New Video Card or Whole New System?

TheFunkySalsa on 03/07/2023 - 10:06

I've got a computer that is about 10 years old, it's been used for music production but is no longer necessary now. I am thinking about trying to turn it into a gaming machine by putting a new video card in it, but what I'm not sure of is whether the older hardware will limit it in a significant way. I generally don't play hugely graphic intensive games, Genshin Impact being probably the most demanding, and this setup barely copes with that.

But now my son is wanting to play emulated Switch games so not sure what to upgrade to or if I should j just retire this one and go new.

Specs are as below, if anyone could share their opinion that would be great.

Asus SABERTOOTH X58 Motherboard 6xDDR3-1866 3xPCI-E 1

16 GBL SATA3 USB3.0 RAID 1394

CPU-INT-I7980 Intel Core i7-980X EXTREME CPU, LGA1366 SIX-CORE 3.33
GHz, 6.4 GT/sec QPI, 8MB Cache, Socket

RD31600KHX 12GB Kingston KHX 12GB 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM X2 total 24 GB

GC57701GSAVX41O Sapphire ATI HD 5770 Vapor-X OC 1GB DDR5, PCI-E, Dual D
VI+ HDMI + DS, support 3x monitors, DX11 ( 11163 -00-41R )

OPT-BH10LS30 LG RET BH10LS30 BLK BluRay Burner,10xBD-R Read/Write,
16xDVD+-R Read/Write,SATA, Lightscribe,Silent Play

H3S1000WD12FAEX Western Digital Caviar Black SATA2/SATA 3 (1TB ) 1000GB/72 4
000RPM/ SATA3 /64MB CACHE/3.5" Hard Disk Drive

H2S120OCZ2VTX OCZ VERTEX 2 SERIES SSD 120GB, SATA II 2.5" 285MB/s
Read, 275MB/s Write, includes Mounting Bracket ,Sustained Wr
ite: up to 250MB/s

CAS-AN1200 Antec TWELVE HUNDRED Full Tower Gaming Case, 12 drive bays, Advanced Cooling System, NO PSU, Top USB2/1394

PSU-CO1000HXAU 1000 W Corsair HX-1000 ATX Power Supply, 140mm fan

PCI-E Graphics Card Connector, 8x SATA Connectors, Univers
al AC input 90~264V

IO-PCI-FW1394A Sunix FireWire 400Mbps PCI Card, 3 External 1 Internal

Computing Computer Component Video Card

Comments

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 03/07/2023 - 10:08
    +4

    Imo 10 years it’s had a good run, might as well upgrade, a LOTTTTT has changed.

  • Fredfloresjr on 03/07/2023 - 10:16
    +8

    New system.

  • apple2016 on 03/07/2023 - 10:16
    +3

    that's an impressive spec but its a bit too old. you would be better off trying to get a new system.

  • elusive on 03/07/2023 - 10:21
    +1

    Definitely new system. It would've been great for its time, but nowadays you'll be bottlenecked on pretty much everything else even with a GPU upgrade, if you try any modern gaming on it.

    About the only thing I'd consider keeping is the PSU, and even that is possibly nearing the end of its life (despite being an otherwise great high-end model, capacitors don't last forever). The drives are both slow/small and probably near end of life. CPU is the main upgrade point and RAM won't be compatible.

    • ginormousgiraffe on 03/07/2023 - 11:10
      +1

      you would be better off selling it as is rather than scrape out under a hundred bucks worth of parts from it

      • TheFunkySalsa on 03/07/2023 - 13:01

        What do you reckon it's worth as is? Would rather not have to dismantle it.

        • ginormousgiraffe on 03/07/2023 - 13:17

          Honestly no idea. At a glance, it looks like a 300-500. But you could just post it to a dedicated computer group and probably have someone tell you.

          If it looks nice you can tack on a couple hundred bucks

        • AustriaBargain on 03/07/2023 - 15:27
          +1

          Could fill it with hard drives and use it as a media server.

        • Loopholio on 04/07/2023 - 11:17

          I doubt it would be worth $300. Maybe if the monitor, keyboard and mouse are all included.

          If you smoke inside your home the inside of the PC will be rank so a non-smoker won't want it. You can try to clean it out, but it's going to be a lot of work.

  • TheFunkySalsa on 03/07/2023 - 10:40

    Thanks everyone, I thought a new system might be necessary. Any suggestions? Again, probably won't need the most ridiculous specs but enough headroom to handle some more modern games and the Switch emulators without hiccups.

  • O15 on 03/07/2023 - 11:38
    +1

    A 980X not being able to play Genshin Impact is like seeing an old alpha lion finally toppled.

    It's a bit sad.

    That would have been a hell of a PC when it was built but it is now well behind the times.
    I would not look to salvage anything not the PSU and not even the case. The PSU has served its time and newer cases offer some very useful improvements (especially with regards to QOL).

    • TheFunkySalsa on 03/07/2023 - 11:55

      Agree. This thing was an absolute monster for multitrack recording and virtual instruments (it can still handle most of that fairly well). I was a bit shocked to see Genshin stuttering on it, but then it's a pretty weak video card as I didn't need it for production. I guess it's time to have a proper burial, salute, and move on…

  • theHMASfriendship on 03/07/2023 - 12:15
    +1

    I, for one, would like to thank your old computer for it’s service

  • presuminged on 03/07/2023 - 13:34
    +2

    While I agree it's time for a new system you could drop in a second hand RX580 for around $100 and play Genshin and other games at 1080p without any issues.

    • TheFunkySalsa on 03/07/2023 - 13:35

      That sounds interesting. Do you reckon it could handle Switch emulation? 4k is not a priority at all.

      • presuminged on 03/07/2023 - 13:50
        +2

        Switch emulation would be a mixed bag depending on the game. You might get acceptable performance with some tweaking.

        • TheFunkySalsa on 03/07/2023 - 15:47
          +1

          Thanks for that. The kid is right into the Zelda series (Breath of the Wild in particular) and the accompanying mods. I think people have had some luck with only a 4GB card, but probably on more modern chips.

  • basketballfreak6 on 03/07/2023 - 17:29
    +1

    As someone that held onto his Intel 4770K before upgrading to a Ryzen 3700X I say definitely get new PC. Just the CPU/platform upgrade alone I saw quite a sizeable jump even in minimum framerates with the same graphics card.

    • TheFunkySalsa on 03/07/2023 - 17:38

      Appreciate the insight. Seems like the majority is saying to update the old gear, good to get a real life experience with a similar situation.

  • ijd on 04/07/2023 - 15:06

    I believe the minimum for Yuzu (switch emulator) is a 4th gen i7 (this was 2 years ago and it may have improved). Anything below that is missing instructions that Yuzu used. I have a i7 2600k running at 4.4Ghz and it is hit and miss with Yuzu games. It can play Links Awakening really well but it plays Mario Odyssey at half speed. This PC previously had a i5 2500k @ 4.8ghz that couldn't run any Yuzu games.
    Both these processors would run Botw through Cemu (Wii U emulator) at 1080 60fps with graphics settings set higher than what the switch had. My GPU is a 4Gb GTX 1650 super.

    • AlienC on 04/07/2023 - 16:58

      I have a similar pc build but with a 1050 Ti and 32gb ddr3 how much do you reckon I could sell it for.

      I'll probably only keep 1 x 500gb ssd as storage for the os

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