Can somebody help me upgrade? New PC gamer here

[BS4035]

Below are my PC specs....I started playing ESO and want to upgrade my graphics with about $250-$400 to spend. Any suggestions?

1 x Case Raidmax Horus Gaming Case - Black

1 x Processor AMD A6-6400K APU (2x 3.90GHz/1MB L2 Cache)

1 x Motherboard Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-UP4

1 x Memory 8 GB [4 GB x2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand

1 x Video Card Default APU Integrated 3D Graphics Video - Only works w/ APU and Motherboard both have video functions

1 x Case Lighting None

1 x Power Supply 400 Watt - Standard

1 x Processor Cooling AVC Liquid CPU Cooling System [AMD] - Standard 120mm Fan

1 x Primary Hard Drive 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive

1 x Data Hard Drive None

1 x 2nd Optical Drive None

1 x Optical Drive 24x Dual Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black

1 x Sound Card 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard

1 x Speaker System Logitech S120 2.0 Speaker System

1 x Network Card Intel Pro 10/100/1000 Network Card

1 x Monitor None

1 x Keyboard iBUYPOWER Standard Gaming Keyboard

1 x Mouse iBUYPOWER Standard Gaming Mouse

1 x Operating System Windows 8.1 + Office 365 Trial [Free 30-Day !!!] 64-bit

1 x Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty Service

1 x Rush Service No Rush Service (Usually Ships in 5-10 business Days)

1 x Webcam None

1 x Meter Display None

1 x Media Card Reader / Writer 12-In-1 Internal Media Card Reader/Writer - Black

1 x 2nd Monitor None

1 x Free Stuff [FREE] - McAfee Antivirus PLUS 2014 - FREE with any System ($49 Value)

1 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction None

1 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion None

1 x iBUYPOWER PowerDrive None

1 x USB Expansion Card None

1 x Case Engraving Service None

 

[Cons29]

get a GPU (i am not an AMD expert), i don't know how fast APU's are compared to intel cpu's, but get a discrete video card, it should help you out.
no need to go overboard as you don't have a fast cpu (as far as i know)

 

[Sig2525]

what games would you like to play? if you would buy a 400 dollar high end gpu it would be bottlenecked by your dual core processor. the only gpu i could suggest that will not be bottlenecked by your processor are the r7 250x, 650 ti, hd 7770.

 

[BS4035]

I'm only playing Elder Scrolls Online at the moment

 

[Math Geek]

to stay on the conservative side due to the low end cpu, i would suggest a 750ti. your psu is low wattage and probably not the best quality so any better gpu would also need a psu upgrade. with that said, for your $400 budget, you couls upgrade the cpu/mobo and gpu all at once and bring that system into a better place.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4330 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($127.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $399.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-05 22:36 EST-0500

this gives you a solid upgrade path with plenty of power for now and the future. everything else gets reused from your system including the ram, hdd and such. yes it is still a dual core but with hyperthreading and the much better intel core performance it is a huge upgrade.

 

[antee]

elder scrolls online recommends a quad core but under min requirements you can use a dual core but a quad core would run the game better

 

[Math Geek]

elder scrolls online recommends a quad core but under min requirements you can use a dual core but a quad core would run the game better

i agree completely. the i3 is hyperthreaded so at least it will have 4 threads until it can be upgraded to an i5 quad core at a later date. budgets are what they are and sometimes you have to compromise to fit a budget. 😀