Thinking about upgrading my rig, need some advice

[excelion27]

Hey everyone, since you guys here were amazingly helpful when I built this rig 3 years ago, I knew I should come here to get help for upgrades as well.

I want to upgrade my rig to be able to play newer games coming out now and in the near feature. My rig is starting to show its age.

I plan to upgrade my Core 2 Duo E6600 (Stock 2.4GHz, OC'd to 3.2) to this:
Core2Quad Q8400 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115057 )

and my nVidia 8800 GTS 640MB to the EVGA 768-P3-1362-AR GeForce GTX 460: ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130564 )
or possibly the ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130562 ) if the lack of reviews for the first calls it reliability into question.


The part I need help on is weather my current rig can handle these new parts without needing to upgrade anything else. I'll try to link newegg pages for reference, but as this rig is almost 3 years old now, I may have problems remembering some parts.

Mobo: Asus P5b Deluxe http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131045
PSU: Corsair 650W
OS: Win7 64-Bit Professional
RAM: 4GB Corsair DDR2
Current CPU: Intel Core2Duo E6600


If there is any more information you guys need, please let me know.

Also, I have heard that there is a way to use a separate graphics card to be used as a dedicated physics card, is that true? Assuming I can't even get my old 8800 to fit, would it be possible/feasible/even worth it with my current power supply and set up?

Any help or comments is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[David M]

Your PSU is fine for upgrading to the GTX 460. An alternative to the 460 might be the 5830 or the 5850. Maybe check the benchmarks? I have not read any reviews on the 460 either except for one where the 460 beat the 5830 by a good margin.

Have you checked the benchmarks for the three cards at Toms Hardware?

[Tylor]

Here are the benchmarks on Toms Hardware

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...mi,2684-7.html

Keep clicking next page and it will give lots more. Generally for $30 more the 460 1gb > the 5830 and the 768 is about equal most times. With there of course being some acceptions.

EDIT: Some more benchmarks from Hardware Canucks

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...-review-8.html

[glc]

The CPU upgrade isn't going to do much for you with games. It's all in the video card.

From what I've been reading, if you get a 460 get a 1gb model, not a 768mb.

[Nikon]

the 1gb model is a much better buy, the 768 has an entire GPC turned off, essentially removing 20% of its power compared to the 460 1gb. (yeah the difference is alot bigger than just the memory available.)


btw i have been researching this GPU alot, and it looks like it's architecture is going into another next gen GPU. (it has a 48 cudacore/sm architecture, compared to the 36 core 470/480 architecture, giving it more power for cheaper)

[excelion27]

Ok, thank you everyone. I will get that 1GB model instead.