Help on Upgrading my PC with a new Graphics Card

[BenX41]

This is the GPU I want to upgrade my PC with (ASUS AMD Radeon R9 380 Strix Gaming 4GB GDDR5 GPU (STRIX-R9380-DC2-4GD5-GAMING), does my current setup have the means to handle it?

Current Setup:
MY PC: Acer Predator G3-605 Desktop PC
GPU: GeForce GTX 645
CPU: Intel®Core™ i5-4440 CPU @ 3.10GHz
Memory: 8.00 GB RAM (7.91 GB usable)
Current resolution: 1920 x 1080, 60Hz
Maximum Power Supply Wattage: 500 W

Do I need to purchase a new fan or something?

 

[BenX41]

I'm not desperate to upgrade immediately I just want to be able to play Total War Warhammer in non-pixelated settings ^^
and if waiting a short time means I can get something much better I'll wait for that single fan model of either the 380 or the 480.

 

[apk24]

I theyre essentially 8-10x more powerful than your current gpu,so much so that its hard to make a viable comparison.
eminently capable of playable fps at high settings 1080p on any current game title.

A good way to make a comparision is the current standard Intel Integrated Graphics, HD 530 will give a GTX 645 a run for it's money. Any modern discrete GPU would be a vast improvement. But yeah, a 960 will net you solid 1080p performance.

 

[SlightlyEdible]

^ I wont quote as it clogs the thread for people on mobile site.

yes the 480 will suit you fine IF there is a fairly low tdp single fan reference type model released fairly soon after release date.
Ill still stand by there will be a mass dirge of heavily overclocked ,fancy twin fan models at first which will be unsuitable, with far higher tdp & power requirements than amd's spec sheet.AMD may care about efficiency this time but the 3rd party manufacturers will not at all.

There's only so much manufacturers can do. Generally , cards with a significant factory OC are considerably more expensive and have a name to match the extreme Over clock .

 

[madmatt30]

^ mmm, you'd think so but realistically the mini lower tdp variant s tend to carry a premium price tag over what they should simply because of demand.

Irregardless , take the $200 estimated price point if the 480 with a massive pinch of salt, reliable retail sources in the UK are suggesting to me a £250 retail estimate on release (equating to close to $400)

We get robbed in the UK generally & that comparison likely won't carry to the us but who knows.

The 1070 has dropped at £399, aftermarket models more than that.
To put that into perspective you can get a zotac 970 currently for a little over £220, a few weeks back I got half a dozen Asus turbo 970 cards for £230 each , each came with a free Kingston hyperx 240gb ssd, the division & rise of the tomb raider.
I made a killing on 5 & kept one package for myself.

 

[SlightlyEdible]

^ mmm, you'd think so but realistically the mini lower tdp variant s tend to carry a premium price tag over what they should simply because of demand.

Irregardless , take the $200 estimated price point if the 480 with a massive pinch of salt, reliable retail sources in the UK are suggesting to me a £250 retail estimate on release (equating to close to $400)

We get robbed in the UK generally & that comparison likely won't carry to the us but who knows.

The 1070 has dropped at £399, aftermarket models more than that.
To put that into perspective you can get a zotac 970 currently for a little over £220, a few weeks back I got half a dozen Asus turbo 970 cards for £230 each , each came with a free Kingston hyperx 240gb ssd, the division & rise of the tomb raider.
I made a killing on 5 & kept one package for myself.

Decent points. Keep in mind, however, the 480 will out perform the 970, and possible be in league with the 980 though that's unlikely. If the 480 outperforms the 970, has lower temps, has lower power consumption, and is more prepared for VR and DX12, then it's worth the £30

 

[Hlsgsz]

Forget about running on that power supply. i Would get an XFX TS 550W and mod the ATX cable with the plug from the old PSU myself. You should be able to find info online about how.
And definitely wait for teh RX 480. It's not a good time to be buying r9 380s.

 

[SlightlyEdible]

Forget about running on that power supply. i Would get an XFX TS 550W and mod the ATX cable with the plug from the old PSU myself. You should be able to find info online about how.
And definitely wait for teh RX 480. It's not a good time to be buying r9 380s.

Since his budget is $150, the new RX 470 hits that exact price point. It should be performing slightly better the the GTX 960 and R9 380

 

[BenX41]

Forget about running on that power supply. i Would get an XFX TS 550W and mod the ATX cable with the plug from the old PSU myself. You should be able to find info online about how.
And definitely wait for teh RX 480. It's not a good time to be buying r9 380s.

Since his budget is $150, the new RX 470 hits that exact price point. It should be performing slightly better the the GTX 960 and R9 380

Would the Radeon RX 480 be the best solution then? And Im guessing I still need to upgrade my psu for that, if I do need to can you tell me how to/by how much?

 

[SlightlyEdible]

Forget about running on that power supply. i Would get an XFX TS 550W and mod the ATX cable with the plug from the old PSU myself. You should be able to find info online about how.
And definitely wait for teh RX 480. It's not a good time to be buying r9 380s.

Since his budget is $150, the new RX 470 hits that exact price point. It should be performing slightly better the the GTX 960 and R9 380

Would the Radeon RX 480 be the best solution then? And Im guessing I still need to upgrade my psu for that, if I do need to can you tell me how to/by how much?

An RX 480 can run on a 430w PSU. 500w is fine.
The RX 470 (which will come out soon) Will be $150 to $180, hitting that $150 price point

 

[BenX41]

Forget about running on that power supply. i Would get an XFX TS 550W and mod the ATX cable with the plug from the old PSU myself. You should be able to find info online about how.
And definitely wait for teh RX 480. It's not a good time to be buying r9 380s.

Since his budget is $150, the new RX 470 hits that exact price point. It should be performing slightly better the the GTX 960 and R9 380

Would the Radeon RX 480 be the best solution then? And Im guessing I still need to upgrade my psu for that, if I do need to can you tell me how to/by how much?

An RX 480 can run on a 430w PSU. 500w is fine.
The RX 470 (which will come out soon) Will be $150 to $180, hitting that $150 price point

I was looking at 2 480s, which is better i think the MSI Radeon RX 480 8G is considering the psu requirement meets mine http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Productcompare.aspx?CompareItemList=-1%7C14-150-770%5E14-150-770%2C14-127-953%5E14-127-953

 

[Hlsgsz]

Forget about running on that power supply. i Would get an XFX TS 550W and mod the ATX cable with the plug from the old PSU myself. You should be able to find info online about how.
And definitely wait for teh RX 480. It's not a good time to be buying r9 380s.

Since his budget is $150, the new RX 470 hits that exact price point. It should be performing slightly better the the GTX 960 and R9 380

Would the Radeon RX 480 be the best solution then? And Im guessing I still need to upgrade my psu for that, if I do need to can you tell me how to/by how much?

An RX 480 can run on a 430w PSU. 500w is fine.
The RX 470 (which will come out soon) Will be $150 to $180, hitting that $150 price point

I was looking at 2 480s, which is better i think the MSI Radeon RX 480 8G is considering the psu requirement meets mine http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Productcompare.aspx?CompareItemList=-1%7C14-150-770%5E14-150-770%2C14-127-953%5E14-127-953

The power requirements are the same. The 8GB is teh better card as games require more and more VRAM.

 

[BenX41]

Anyone have a clue as to a reliable place to buy a MSI Radeon RX 480 8G in the UK?

 

[Hlsgsz]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01H01E4CQ?ref=spks_0_0_989778267&qid=1467330537&pf_rd_p=989778267&pf_rd_m=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_s=desktop-auto-sparkle&pf_rd_r=BBXEJVGV4MW824ECFGJY&pf_rd_i=rx+480

Though, honestly, i'd wait for a non-reference design.

 

[BenX41]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01H01E4CQ?ref=spks_0_0_989778267&qid=1467330537&pf_rd_p=989778267&pf_rd_m=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_s=desktop-auto-sparkle&pf_rd_r=BBXEJVGV4MW824ECFGJY&pf_rd_i=rx+480

Though, honestly, i'd wait for a non-reference design.

Cheers mate, but what do you mean by non-reference design?

 

[Hlsgsz]

You're welcome!

 

[BenX41]

You're welcome!

soz man I ended up adding to my comment after you must have seen it, what is a non-reference design?

 

[Hlsgsz]

That is a card made by sapphire, but designed by AMD. Only these will be available for a couple of weeks. Later on, the manufacturers will bring cards with better cooling, factory overclocks etc.

 

[BenX41]

That is a card made by sapphire, but designed by AMD. Only these will be available for a couple of weeks. Later on, the manufacturers will bring cards with better cooling, factory overclocks etc.

Around about how long will I need to wait? (in the UK if that factors in)

 

[Hlsgsz]

That is a card made by sapphire, but designed by AMD. Only these will be available for a couple of weeks. Later on, the manufacturers will bring cards with better cooling, factory overclocks etc.

Around about how long will I need to wait? (in the UK if that factors in)

Two weeks max. I've already seen some non-ref designs listed, so could be sooner.

 

[apk24]

There have been some rumors that the reference RX 480 draws more than 75W from the PCIe slot running at stock. Since the mobo in your machine is an OEM mobo for a retail system it might not respond well to that much power being drawn from the PCIe slot. I'd wait until AMD sorts out whatever QA problem they're having right now. The current speculation is that non-reference cards w/ 8pin power connectors are unlikely to have this problem.

Again, this is just a rumor, but a somewhat credible rumor. Link to reddit post: RX480 fails PCI-E specification

 

[Hlsgsz]

Hadn't heard that. All the more reason to wait for non-reference designs, i guess.

 

[SlightlyEdible]

Hadn't heard that. All the more reason to wait for non-reference designs, i guess.

For future usage, non-reference is known as AIB (Add-in board)

 

[apk24]

For future usage, non-reference is known as AIB (Add-in board)

While it's used that way in a lot of places, it's an incorrect usage. AIB can refer to any complete card that gets added in to a computer, gpu or otherwise (e.g. RAM). The fact that it is a video AIB is usually left implicit in discussions of graphics cards. So, even reference cards are video AIBs.

AMD and Nvidia refer to certain companies as AIB partners. All that means is that these companies take the chip and make it a usable graphics cards. This is the case for most everything you put in your computer. E.g. micron, samsung and hynix make RAM chips, Kingston, Corsair, G.Skill are AIB partners that make RAM AIBs (the RAM sticks themselves).

Reference cards are made by the AIB Partners using the sample (reference) designs supplied by AMD/Nvidia. Non reference cards are AIB Partner designed cards or AIB Partner cards, i.e. designs made by the AIB partner.

Just a nitpick, sorry for the diversion.

 

[SlightlyEdible]

For future usage, non-reference is known as AIB (Add-in board)

While it's used that way in a lot of places, it's an incorrect usage. AIB can refer to any complete card that gets added in to a computer, gpu or otherwise (e.g. RAM). The fact that it is a video AIB is usually left implicit in discussions of graphics cards. So, even reference cards are video AIBs.

AMD and Nvidia refer to certain companies as AIB partners. All that means is that these companies take the chip and make it a usable graphics cards. This is the case for most everything you put in your computer. E.g. micron, samsung and hynix make RAM chips, Kingston, Corsair, G.Skill are AIB partners that make RAM AIBs (the RAM sticks themselves).

Reference cards are made by the AIB Partners using the sample (reference) designs supplied by AMD/Nvidia. Non reference cards are AIB Partner designed cards or AIB Partner cards, i.e. designs made by the AIB partner.

Just a nitpick, sorry for the diversion.

Okay, use another term then. Aftermarket partner boards 😛

 

[BenX41]

For future usage, non-reference is known as AIB (Add-in board)

While it's used that way in a lot of places, it's an incorrect usage. AIB can refer to any complete card that gets added in to a computer, gpu or otherwise (e.g. RAM). The fact that it is a video AIB is usually left implicit in discussions of graphics cards. So, even reference cards are video AIBs.

AMD and Nvidia refer to certain companies as AIB partners. All that means is that these companies take the chip and make it a usable graphics cards. This is the case for most everything you put in your computer. E.g. micron, samsung and hynix make RAM chips, Kingston, Corsair, G.Skill are AIB partners that make RAM AIBs (the RAM sticks themselves).

Reference cards are made by the AIB Partners using the sample (reference) designs supplied by AMD/Nvidia. Non reference cards are AIB Partner designed cards or AIB Partner cards, i.e. designs made by the AIB partner.

Just a nitpick, sorry for the diversion.

Okay, use another term then. Aftermarket partner boards 😛

As if I wasn't confused enough XD