Help needed for gaming upgrade

[fro3tb1te]

I am not a big pc tech guy at all, so thought I would try this place, as it seems that people here are really helpfull and know what they talk about.

Please bare in mind, that Im from Denmark, when coming up with suggestions/advises.

I am currently using a pc, that was fully assembled when I bought it from the store and have the following specs, that is taken from the order sheet that come with the machine:

Motherboard: MBAM3 Gigabyte ga-970a-ds3
CPU: AMD fx-8150 buldozer
CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper tx 3
Ram: 2 x ddr3-1600 kingston 4GB Hyper X single mod
GPU: Radeon HD7870 2GB ddr5 pci-e
PSU: Raidmax rx-700ac 80+ bronze

According to can you run it, it is begining to show limits, when viewing minimum and/or recommended settings on games like witcher 3, GTAV and Arkham Knight and optimal for Crysis 3. These are graphic heavy games I know, but I figured that if I upgraded to the point where I can run these games maxed out, I would be fine for some time, when it comes to game performance.

I am using a 1920x1200 monitor and depending on have much you think I should upgrade, I would like to keep it at $730 (5000 danish kroner) max in total.

I have tried looking a bit round myself for graphic cards and it seems that gtx 970 is a very popular card, when it comes to performance for money. Have found one here.
www.edbpriser.dk/grafikkort/msi-gtx-970-gaming-4g-4-gb-id-8897243.aspx

I have also thought about a new CPU, because I quickly found out, that some people seems to think that gtx970 would bottleneck fx8150. An expressions I had not heard before, but sounded like I would not get everything out of my new GPU if it did that. But dont know which CPU would be good for 970 or another card if you have a better recommendation.

I really hope someone can help me, as I for once would like to be able to just upgrade one or more parts instead of buying an already assembled pc, so I can save money on parts, I dont really need 🙂

 

[davidarad02]

I think you should go for the 970, but also get a intel core i5 4460, with a cheap h97 motherboard. it should do the trick 😉

also, if you are willing to wait a bit with a new CPU and motherboard (meaning that you will buy the GTX 970 and run it with your current system for a little bit...), you should wait for skylake, and get a entry level core i7 with a h170 motherboard, but then you will have to buy new RAM as well, so it's your call.

 

[ajpaolello]

With a 970 motherboard, an FX-6300 and up are places to look for an upgrade. (Will need a BIOS update though)

As for the GPU, the gtx 970 is a great card for 1080p and some 1440p. You could go to a gtx 980 (which are starting to go down in here in the US to $450-$500 range) for pretty much maxed out 1080p and high 1440p.

 

[davidarad02]

With a 970 motherboard, an FX-6300 and up are places to look for an upgrade. (Will need a BIOS update though)

As for the GPU, the gtx 970 is a great card for 1080p and some 1440p. You could go to a gtx 980 (which are starting to go down in here in the US to $450-$500 range) for pretty much maxed out 1080p and high 1440p.

a GTX 970 can be overclocked to perform at a 980 class level of performance, and the i5 will crush the FX 6300, in pretty much anything.

 

[logainofhades]

First things first, get rid of that PSU. It is a poor quality unit, and should be replaced with a tier 1 or tier 2 unit. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

After that, I would say a GTX 970. Then CPU and Motherboard. All in all, something like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($76.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($343.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($68.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $679.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-06 15:18 EDT-0400

 

[snon200]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Mm8ThM
its a great build with a great cpu and video card that will run all games on max setting for the next few years on your resolution..
if you want a better motherboard with an option to add another card in the future (although i would recommend just getting a new card when this one doesnt run games as you like it to), and an option to add more ram in faster speed, you can go with this build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/27xrf7
still a great build but you will not be able to overclock the cpu.

 

[davidarad02]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Mm8ThM
its a great build with a great cpu and video card that will run all games on max setting for the next few years on your resolution..
if you want a better motherboard with an option to add another card in the future (although i would recommend just getting a new card when this one doesnt run games as you like it to), and an option to add more ram in faster speed, you can go with this build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/27xrf7
still a great build but you will not be able to overclock the cpu.

no need for an i7, and why did you recommend a 4790k with a b85 motherboard?? it makes NO SENCE.
anyway, you dont need anything more then a i5, h97 motherboard and GTX 970.

 

[fro3tb1te]

Thank you all for the quick responses 🙂.

Dont know how old the h97 is, but since it is mentioned as cheap, Im guessing a few years?. Will it hold up till I eventually upgrade to the other mentioned skylake core i7 with a h170 motherboard? or is it best I wait, if I already know now that, that is an upgrade Im going to make, when it comes out?.

davidarad02 what do you mean by that I have to buy new ram if I upgrade to skylake core i7 h170. Will it not support the rams I already have?

logainofhades. Will do that, but can I be sure that no matter which psu I choose from that list, that it will have enough connections for the other parts?. I mean do all psu's come with the same number of cables/connections?

Sorry for all these questions, have never been good with pc hardware 🙂

 

[davidarad02]

Thank you all for the quick responses 🙂.

Dont know how old the h97 is, but since it is mentioned as cheap, Im guessing a few years?. Will it hold up till I eventually upgrade to the other mentioned skylake core i7 with a h170 motherboard? or is it best I wait, if I already know now that, that is an upgrade Im going to make, when it comes out?.

davidarad02 what do you mean by that I have to buy new ram if I upgrade to skylake core i7 h170. Will it not support the rams I already have?

logainofhades. Will do that, but can I be sure that no matter which psu I choose from that list, that it will have enough connections for the other parts?. I mean do all psu's come with the same number of cables/connections?

Sorry for all these questions, have never been good with pc hardware 🙂

h97 is basically z97, but without overclocking. it came out may-june 2014. it supports haswell CPUs, so skyalke CPUs will be about 5-10% faster.

skylake supports DDR4, and unless you buy very spasific motherboards, you will need new RAM.

the bigger the PSU, the more connectors it will have.
we're saying the PSU is bad not because it has a very low wattage, we're saying that because the internal quality of the unit is low, and it will die sooner compared to other units.

 

[fro3tb1te]

Ok, so it was a cheap choice to fit into my budget rather than a cheap choice based on time. Think I will go with the h97 and i5 then since it doesnt sound like they will do that bottleneck thing.

By bigger psu, do you mean the amount of watts it makes?.

Also, will my pc with the upgrades be able to handle games that uses unreal engine 4?, because I have a game, that was made with UE3, but is being re-released with UE4

 

[davidarad02]

Ok, so it was a cheap choice to fit into my budget rather than a cheap choice based on time. Think I will go with the h97 and i5 then since it doesnt sound like they will do that bottleneck thing.

By bigger psu, do you mean the amount of watts it makes?.

Also, will my pc with the upgrades be able to handle games that uses unreal engine 4?, because I have a game, that was made with UE3, but is being re-released with UE4

a GTX 970 can handle UE4 games.
I ment a higher quality PSU.

 

[fro3tb1te]

ugh ok, was hoping it has something to do with the watts. Hope that a tier one or two will have enough caples then.

Thank you for your help, happy to know I have found a place where I can get some solid help. Guess all thats left is to figure out if I want to go one piece at a time or all out, assuming they have them all in danish stores 🙂