GPU Upgrade Bottleneck? E6500 Intel

[mode101wpb]

I currently have a Intel E6500 paired with a Sapphire Radeon HD 4550 512MB Low-Profile GPU and was wondering if there was any benefit in upgrading the GPU to the Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 1GB Low-Profile. This GPU is around $100 new.

Concerned there might be a bottleneck making the HD 7750 pointless. I can run Crysis 2 on my current machine at "High" settings but at a lower resolution without much issues.

I have no money to upgrade my entire system to the latest "iX' series so I'm trying to milk out this system for a little longer.

 

[Ieat]

Low profile cards are generally a ripoff. Unless you need the small form factor I would just consider getting a new case and a regular size card if your power supply allows. If not I'm sure you'll see some improvement with a 7750 since a 4550 is pretty much bottom of the barrel. Just remember to get a 7750 with ddr5 if you do decide to go that route. I would also look into getting a cheap quad core for $40 or $50 or at least an e8400 for $25 or so if your motherboard allows.

 

[mode101wpb]

Problem is, I have a Dell Optiplex 760 small form factor desktop, so OC is not an option along with upgrading outside of low profile GPU or a Quad Core LGA775 is about as good as it gets. Along with the PSU is only a 235W, though it's spec. to handle a Quad Core, not sure if it will do that on top of a thirstier watt hungry GPU?

I see some used Q9650 for around $150, so I am not sure if that would be feasible?

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the E8400 only marginally better than the E6500 on a 32 bit system? I have the option to go 64 bit if needed.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/387/Intel_Core_2_Duo_E8400_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_E6500.html


This is the GPU I was looking at:

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-10035.../dp/B0095MRLJ2

 

[frozentundra123456]

You are in kind of a tough spot. For sure that 7750 would give you better performance, but is kind of expensive, probably because it is low profile.

The other problem is your power supply. The 7750 is not very power hungry and does not require a six pin power connector, but it is kind of pushing it on a 235 w power supply. I ran a similar CPU and gpu on an OEM 300 w power supply with no problem, but 235 w is quite a bit less. I *think* you would be OK, but its kind of risky.

 

[SPBHM]

high on Crysis 2 = lowest possible I think...

the 4550 is extremely slow (like a 5450, 80sps), so even with a not so great CPU upgrading is probably a good thing, but, what is your display resolution and the games you intend to play?

 

[kjknight]

I would ignore the CPU upgrade. Looks like your system can take the q9650, but at $150 it is a rip-off. That money would be best spent on upgrading your system. If you can find for dirt cheap it would be a good upgrade, but I'd ignore it.

Honestly, the your GPU is the major limiting factor. The 4550 only has 80 stream processors and uses a 64 bit bus with DDR3 memory. If you are looking for better performance, the 7750 would be leaps and bounds ahead of the 4550. Would the e6500 bottleneck it? Yes, but it is hard to say how much. Either way it would give you better GPU performance.

 

[Ieat]

I see some used Q9650 for around $150, so I am not sure if that would be feasible?

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the E8400 only marginally better than the E6500 on a 32 bit system? I have the option to go 64 bit if needed.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/387/Intel_Core_2_Duo_E8400_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_E6500.html


This is the GPU I was looking at:

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-10035.../dp/B0095MRLJ2

Sorry I thought you had one of the older Conroe Core 2 Duo E6xx chips clocked around 2ghz. Yeah an e8400 wouldn't be a big upgrade although it does have 3x the l2 cache which would help some. Forget the q9650. It's definitely not worth the asking price. Look for a q9450-q9550. Those can sometimes be found in the $60 to $80 range on the F/S forum.

 

[Termie]

The HD7750 is a good upgrade, but it will be bottlenecked slightly. You might want to consider the HD6670, which can also be had in a low-profile form. You'll get the same amount of performance given your CPU. Here's one for $80: http://www.amazon.com/HIS-Express-Pr...radeon+hd+6670

 

[mode101wpb]

high on Crysis 2 = lowest possible I think...

the 4550 is extremely slow (like a 5450, 80sps), so even with a not so great CPU upgrading is probably a good thing, but, what is your display resolution and the games you intend to play?

I have a 24" Asus Monitor with a native of 1920 x 1080, but the best my 4550 can handle is 1280 X 800. I tried it at the higher settings, past "High" on Crysis 2, but got a lot of motion blur and laggy performance.

Mainly FPS type games.

I would ignore the CPU upgrade. Looks like your system can take the q9650, but at $150 it is a rip-off. That money would be best spent on upgrading your system. If you can find for dirt cheap it would be a good upgrade, but I'd ignore it.

Honestly, the your GPU is the major limiting factor. The 4550 only has 80 stream processors and uses a 64 bit bus with DDR3 memory. If you are looking for better performance, the 7750 would be leaps and bounds ahead of the 4550. Would the e6500 bottleneck it? Yes, but it is hard to say how much. Either way it would give you better GPU performance.

That's what I figured, I suppose it's the only choice in my measly budget right now.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

be careful trying to upgrade the cpu. some of the optiplexes did not support quad cores.

I wouldn't spend a dime upgrading your computer. Sorry. Just save the money towards a new or different computer.

 

[Techhog]

Honestly, I'd recommend just saving up for a whole new system. That PSU is ridiculously limiting, and it may not even still be at peak efficiency at this point.

Edit: You play FPS games mostly? Yeah, definitely keep that money for a new PC. Anything would be an upgrade over what you have now anyway, including most modern integrated graphics.

 

[mode101wpb]

The HD7750 is a good upgrade, but it will be bottlenecked slightly. You might want to consider the HD6670, which can also be had in a low-profile form. You'll get the same amount of performance given your CPU. Here's one for $80: http://www.amazon.com/HIS-Express-Pr...radeon+hd+6670

Thanks, I'll look into that.

 

[mode101wpb]

I'm due for a new build, but I do not have the budget right now. PS4 on the horizon too, MGS fan so it's hard to pass it up.

 

[SPBHM]

The HD7750 is a good upgrade, but it will be bottlenecked slightly. You might want to consider the HD6670, which can also be had in a low-profile form. You'll get the same amount of performance given your CPU. Here's one for $80: http://www.amazon.com/HIS-Express-Pr...radeon+hd+6670

for 1080P I think the extra $20 are well worth it, even with his CPU... many games will be hard for this level of VGA before the CPU is a bottleneck.

also E6500 (2.9GHz "C2D" with 2mb of l2) and a 7750 I'm sure 230w is more than enough... when I tested a e5400 at 3.3ghz with a 5570 the power usage was lower than 120w while playing games I think.

upgrading is not a bad idea, as much as the CPU is slow, the 4550 is MUCH slower... it's limiting a lot more the games/quality he can play than the CPU.

 

[Techhog]

for 1080P I think the extra $20 are well worth it, even with his CPU... many games will be hard for this level of VGA before the CPU is a bottleneck.

also E6500 (2.9GHz "C2D" with 2mb of l2) and a 7750 I'm sure 230w is more than enough... when I tested a e5400 at 3.3ghz with a 5570 the power usage was lower than 120w while playing games I think.

upgrading is not a bad idea, as much as the CPU is slow, the 4550 is MUCH slower... it's limiting a lot more the games/quality he can play than the CPU.

I'm pretty sure that the 7750 with GDDR5 would use a little more power than the 5570. Then, of course, there's efefficiency to take into account.

 

[Kougar]

I would ignore the CPU upgrade. Looks like your system can take the q9650, but at $150 it is a rip-off. That money would be best spent on upgrading your system. If you can find for dirt cheap it would be a good upgrade, but I'd ignore it.

Honestly, the your GPU is the major limiting factor. The 4550 only has 80 stream processors and uses a 64 bit bus with DDR3 memory. If you are looking for better performance, the 7750 would be leaps and bounds ahead of the 4550. Would the e6500 bottleneck it? Yes, but it is hard to say how much. Either way it would give you better GPU performance.

I have to completely agree with kjknight here.

It's easy to continually upgrade piecemeal, but stop for a second and consider how long you plan to keep using the system after you buy more hardware for it. Because $250 is already half the cost of a new, much more powerful system.

$300 will get you a new 3Ghz Haswell quadcore, motherboard, and 4GB of RAM. Sell the dell outright and that's probably ~$100 to work with, just need a case, PSU, and GPU. And an OS. If you have anything laying around then it shouldn't take you much longer to save up enough to just buy a new rig outright.

Upgrading the GPU now would be fine as you can always put it into a new rig later, but otherwise I'd suggest holding off on upgrades. Just save up until you have $500 for a new rig, particularly if you have an OS, case, or other parts laying around to reuse.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I wouldn't spend a dime upgrading your computer. Sorry. Just save the money towards a new or different computer.

This.

Also waiting for toyota's comments about the OEM 235W PSU, and the wisdom of upgrading the GPU and possibly CPU. LOL.

 

[toyota]

This.

Also waiting for toyota's comments about the OEM 235W PSU, and the wisdom of upgrading the GPU and possibly CPU. LOL.

lol I am trying to hold off...

 

[mode101wpb]

PS4 is killing my budget, so I am looking for a bandaid in the meantime. I just want a little better performance, thought for $100 it would be doable with this GPU.

Also if I could go with a new build, I would also have to purchase Windows 7 since I have had the luxury of using the cheap eBay Dell OEM Windows DVDs for a few years for the operating system, that is unless I went with another Dell barebones system like a T1600 but even that is older technology, but supposedly can handle an Ivy Bridge no problem. ATX PSU is upgradable as well. When I add it up, it just is not much of a cost savings over going custom.

I do not have much to use as my last custom case was recycled 2005 vintage, would need a Mobo, CPU, heat sink, RAM, Case and a PSU at a minimal. I estimated $500-$1000 depending on what direction I went.