Graphics card upgrade

T

theb52s

Silver Level Poster
Back in 2011 I bought this pc. Up to now it has served me well but I have decided to upgrade the graphics card. I am not wanting anything too expensive at the moment so was thinking of the nvidia gtx 950. Can anyone see any issues I may have with the power supply or anything else or would it just be a case of swspping the cards over and sorting out the drivers?
Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 LE: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6950 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
1st Hard Disk
1.5TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1502FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Firewire
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
If the 950's the kind of budget you're shopping at, I wouldn't buy anything and save up a little more instead.

The reason being that the GTX 950 is not actually much more powerful. I don't have a direct benchmark of the two, but here's a bench of the HD 7850 (which is only a little more powerful than the HD 6950) against the 950:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1589?vs=1670 You can see it's about 30% better.

Meanwhile, something like the GTX 1060 3gb is somewhat more expensive but twice as powerful and would be a very meaningful upgrade. So why spend ~£120 on a GTX 950 to increase gaming performance by ~30% when you could save for a GTX 1060 3gb (around ~£180) which is over 100% more powerful, giving better performance and lasting a lot longer before you need to shell out again to replace it.

The 950 never has been a very future-proof buy, especially not now that games are even more demanding than when it was first released and that it's about to be superseded by the 1050 and 1050 ti. But tbh I wouldn't recommend those either for the value considerations above.

So, while the PSU should be fine and handling a sweep of the drivers with DDU and installing the Nvidia drivers should be alright as well, I'd say you shouldn't do it as it's a very poor return on your cash.
 
Last edited:
T

theb52s

Silver Level Poster
Oussebon said:
If the 950's the kind of budget you're shopping at, I wouldn't buy anything and save up a little more instead.

The reason being that the GTX 950 is not actually much more powerful. I don't have a direct benchmark of the two, but here's a bench of the HD 7850 (which is only a little more powerful than the HD 6950) against the 950:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1589?vs=1670 You can see it's about 30% better.

Meanwhile, something like the GTX 1060 3gb is somewhat more expensive but twice as powerful and would be a very meaningful upgrade. So why spend ~£120 on a GTX 950 to increase gaming performance by ~30% when you could save for a GTX 1060 3gb (around ~£180) which is over 100% more powerful, giving better performance and lasting a lot longer before you need to shell out again to replace it.

The 950 never has been a very future-proof buy, especially not now that games are even more demanding than when it was first released and that it's about to be superseded by the 1050 and 1050 ti. But tbh I wouldn't recommend those either for the value considerations above.

So, while the PSU should be fine and handling a sweep of the drivers with DDU and installing the Nvidia drivers should be alright as well, I'd say you shouldn't do it as it's a very poor return on your cash.
Click to expand...

So if I shell out a bit more for the 1060 is that likely to slot straight into my existing set up without any issues?
 
T

theb52s

Silver Level Poster
Thanks for the replies. I only have one further question. The existing graphics card has two 6 pin connectors but if I get the 1060 it would only have one. Will it simply be a case of only plugging one of the existing connectors in or is it more complicated than that?
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
theb52s said:
Thanks for the replies. I only have one further question. The existing graphics card has two 6 pin connectors but if I get the 1060 it would only have one. Will it simply be a case of only plugging one of the existing connectors in or is it more complicated than that?
Click to expand...

Just one of the connectors is needed.
 
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