Graphics Card Upgrade Recommendation

[Patrick Bateman]

I have an old machine, was good in its day (a £900 effort in 2011) but out of date now. Only recently decided to upgrade it from Windows 7 and I've noticed the main game I play, War Thunder, seems to run noticeably slower and I now have to run it on medium graphic settings rather than high.

Can anyone recommend what sort of used graphics card around £100 could be a good bet for a cheap and cheerful extra performance punch? Going for a new system is out of the question given how little gaming I do now other than War Thunder.

My current system is-




From the brief reading I've done I suspect the CPU might be a performance bottleneck but I'm way out of date with what to look at...

Edited by Patrick Bateman on Tuesday 22 March 12:30

[Mr Whippy]

That CPU is legendary, and ok not great now, but still ok for normal type gaming today.

I’d try find a 1050Ti maybe… double the power of your 560, but a load less power draw on the PSU too.

[Patrick Bateman]

Cheers for that, would I have to worry about the CPU becoming a bottleneck with something like that?

[Griffith4ever]

GIve it a go - the card stays if you decide to upgrade cpu or Mobo and CPU. Rarely is the CPU the bottelneck with games unless they are poorly optimised (Star Citizen....).

I'm running an old i7 with a RTX2060 and the CPU only ever maxes out with SC.

[Mr Whippy]

Patrick Bateman said:

Cheers for that, would I have to worry about the CPU becoming a bottleneck with something like that?

I think the CPU will be ok still.

Yes some games might need more, but the bulk of PC gamers are likely still on 4-6 cores, so that’s where most developers will target CPU loads/requirements.

An overclocked 2500K today probably keeps up with even the best chips when only 4 cores are needed.

And ultimately many high end gamers these days are getting high end kit for FPS up over 100fps.
If you’re just gaming on a 60hz tv or monitor, then you’ll be absolutely fine with a 2500K.

[Patrick Bateman]

Good to hear!

I had it overclocked a few years back but lost the settings, I forget how. Will maybe need to look at trying it again if I can find the time.

Will see how a new card works first.

[Jim the Sunderer]

Mr Whippy said:

An overclocked 2500K today probably keeps up with even the best chips when only 4 cores are needed.

I cannot agree, when I replaced my overclocked 2500k with a lowly Ryzen 1700 the in-game performance increase was tremendous.

A big overclock and a 1050ti would probably be nice.

[Patrick Bateman]

Managed to get a 1050 Ti on ebay last night for sub-£100. I shall report back on (hopefully) the performance increase once I get it fitted.

[Griffith4ever]

Looking at the specs you are in for a "f-me!" moment when you see how much faster it is / how much more you can ramp up the quality settings :-)

[Patrick Bateman]

Worth doubling the RAM from 8 to 16GB too? Can find that sort of thing cheaply as well.

[SuffolkDefender]

Patrick Bateman said:

Worth doubling the RAM from 8 to 16GB too? Can find that sort of thing cheaply as well.

the more the merrier where RAM is concerned, so yes, absolutely.

[Griffith4ever]

Can't hurt, I've been running 16gb, with a 2060 RTX and i7 for donkeys years with an aweful lot of games on near max settings (very high for Cyberpunk with Ray tracing on), and the ONLY game that has benefited from more it is Star Citizen. For that to run you have to close all open tasks, or, as I did, upgrade to 24Gb.

8 to 16 will be a nice leap - and since you have the case open......

[FourWheelDrift]

On Ebay you can get GTX 970 cards for around £80-100. GTX 1650 and 1050Ti similarly priced but only 75% and 60% the performance of a 970.

Auction prices, buy it nows for the 970 are between £99-120 (more is silly money and won't sell).

[Patrick Bateman]

Patrick Bateman said:

Managed to get a 1050 Ti on ebay last night for sub-£100. I shall report back on (hopefully) the performance increase once I get it fitted.

Was a bit delayed in arriving but I'm pleased to say I can now run War Thunder on maximum at a comfortable 60fps plus as opposed to the medium I had it on and dropping to mid-20's fps.

Cheers again for the suggestions.