Considering Dolphin - PC Upgrade or not worth it?

12-01-2012, 12:58 AM #1

Hi,

I have a Dell Inspiron 530

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 Ghz 2 x 4mb L2 Cache
ATI Radeon HD2400
4G RAM
Windows 8 Pro (32 bit)

Trying to guage whether I could upgrade the video card, if so what would be recommended video card in the $150 - $200 range, in order to be able to run SMG1/2 or Skyward Sword 720p or even 180p. Or is the CPU / PC just too old to be able to do this? I see in the sticky that the Core 2 Quad is medium to fast, but is it enough when paired with an upgraded video card to achieve those resolutions with a decent framerate? Assuming I will overclock the CPU, tho I don't currently know how to do this.

**admin89** · (This post was last modified: 12-01-2012, 01:25 AM by admin89.)

Quote:
SMG1/2 or Skyward Sword 720p / 1080p

You can give up at this point . Both of them are CPU & GPU intensive games
Even a Core i7 @ 2.4GHz is considered as poor CPU for those games
For the best gaming experience , i5 3570k @ 4.2GHz (or i5 2500k @ 4.5GHz) is recommended
Either Nvidia GTX 650 or AMD 6870 will do 1080p

Quote:if so what would be recommended video card in the $150 - $200 range

Give me some info about your PSU (Power Supply)
150-200$ GPU eat alot of power . If your PSU does not provide enough power , your mobo & GPU & HDD will die off soon

Quote:Dell Inspiron 530

It seems the mobo is OEM product . Therefore , you can't overclock CPU via bios

12-01-2012, 04:08 AM #3

(12-01-2012, 01:11 AM)admin89 Wrote:
Quote:
SMG1/2 or Skyward Sword 720p / 1080p
You can give up at this point . Both of them are CPU & GPU intensive games
Even a Core i7 @ 2.4GHz is considered as poor CPU for those games
For the best gaming experience , i5 3570k @ 4.2GHz (or i5 2500k @ 4.5GHz) is recommended
Either Nvidia GTX 650 or AMD 6870 will do 1080p

Quote:if so what would be recommended video card in the $150 - $200 range
Give me some info about your PSU (Power Supply)
150-200$ GPU eat alot of power . If your PSU does not provide enough power , your mobo & GPU & HDD will die off soon

Quote:Dell Inspiron 530
It seems the mobo is OEM product . Therefore , you can't overclock CPU via bios

thanks for the response. now I know exactly what I need - to start over and spend some $$ on a new rig. In the mean time I think I'll play them on my Wii U

or I could get a new mobo, i-3570k, power supply, and amd 6870 and build new pc from there, but alas I have other priorities for now.