Q9400/9550 and GTX460 2GB, or i3-6100 and HD 530, for gaming?

[VirtualLarry]

Mostly interesting in the video question, but secondarily, the CPU.

Friend has a mid-tower with a 45nm Core2Quad, and a 2GB GTX460 card. He says it crashes on him (video TDR timeouts in Win7 64-bit). I replaced his PSU, and the crashes still happen. He says they happen more when watching YouTube than playing games. (He plays D3.)

Was wondering, if an STX rig, with an i3-6100 and HD 530 graphics would be comparable, or possibly faster, for games.

I know from limited personal experience that you can play Skyrim in low/med @ 1080P on an i3-6100 and HD 530, though the visual quality wasn't the best (Intel drivers).

 

[Arachnotronic]

Pretty sure the HD 530 is slower than the GTX 460. But, since his system is crashing it sounds to me like the motherboard is crapping the bed.

Build this guy a proper system with dGPU support and a reasonable PSU.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Those tdr timeouts are usually a driver issue. Also depends on what browser you're running.

 

[R0H1T]

The quad core paired with RX 460 or GTX 1050 would be my choice, so if he can wait then I'd suggest him to do so. If not then getting a cheap 950 would be the second (preferred) alternative, the i3 6100 is a bad choice even for IGP gaming. He can spend a few $ getting a decent GPU now & then upgrading to a proper quad/hexa core with Kaby/coffeelake or Zen.

 

[boozzer]

my old 460 had that exact problem. revert back to his old drivers would instantly solve the problem. I vaguely remembered it being 183.xxx version being the stable version before the crashes started. so a driver as old as 2-3 years old at least. other wise the driver crash would 100% plague him all the time, every single time.

there is no fix for it besides buying a new video card or staying with 3-4 year old drivers which = not being able to play any games release in the last 3 years.

and the shills are talking about nv super drivers

 

[ZGR]

I'd choose the i3 easily. Core2 is useless in modern games. The iGPU is fast for DX9 games.


My buddy 100%'d Skyrim on a laptop with HD 3000... Skylake is significantly faster than Sandy bridge.

 

[R0H1T]

I'd choose the i3 easily. Core2 is useless in modern games. The iGPU is fast for DX9 games.


My buddy 100%'d Skyrim on a laptop with HD 3000... Skylake is significantly faster than Sandy bridge.

A dual core(+HT) is a bad idea for gaming, even general computing in 2016. Also gaming on Intel IGP would be even worse, a proper GPU upgrade & real quad core would be so much better.

 

[Blue_Max]

Choose the i3 and try to continue using the GTX 460. Fall back to the IGP if necessary.


Oops... I see you're thinking tiny form factor! I'd go with a little ITX system as a balance because the IGP 530 is only just barely acceptable for those games, with no room for better.

 

[VirtualLarry]

my old 460 had that exact problem. revert back to his old drivers would instantly solve the problem. I vaguely remembered it being 183.xxx version being the stable version before the crashes started. so a driver as old as 2-3 years old at least. other wise the driver crash would 100% plague him all the time, every single time.

there is no fix for it besides buying a new video card or staying with 3-4 year old drivers which = not being able to play any games release in the last 3 years.

and the shills are talking about nv super drivers

That's basically what I figured.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Build this guy a proper system with dGPU support and a reasonable PSU.

I hooked him up with a brand-new Lenovo desktop with a 3.4Ghz Sandy Bridge i3 CPU, 2x4GB DDR3, an additional 1TB HDD, Windows 10, and a 2GB 750ti. (With original OEM PSU.)

Told him if that didn't work for him, we could look at replacing the PSU, and putting in a GTX950 2GB or a 2GB R9 270X.

I told him all he had to pay for was the GPU, the rest of the PC was free. But he had two weeks to test it out and see if it would work for him.

He sat on his ass for FIVE MONTHS, and couldn't even find a few hours to test out the PC, and just left me hanging.

I finally gave him an ultimatum, try out the PC or return it. He opted to return it.

We haven't talked much since.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I hooked him up with a brand-new Lenovo desktop with a 3.4Ghz Sandy Bridge i3 CPU, 2x4GB DDR3, an additional 1TB HDD, Windows 10, and a 2GB 750ti. (With original OEM PSU.)

Told him if that didn't work for him, we could look at replacing the PSU, and putting in a GTX950 2GB or a 2GB R9 270X.

I told him all he had to pay for was the GPU, the rest of the PC was free. But he had two weeks to test it out and see if it would work for him.

He sat on his ass for FIVE MONTHS, and couldn't even find a few hours to test out the PC, and just left me hanging.

I finally gave him an ultimatum, try out the PC or return it. He opted to return it.

We haven't talked much since.

Lol, then why bother trying to help him? Clearly an ungrateful person.

 

[SPBHM]

I know from limited personal experience that you can play Skyrim in low/med @ 1080P on an i3-6100 and HD 530, though the visual quality wasn't the best (Intel drivers).

gtx 460 will run skyrim on ultra 60FPS

 

[eddman]

my old 460 had that exact problem. revert back to his old drivers would instantly solve the problem. I vaguely remembered it being 183.xxx version being the stable version before the crashes started. so a driver as old as 2-3 years old at least. other wise the driver crash would 100% plague him all the time, every single time.

there is no fix for it besides buying a new video card or staying with 3-4 year old drivers which = not being able to play any games release in the last 3 years.

and the shills are talking about nv super drivers

You're going to make me cry. I have a 560 Ti and I get TDRs and even sometimes hard lockups ONLY while browsing. They seem to be happening after waking from sleep. It's been like this for the past year or maybe even longer. Games are 100% stable, no matter how many straight hours I play them.

I've reported this perhaps more than 6 times in GeForce forums and I think 3 times through their bug reporting form in the past year and didn't get even a SINGLE response.

As you mentioned the only solution seems to be a new card.

 

[Raduque]

A dual core(+HT) is a bad idea for gaming, even general computing in 2016. Also gaming on Intel IGP would be even worse, a proper GPU upgrade & real quad core would be so much better.

A Skylake dual with hyperthreading is going to eat a core 2 quad alive. The IPC/core is just not enough to compete with it.

 

[ZGR]

A dual core(+HT) is a bad idea for gaming, even general computing in 2016. Also gaming on Intel IGP would be even worse, a proper GPU upgrade & real quad core would be so much better.

For DX9 games it is fine. For Diablo 3, a dGPU will be great, even with a dual core CPU.

 

[Thinker_145]

gtx 460 will run skyrim on ultra 60FPS

But a Core 2 Quad can't. My Q8400@3.2ghz with 7850 used to run Skyrim ultra between 30-60FPS. With the i7 6700k it's locked 60 almost all the time.

Sent from my HTC One M9