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need a graphics card "upgrade" for my old pc.. which one do i go for?

Frick

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Of those the 6970 is the best replacement/upgrade for your current card

Aye and it'll be a massive upgrade.

BTW, have you tried to unlock your CPU?
 
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6970 it is.

But you might need an adapter for GPU-power delivery, depending on which Tx650 PSU model you have. Standard on the HD 6970 is 1x6pin + 1x8pin. Some versions of your PSU only have 2x 6pin and no 8pin.
 
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6970 yes,go buy one
 
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Having owned two of them, those 6970s are nice.
 
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ok, imma try to get my hands on that 6970. i checked the price today, and the card looks like new and it's been barely used. $45 for it. i guess i should go for it then, huh?

just to be on the safe side; it will fit nicely for my pc, right?

folterknecht: hmm.. how do i find out what i got on my current psu then..?

and lastly... RAM! which ram can i go for, considering that i've got only 2x2gb ram now?
 
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ok, imma try to get my hands on that 6970. i checked the price today, and the card looks like new and it's been barely used. $45 for it. i guess i should go for it then, huh?

just to be on the safe side; it will fit nicely for my pc, right?

folterknecht: hmm.. how do i find out what i got on my current psu then..?

and lastly... RAM! which ram can i go for, considering that i've got only 2x2gb ram now?

Yes it should fit fine the 6970 is about the same size as the 4870, as for ram a couple of 4 gig sticks should do. As far as the PSU goes your existing one should be fine it has 2 6+2 PCIe power connectors, enough for that card.
 
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BTW, have you tried to unlock your CPU?
This ^^^^
If it unlocks you will see a performance boost.
Does the board have 4 slots or 2?
Upgrading to 8Gb of Ram might see improvements, if your motherboard can handle it.
What model is it, there are quite a few variations of that board.
 

Frick

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I'm pretty sure that if you keep your 32bit OS, you are already maxed out.

He can, iirc, install 64bit Windows with 32bit key.
 
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this is interesting... today when i booted up, it clearly said 2gb and not 4gb.... and same with task mgr: 2gb total. . . so i would have 2x1gb instead then, huh?

also, i managed to get 6970 for $30. it's a fair price for it, yes?

about unlocking cpu... im not really sure what that means... i tried youtubing it, but it didn't tell me much, sorry. how would i go forward to unlock my cpu..?
 

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the 6xxx are considered legacy cards
you won't have any driver support but its a pretty sweet deal for 30 bucks
 
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this is interesting... today when i booted up, it clearly said 2gb and not 4gb.... and same with task mgr: 2gb total. . . so i would have 2x1gb instead then, huh?

also, i managed to get 6970 for $30. it's a fair price for it, yes?

about unlocking cpu... im not really sure what that means... i tried youtubing it, but it didn't tell me much, sorry. how would i go forward to unlock my cpu..?

good deal on that 6970... as far as unlocking your CPU goes The Phenom II 3 core was actually a 4 core with one core disabled, sometimes because it was bad sometimes intentionally.
You just need to search your particular model to find out how to attempt to unlock it , it's usually settings in the Bios.
I've never had one of the 3 cores so I wouldn't know what to tell you from there.
 
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alrighty. going to buy the card then, but before start using it, i need some RAM in place...

so, after cleaning the connectors and so, i now got 4gb ram, yes. not 2gb. :) 2x2gb i'd need to replae them with which ddr2 ram? any suggestions?

yes, it's not a problem for me to re-install windows 7 64-bit. :)

i'll see if i can figure out the unlocking my phenom..
 
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alrighty. going to buy the card then, but before start using it, i need some RAM in place...

so, after cleaning the connectors and so, i now got 4gb ram, yes. not 2gb. :) 2x2gb i'd need to replae them with which ddr2 ram? any suggestions?

yes, it's not a problem for me to re-install windows 7 64-bit. :)

i'll see if i can figure out the unlocking my phenom..

If there is 4GB installed , dont waste money on more RAM for that system .
 
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4GB is going to be a bit limited. I'd do 8GB if it's financially feasible for you.
 

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its not gonna matter a 6970 is still slow by today's standards./thread
 
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If there is 4GB installed , dont waste money on more RAM for that system .

I also think 4GB will be adequate, and sensible given the rest of the hardware.

OP, there are loads of guides on the internet about unlocking a 4th core on your processor. Here is one:
 
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after thinking about it, i guess i will stick with 4gb for now, now that it's fixed and all. however, IF i would buy more, which ddr2 ram should i go for then..? the same as i got now or?

i will test out that unlock today and see if i can do it.

yes im very well aware that 6970 will be super slow by todays standards, but it is for my old pc which had 4870, so it should be quite much better than that card, i believe. :)

also.... one of the fan-"wings" that's on top of my pc fell off.. i know these fans aren't that expensive, so maybe i should get a new fan, or..?

thank you all for helping me so nicely!
 
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also.... one of the fan-"wings" that's on top of my pc fell off.. i know these fans aren't that expensive, so maybe i should get a new fan, or..?
They should be pretty inexpensive to replace. Unless it's spinning really slowly or making a lot of noise, it's probably fine. I'd recommend swapping it out, but it shouldn't hurt much if you don't want to. I had a GPU fan with a blade broken off. Ran fine, albeit slightly louder.
 
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Really it's quite good. 2-3x better than a 4870, and roughly on par with a R9 270 but with high power consumption.

I don't know how many slots you have for ram but if you have 4 slots I guess adding two more like you have would be sensible.
 
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If one of the blades has broken off a fan, remove that fan, it may run but will be unbalanced and could cause more damage.
 
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ok, i will scout for some ram... IF i can find some.. but i got 4gb already, and it SEEMS to be working all good... and yes i got 4 ram-slots.

yes, one of the blades fell off. it's an antec 3 speed fan that i need to replace with a new one. which one would be similar (and preferably more quiet) than this one?

also, i decided to go back to X3 720 / 3 cores instead of 4 cores... why? my pc froze every single time i load up youtube or any other content with flash. now that i put it back to 3 cores it works fine again.

thank you all so very much for all the help and tips you've given!!
 
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