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[Tawa]

I have this terribad old Optiplex GX620, running Linux. I want to buy a new video card for it, because this thing sucks so bad I can't even play Half-Life 2, and I certainly won't be able to play CKII (after I get it, anyway) without a new card. Any recommendations? This thing has an original PCIE port, by the way, but I've heard bad things about the backwards compatibility with PCIE 2 cards. Is it really that bad?

[Reudh]

I have this terribad old Optiplex GX620, running Linux. I want to buy a new video card for it, because this thing sucks so bad I can't even play Half-Life 2, and I certainly won't be able to play CKII (after I get it, anyway) without a new card. Any recommendations? This thing has an original PCIE port, by the way, but I've heard bad things about the backwards compatibility with PCIE 2 cards. Is it really that bad?

I seriously doubt your computer would support any modern graphics cards.

[Aklyon]

If it can't even play HL2 and has an old pcie port, I have serious doubts you could upgrade it to within the throwing distance of modern Clauswitz engine needs.

[TheBiggerFish]

@Tawa:Just get a new computer.  Seriously.  :v

[gimlet]

I dunno, I was running CK2 with the 1st 4-5 DLC, and HOI3 with all the expansions on an Nvidia 8500GT video card, which is pretty low end.  Yeah the games weren't speed demons but they were definitely playable.  Heh I looked it up, 8500GT has a G3dmark of 141, the Radeon 7950 I got a couple years ago is 4761 on that benchmark (which I know is not a great one because these aren't really 3D games).   But still, that's a 10+ year old card that wasn't anywhere near top-end even when it was new.

Still, looking at the Optiplex that's a P4 3.4Ghz?   Yeah that's not gonna be a good fit with any moderately recent card - 440 cpumarks, I was doing it on a Core2 Duo that would have been at least 4x that rating and it was definitely straining, so the P4 is gonna be pretty sluggish.   Ah and I ran across the tip that the Optiplex GX620 can only take single height video cards, so be aware of that too, that really limits the field.  You could maybe look at used cards that are about 5 years old, but boy I wouldn't get your hopes up.   Google for what people with GX620s were upgrading their cards to 5-6 years ago I guess.   Another thing to watch out for is that Dell doesn't give you a ton of headroom with power supplies, so you migght need to upgrade at least that if you put in a more powerful video card, and Dell is notorious for using proprietary cases/PSU.   Watch out for newer video cards that need pcie power connectors attached to the top, your old PSU almost certainly doesn't have that, and even if you got an adapter it probably isn't specced for the power.

Good luck, but it's gonna be a technical challenge and a crapshoot.

(numbers from cpubenchmark.net/videocardbenchmark.net - definitely not the be-all/end-all of benchmarks but I like it for a quick 1st estimate)

[Reudh]

A stock Optiplex GX620 is close to a decade old, right? Most of them were P4 3.0ghz, 512MB RAM, an old GMA950 Intel card (presumably 64 or 128MB VRAM) and a tiny 80GB HDD. Our oldest computer that we still have (but not necessarily use); an ancient HP T124a is three years older than that, and we retired it three years ago. A decade old computer is admirable but it'd be on the verge of failure. Most parts within the computer have a listed maximal operational lifespan of 10-12 years.

There is no point buying even an old card for your computer; it'd be like jamming a shitty old turbocharged V6 into a car that's little more than a rusted out hulk. At this stage, it'd be a waste of money and nothing else.

You could buy yourself a basic little laptop that could still cope with CK2. My brother's $500AUD laptop running an AMD A6 can cope pretty well with CK2. It somewhat copes with more modern Source games, albeit stutteringly.

[gimlet]

Huh the Steam page claims "Processor: Intel Pentium IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+ " and "NVIDIA GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon X1900 videocard", for both HOI3 and CKII which is pretty dang low.   I think that's way underpowered on the CPU, but if you really absolutely can't afford new gear right now and have high tolerance for low settings and slow performance, maybe it's not so crazy to find a cheap old video card on ebay and try it, something even 2-3x as powerful as the X1900 should be 10 or 15 bucks...

[Tawa]

Fair enough. I kinda figured something like that would be necessary :v

[Devast]

Hello, I'm hoping this would fit into this topic.
I've currently got a i7 2600k CPU and it's the oldest thing in my computer aside from the motherboard.
Aside from music/other media I really only use my PC for gaming, Dwarf Fortress being my main interest.
I'm hoping someone can shed light on a new CPU (or one coming out soon) that would benefit me

[Thief^]

Consensus generally is that this is the most important chart for DF: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

[BigD145]

For the core i series the 4000 and 6000 blocks don't have much difference to them overall. A 47xx is not much different from a 67xx. I run DF okay in a desktop i5 3570. My i7 6700 mobile is marginally better.

[Lord Shonus]

Hello, I'm hoping this would fit into this topic.
I've currently got a i7 2600k CPU and it's the oldest thing in my computer aside from the motherboard.
Aside from music/other media I really only use my PC for gaming, Dwarf Fortress being my main interest.
I'm hoping someone can shed light on a new CPU (or one coming out soon) that would benefit me

Any CPU worth upgrading to will require a new motherboard, so you'd want a Skylake chip. This, plus motherboard and RAM, would cost you in the $5-600 range. If all you're running is DF I doubt it's worthwhile - DF remains a single-thread game for the most part, and the Skylake equivalent of what you have is not that much faster in single-thread performance. For other games, particularly modern AAA titles, the multi-thread performance would be a major boost (I have a non-K Skylake i5 that trounces my friend's i7 of similar vintage to yours), but that's an entirely different question.

[Admiral Obvious]

Sorry if I'm derailing anything guys, but I need help picking out a new power supply for my PC.

I've got a 2 year old HP Pavilion 500 desktop, with some quite decent hardware in it already, problem being, the power supply not being able to support this new graphics card I just bought to upgrade it a bit further (this new graphics card is an EVGA GTX 960). As a result of me being stupid, I can't actually use this new graphics card, and I really don't want to pull it out of the system and return it, because I know for a fact the board can run it. What I need help with is figuring out which power supply I can buy to make this thing work, along with the rest of the PC.

I do know that I need at least a 400W power supply to comply with the cards reccomended specs, and the current power supply is at 300W (which may work, but probably not).

I'm planning to play some moderately high end games, hopefully at 60+ FPS at a 720p resolution.

So far I've stopped on this one (yes,it takes you to a mobile version of the site, I posted this using my phone) http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16817154026

I'm having a hard time telling off hand wether or not this will work. The graphics card came with a power connector, so I can plug it into the 8 pin female slot on the card, but I don't know what will fit into the other end, as it's split into two, what appears to be male 6 pin connectors.

Am I on the right track with this selection, or could one of you very helpful guys steer me in the right direction?

Forgive me if I'm being dumb, as it's been a very long time since I've had ro replace/add PC hardware.

Edit: I think I figured out my problem, the PCIe 6, 6+2, and 8 terminology was confusing me, I think I ordered the correct PCU I need to make this work, so please disregard this message, unless you feel there's something interesting to add.

[Thief^]

Personally I wouldn't buy that PSU you linked. It's not "80+" certified, which means no 3rd-party has verified it is capable of continuous 500W output, in fact the "Top critical review" on newegg suggests it is not, and actually only capable of 350W. The 500W is likely a transient peak number, which is no use to anyone.

I would never buy a PSU that was not 80+ certified any more. In the EU it would actually be illegal to sell - EU regulations now require a PSU to meet a minimum efficiency when run at 100% of their rated output.

P.S. as for the connectors - the card takes an 8-pin PCIe connector. 6-pin connectors also exist, which supply half the power (hence the 2x 6-pin to one 8-pin adapter). The 6+2 pin connector you've seen mentioned is an 8-pin connector which can have two pins detached to fit a 6-pin socket, or added on to fit an 8-pin socket.

[Admiral Obvious]

I didn't actually buy the one I linked. I did go for one with 80+ certification after doing a bit more research.

Partially because it had the cabling I needed, and partially because of the review that was given.

I wound up getting this one instead.

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16817139026

Seems like it would work out fine.