Graphics Card For Old Pc

PC is eight years old and still working perfectly but the graphics card 9600Gt is not powerful enough for some of the games being played. The machine is i7 CPU, Asus P6T motherboard, 6 gigs Ram and PSU Corsair 620w.
Windows 7.
My local Computer shop tell me it is too old to upgrade but I am hoping I can get something online to do the job but don't know what to look for. I don't want to spend over US$200 so that is a factor. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

If your graphics card is the Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT you should first look at their website and compare the latest driver they have to the one on your system. Device Manager will give you the driver details. If you have the very latest driver then at least you know you have exhausted options for that card itself. But if you haven't got the latest driver, then that is what will enhance its performance. You should be able to update it from within GeForce on your system.
Whether your current system - bearing in mind 8 years means it's very old - can support a better graphics driver given the price involved, that's where you just have to make a judgement.

 

Technically, it can support a modern card. You will just need to make sure your power supply has the necessary supplementary power connectors. Since your current card requires an extra 6-pin, you are probably fine.

But note the current PCIe version in common use is PCIe 3.0. Your motherboard only supports 2.0. The motherboard will support a 3.0 card but only at 2.0 speeds. So you will not be able to take full advantage of new card anyway.

Lastly, and what I think your computer shop meant, because your computer is already 8 years old, there's a good chance as soon as you buy this card, the motherboard or CPU or your PSU will fail because of age, and perhaps added strain. It's like putting 100,000 mile, top of the line (and very expensive) tires on an old car that already has 250,000 miles on it.

If this were me and I wanted to stretch the use of this computer a bit longer, I would replace (not add) your current 6GB of RAM with 3 x 4GB of DDR3. You can do that for ~$80 to $85. I think you will get more bang for your money without putting any significant extra strain on your tired PSU or motherboard voltage regulators.

Then start saving for a new computer.

 

Thanks for your advice, l actually have a new whizbang pc but I am keeping the old one for my grandkids to use. They spend a lot of time with us and are computer mad but I don't want anyone on my new PC but me! Up to now there have been no problems but a new game. (Rust) has shown the Gpu is not powerful enough. It is a problem. I will try to update the 9600 but I don't know if getting faster and more RAM would help with the graphics?

 

6GB is a nice junk of RAM, but generally 8GB is considered the sweetspot. That is, less than 8GB and performance degrades and more than 8GB and improvements are marginal. Since your motherboard supports triple channel RAM, you must install RAM in 3 matching sticks to enable the triple channel feature. That's why you most likely have 3 x 2GB sticks now to get your current 6GB.

They don't make 3GB sticks. So from 6GB (3 x 2GB) the next step up is 12GB (3 x 4GB).

And yes, more RAM helps with graphics too because more RAM allows Windows and your CPU to perform all tasks faster, including handing off tasks to the graphics solution.