Updating Graphics Card! Need some consulting

[coolbeans326]

Hello CoasterCrazies.

I'm looking to get a bump in performance on my current rig without doing a full upgrade or spending too much money.

My current rig consists a GT 8800 which was a pretty solid card back in 2008
http://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-GeForce-88 ... slapcom-20

I have a Core2 Duo Processor running at 2.4 ghz.

2 gb DDR3 memory.

Currently, my machine runs simple coasters perfectly, but any coaster with sophisticated lighting, 3D models, or multiple coasters lag to hell. Terraforming will drop frame rate from 60fps down to around 30 which is acceptable, but the more frames per second, the better.

I was looking at nVidia GT 730
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Prof ... slapcom-20

Do you think that this card would give me the boost I'm looking for? I'm willing to also get another 2 gigs of ram if necessary and a new core2 duo processor over 3ghz goes for pretty cheap these days if anyone thinks the processing power might be the issue.

Looking for some feedback. Thanks.


PS not doing a full or costly upgrade. I want to keep the same motherboard. Also don't want to spend much more than $80 for the graphics card. I figure at some point, its cheap enough to purchase another one to take advantage of SLI.

[TheArchitect]

My first thoughts were that you should just buy a new CPU. NL2 seems to depend highly on CPU. But with your budget and compatibility with your existing build... Probably would be best to go for that graphics card. It seems like a good bet overall.