GPU question about texture, and upgrade suggestion

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mindfire

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Hi community, I have an old GTX 480, which has been serving me well for the past years. It can still max out many games including the latest dragon age.

For the GPU question, which feature should I be look at for greater texture? I've googled cores, shaders, and such but AMD and nVidia seems to have different names.

As for upgrade, now that I would like to play Witcher 3 and Project cars I feel that I need an upgrade. I did see the announcement of DX12 which more cards will follow that can explore its full potential. Wonder if I need to wait for those next gen cards? If it were only GTX 980 - 980 ti I don't feel I need to wait, but another DX upgrade could take years and years.

My current setup:
AMD FX-6200 (3.79 GHz)
ASRock 970 extreme 4
8GB RAM
GTX 480

Have budget of £1,000. Willing to upgrade CPU, Mobo and RAM

My main goal is to have better gaming experience, and would like better picture at 2k, 4k too expensive! This will involve GPU upgrade and possibly CPU upgrade as my current one may bottleneck the new card

Thanks!

 
Solution
disturbed force
1440p freesync option,

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zQv8wP
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zQv8wP/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£184.66 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£110.24 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£59.14 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290X 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£229.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Monitor: Acer XG270HU 144Hz 27.0" Monitor (£380.20 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £964.23
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TheCheapGamer

TheCheapGamer

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AMD based build - http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/m68Q99 ,you can save some money on the motherboard as you already have the 970 Extreme, and you can also save some money on the RAM, unless you would like to have 16GB of RAM.

Intel based build - http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/bMNt4D ,same goes for the AMD build, there are ways to save money here as well.

Both CPU and Motherboard configs are good but the i5-4690k is a much better and more powerful CPU over the 8350. But it requires you to buy a new motherboard altogether.

Both of these builds will allow you to play todays games max at 1080p with a decent FPS.
 
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M

mindfire

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Jun 25, 2012
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Hi TheCheapGamer,

I don't really mean buying a new PC, appreciate your input!

I'm more into upgrading my 21.5 inch screen to 1440p and try to get better gaming picture. This will involve GPU upgrade and I suspect it will involve CPU upgrade as it will bottleneck the new GPU!

Sorry to confuse you!
 
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RCFProd

RCFProd

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Dec 8, 2013
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You don't need a RAM upgrade.

Option #1 (900 GBP) - High end:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£269.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 7 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£124.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card (£439.18 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £893.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-02 10:34 BST+0100

Option #2 (550 GBP) - 1440p Ready

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£184.66 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£25.00)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290X 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£229.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £544.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-02 10:35 BST+0100

Option #3 (900 GBP) - High performance SLI

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£184.66 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG R1 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£59.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£274.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£274.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £898.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-02 10:40 BST+0100
 
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disturbed force

disturbed force

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Apr 7, 2015
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1440p freesync option,

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zQv8wP
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/zQv8wP/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£184.66 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£110.24 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£59.14 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290X 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£229.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Monitor: Acer XG270HU 144Hz 27.0" Monitor (£380.20 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £964.23
 
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Solution
M

mindfire

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Jun 25, 2012
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Hi RCFProb,

Wonder if this build will be future proof for another 3 years (like the GTX480 did)

Which screen would you recommend?

Thanks!

And anyone know which feature about the GPU :D?
 
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M

mindfire

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Jun 25, 2012
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Thanks disturbed force,

Just wondering why is everyone suggesting switching to Intel at 3.5 GHz when my FX6200 is running at 3.79GHz

Does that mean I don't need a CPU upgrade?

Thanks!
 
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RCFProd

RCFProd

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Dec 8, 2013
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These are high-end'ish' GPU's so they should last for 3 years or longer.

1440p 27 inch BenQ Monitor

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Monitor: BenQ GW2765HT 60Hz 27.0" Monitor (£294.01 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £294.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-02 10:43 BST+0100

Or you could use the one disturbed force mentioned.



CPU power has very little to do with clock speed. Ofcourse, clock speed makes cpu's faster but the complete architecture of the Intel is different and has much more powerful cores than the rather weak AMD FX-6200.

Plus you can overclock the i5-4690k up to 4.5 Ghz with the right CPU Cooler.
 
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disturbed force

disturbed force

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Apr 7, 2015
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The i5 4690k is far superior to the 6200 with any oc, AMD has fallen behind with their cpu's. CPU frequency is not as important as IPC (Instructions per cycle) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructions_per_cycle, the 4690k can be easly oc'ed as well.
 
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S

sora

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Oct 30, 2013
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+1; That SLI GTX 970 build/upgrade is definitely solid for under 900 quids!
 
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