Can a New GPU Rejuvenate a 5 Year Old Gaming PC? 264
MojoKid writes "New video card launches from AMD and NVIDIA are almost always reviewed on hardware less than 12 months old. That's not an arbitrary decision — it helps reviewers make certain that GPU performance isn't held back by older CPUs and can be particularly important when evaluating the impact of new interfaces or bus designs. That said, an equally interesting perspective might be to compare the performance impact of upgrading a graphics card in an older system that doesn't have access to the substantial performance gains of integrated memory controllers, high speed DDR3 memory, deep multithreading or internal serial links. As it turns out, even using a midrange graphics card like a GeForce GTX 660, substantial gains up to 150 percent can be achieved without the need for a complete system overhaul."
Re:That speed improvement is in your mind (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps it depends on the game. Counter Strike gives an advantage to those that load the map the quickest. Being able to get to the bottom of the ramp in Dust2 to counter snipe the inevitable sniper is huge. Just sayin.
Re:Older = how old? (Score:5, Interesting)
And a GTX 660 is not a $400 card, it's more like $200.
Re:no surprise there (Score:4, Interesting)
This is pretty much what I was using before I did a full overhaul during the past few months. Between replacing the CPU+Ram+Mobo, graphics card, and primary harddrive, by far the biggest improvement was replacing my old harddrive with an SSD. The games already ran smoothly on the old hardware on medium-high settings, so the upgraded processor and graphics card really only let me notch up the settings back to max, but ultimately resulting in the same frames per second. But the quick boot/wake and fast level loading made a tremendous difference. Even the split seconds saved in regular desktop use made the user experience change dramatically.