an Intel chip,
and again, a stronger processor than you've got, by a bit.

*******

You can always slap in a new video card, and see what happens.
If the video card has a PCI Express interface, it can be
moved to your next PC. Or, at some future date, maybe
you can bump up the processor a bit.

If your motherboard is power limited, you can look for the
highest speed processor using the same amount of power. For example,
I looked for 65W processors, and found this as an example.

http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=623

AMD Phenom II X4 Model 910e
Base Speed (MHz) 2600
Wattage 65 W
L2 Cache 4x512
L3 Cache 6144

That would be a bit better than a 2000 MHz processor, and it
still draws 65W (same as a bunch of duals). You'd need to check
the socket type on the motherboard (in case we're talking about
some older S939 system).

I wouldn't think the video card would be a dead loss, as
long as it can be moved into a newer computer when that
makes sense.

On some games, turning on "eye candy", can also use a lot
more CPU to create the content. So it isn't always an issue
with the video card lacking horsepower. Sometimes, the program
code to do that, also changes for the worse. And then a little
CPU headroom doesn't hurt.

I couldn't find any reliable info on Mass Effect 3.

Paul

 

[Trevor Smithson]

I'm looking at getting back into pc gaming and would like some advice from those who've kept up.
Have a system with an AMD X2, 2GHz PC with 4GB of RAM. Can do everything I want it to do with ease
except play advanced games--the video card is an HD2400 and that would be completely hopeless. If I
dropped in a $100 or $200 video card, would the system be able to play recent/upcoming games at
least fairly well? I'm interested in games like Saints Row 3, Arkham City, and Mass Effect 3. I'll
define fairly well as medium settings at 1280x720.

Thanks for the answers everyone. Looked into this a bit further, my system can only use a PCI-E
card that doesn't require external power. Far as I can tell the best card that I can use is a
5670...that can be had for ~ $45 after rebates, so I'm going to give it a go with my current system.
If it doesn't work well enough I'll sell the card and start looking at a completely new system
build.