Do I need an upgrade?

[Randomthom]

Ok, here's my desktop spec, I can't use it where I'm living now, not enough space but soon to be moving house where I will be able to go back to the wonders of desktop computers! Oh the joy!

Intel Q6600 2.4GHz G0 Step (clocks comfortably on air at 3.06GHz)
Gigabyte mobo, forget model number exactly P35 chipset iirc.
4Gb DDR2 800MHz memory
Samsung Spinpoint 750Gb HDD
Samsung Spinpoint 1Tb HDD
GeForce 9800GTX 512Mb
Corsair 750W Modular PSU

I don't have much to spend and I'm thinking about upgrading JUST the graphics card at the moment, I'm eyeing up an AMD 6950 with a view to upgrading the rest of the components at a later date.

Just wanted to get other people's thoughts, will the rest of my slightly dated components seriously limit thie graphics card? Am i missing something obvious & won't it work at all?

Thanks!

 

[Gorman]

It would work fine the q6600 isnt that old. Ask Meds.

Question is, is there a game you cant play at reasonable rates on the current GPU? If the answer is yes then it is indeed time to upgrade.

 

[Meds]

Q6600 FTW!

I have a very similar PC to you, but have the HD5850 Graphics Card. I've played all the latest releases this year on medium/high settings with no issues, so if you got the HD6950 you'll be fine for the time being. I do however, plan to upgrade the whole PC in the next 12 - 18 months if fund allow me too.

 

[Randomthom]

Yeah,
My original plan was to do the whole guts of the system (except HDDs, Optical Drives, Case & PSU as they are all good), I was looking at an i5 or X4 AMD build but I think that might have to wait thus I decided I'd do it in 2 stages, graphics card 1st, then mobo, ram & cpu later.
My only concern is that the current motherboard might not be 16-lane PCI-E, I think it is though.

At the moment this desktop is at a mate's house, he is borrowing it while I don't have space for a desktop otherwise it would be gathering dust at my parent's place. The last time I used it was last summer, it was fine with most things but it really struggled with Metro 2033. I think my lurvely laptop probably outperforms it on some titles now...

I think I'll go with the 6950 when we move (or something similarly priced if there's something better) if I can get away with it via the wife! Just need to find a buyer for our house now... Anyone looking to invest in property in the south west? Got a great 1 bedroom house in Clevedon up for sale, £125k!

Upgrading the rest can happen in time.