Graphics Card Upgrade for old PC

TJT · 3 Nov 2020 at 18:45

Hi
I have a 12 year old PC built with components from OC which is still working great. Would anyone know what type of graphics card would still fit and how high a spec could I go that would be compatible with the old components and not bottleneck the CPU? Also what type of memory can be fitted? The PC is only used to run the iRacing sim game.

Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58 UD4 -5
CPU: i7 [email protected] GHz 3.06

Thanks to anyone who might be able to offer some advice.

Terry

Vince · 3 Nov 2020 at 18:51

The cpu will hold anything remotely modern back but im sure there are some £10 drop in Xeon options in x58 (x5675 & W3690) . You could get a very cheap cpu upgrade on a second hand xeon. Pair that with something like a 1660ti and you should be golden.

TJT · 3 Nov 2020 at 20:20

Thanks very much Vince for your reply - very helpful, although I can't find a Xeon you mentioned quite that cheap but I'll keep looking. I assume I have to stick with ddr3 memory modules with that motherboard. Thanks again.

MissChief · 3 Nov 2020 at 21:01

Something like a GTX970 or 980 would be a decent pick.

mickyflinn · 3 Nov 2020 at 21:20

What graphics card do you have already and what case?

Dg834man · 3 Nov 2020 at 22:37

I bought a x5675 on ebay for £20 two weeks ago had a x5670 previously and oc to 4.4ghz, i have mine paired with a rx480 8gb and its entirely gpu bound.

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:09

mickyflinn said:
What graphics card do you have already and what case?

I have a GTX 750 Ti and an old Antec case, fairly big

mickyflinn · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:22

TJT said:
I have a GTX 750 Ti and an old Antec case, fairly big

As reccomened by mischief a gtx 970 would double the frames your getting with the 750ti.

Joxeon · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:24

TJT said:
Thanks very much Vince for your reply - very helpful, although I can't find a Xeon you mentioned quite that cheap but I'll keep looking. I assume I have to stick with ddr3 memory modules with that motherboard. Thanks again.

Check for X5650

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:25

mickyflinn said:
As reccomened by mischief a gtx 970 would double the frames your getting with the 750ti.

Thanks for your reply. Is that with the existing CPU?

mickyflinn · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:27

TJT said:
Thanks for your reply. Is that with the existing CPU?

Yes but there maybe a slight variation.

Do you have an ssd ?

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:29

mickyflinn said:
Yes but there maybe a slight variation.

Do you have an ssd ?

No I'm afraid not

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:32

Joxeon said:
Check for X5650

Thanks I found one. Would that still be a reasonable improvement?

mickyflinn · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:35

TJT said:
No I'm afraid not

Oh dear , I implore you to get one a mechanical hard drive is the biggest bottle neck on a modern computer, loading times will be faster and system will feel much snappier to respond.

You can get A 500gb ssd for about £45.

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 15:44

mickyflinn said:
Oh dear , I implore you to get one a mechanical hard drive is the biggest bottle neck on a modern computer, loading times will be faster and system will feel much snappier to respond.

You can get A 500gb ssd for about £45.

Yes, I know. I do have a pretty good spec modern PC including an SSD used for everything else but the old computer is only used for iRacing sim. It's a question of balancing a reasonable improvement against spending too much money on such an old machine. I'm not even sure if you could fit one in such an old motherboard?

mickyflinn · 4 Nov 2020 at 16:00

TJT said:
Yes, I know. I do have a pretty good spec modern PC including an SSD used for everything else but the old computer is only used for iRacing sim. It's a question of balancing a reasonable improvement against spending too much money on such an old machine. I'm not even sure if you could fit one in such an old motherboard?

You could fit one but the motherboard is limited to sata 2 which reduces the speed.

In the end it your decision but totally understand.

How does it perform in sim racing at the moment ?

jigger · 4 Nov 2020 at 16:08

TJT said:
Yes, I know. I do have a pretty good spec modern PC including an SSD used for everything else but the old computer is only used for iRacing sim. It's a question of balancing a reasonable improvement against spending too much money on such an old machine. I'm not even sure if you could fit one in such an old motherboard?

You need to do some research, but PCI-E to M.2 or SATA. Probably best avoid NVME though.

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 16:22

mickyflinn said:
You could fit one but the motherboard is limited to sata 2 which reduces the speed.

In the end it your decision but totally understand.

How does it perform in sim racing at the moment ?

I get about 70fps but at fairly low graphic settings which would be nice to turn up a bit for the immersion

mickyflinn · 4 Nov 2020 at 16:31

TJT said:
I get about 70fps but at fairly low graphic settings which would be nice to turn up a bit for the immersion

Gpu upgrade For sure gtx 970 has 4gb of vram which you should be able to play at higher detail.

TJT · 4 Nov 2020 at 17:42

mickyflinn said:
Gpu upgrade For sure gtx 970 has 4gb of vram which you should be able to play at higher detail.

Thanks. Would replacing the cpu with a X5650 make much difference do you think?