Help with upgrading GPU for gaming

[Poss273]

Currently I am running:

ASUS M4A79XTD EVO Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition
EVGA NVIDIA GTX 560 TI
2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair TX-750W P/S

I built this rig about 3.5 years ago. I have been able to run almost any games without too much issue on high settings but recently I have started playing Wildstar and its just not running very clean at all. I have tried changing all the settings around to see what works best but its still not where I want it. I was hoping I could replace the GPU and that would help. Maybe add some more RAM? I know the motherboard has 2x PCIe 2.0 x16 and from what I understand PCIe 3.0 is backwards compatible. Also, I was wondering I would have better luck running a Radeon card since I have an AMD processor. I'm by no means an expert with computer hardware specs but I am familiar (I work on electronics for nuclear reactor protection systems), so I am asking for help as to what I could do (for a reasonable amount of money) without rebuilding the whole machine. If anyone needs more info on something please ask. Thank you for your help.

Update:
The P/S is CSMPU-750TX

 

[Crtn]

i am going to say that it is because it is almost 4 years old, and that hardware is not quite enough to keep up with that build. you could replace the gpu, but you would be seeing a slight performance decrease due to the cpu power backing the gpu up.

Just because you have a amd chip doesnt necessarily mean that you will get better performace with a radeon card, in saying this. There was an article i found that showed that a 290x performed better with an intel chip rather then an amd chip. But no distinct advantages are found when running an amd cpu with an amd gpu

 

[paulbatzing]

Actually, a report by this site some month ago showed that Nvidia cards are better utilized on AMD platforms...

You shouldn't need more ram, especially if you buy a newer GPU. It is however a bit hard to recommend a GPU without some kind of budget. I have three options for you. The first is the cheapest option that will be a reasonable upgrade, and the next two will be an even better upgrade for a bit more money:

1. Get a Radeon r9 280 for ~220$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131570&cm_re=r9_280-_-14-131-570-_-Product ) or a GTX 760 for ~230$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125556&cm_re=gtx_760-_-14-125-556-_-Product )
2.Get an r9 280x for ~ 290$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131533&cm_re=280x-_-14-131-533-_-Product ) or a GTX 770 for ~330$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127751&cm_re=gtx_770-_-14-127-751-_-Product )
3. Get a r9 290 for ~ 380$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202080&cm_re=R9_290-_-14-202-080-_-Product ) or a GTX 780 for ~490$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133525&cm_re=780-_-14-133-525-_-Product )

You can see that the nvidia cards are a bit more to much more expensive (although the equivalent to the gtx 780 is the r9 290x tbh, at least with a bad cooling option), but what you want is a bit up to your preferences. If you get a radeon, be sure to get a good cooling variant. With the nvidias, there are really no bad cooling options around.

Update: Which Corsair PSU do you have? If it is a quality one, you are good (since 750W is enough for any single card configuration), but an old bad psu should be replaced.

 

[Crtn]

These gpu's wouldnt able to be used to their max because of the cpu, and it would limit the performace of any of these cards. Still, it would be a noticable upgrade. But you will see a lot of the cpu running at max, and the gpu not being close to using all of its power.

Actually, a report by this site some month ago showed that Nvidia cards are better utilized on AMD platforms...

You shouldn't need more ram, especially if you buy a newer GPU. It is however a bit hard to recommend a GPU without some kind of budget. I have three options for you. The first is the cheapest option that will be a reasonable upgrade, and the next two will be an even better upgrade for a bit more money:

1. Get a Radeon r9 280 for ~220$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131570&cm_re=r9_280-_-14-131-570-_-Product ) or a GTX 760 for ~230$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125556&cm_re=gtx_760-_-14-125-556-_-Product )
2.Get an r9 280x for ~ 290$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131533&cm_re=280x-_-14-131-533-_-Product ) or a GTX 770 for ~330$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127751&cm_re=gtx_770-_-14-127-751-_-Product )
3. Get a r9 290 for ~ 380$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202080&cm_re=R9_290-_-14-202-080-_-Product ) or a GTX 780 for ~490$ (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133525&cm_re=780-_-14-133-525-_-Product )

You can see that the nvidia cards are a bit more to much more expensive (although the equivalent to the gtx 780 is the r9 290x tbh, at least with a bad cooling option), but what you want is a bit up to your preferences. If you get a radeon, be sure to get a good cooling variant. With the nvidias, there are really no bad cooling options around.

Update: Which Corsair PSU do you have? If it is a quality one, you are good (since 750W is enough for any single card configuration), but an old bad psu should be replaced.

 

[Calnin]

I'd imagine a 280 would still probably do well in your system, might have a little bit of a bottleneck though. A little overclock might be able to help relieve that.

But yeah, what is the model of your PSU?

 

[paulbatzing]

I guess, but that depends on the game. The AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition is supposed to be equivalent to the i7-980 (see http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html ). I personally have an overclocked i7-920 (which is definitely slower then the 980) and a gtx 780. My cpu is not at 100% in any single core in Watch_dogs, which is supposed to be CPU heavy, so I do really not see the problem here. I would not try to run software physx through it, but the CPU looks fine to me. I am, however, not very knowledgeable on AMD cpus, so I might be wrong here and this is only based on the ca performance provided by tomshardwares tier ranking.

I would recommend a mobo+cpu+ram upgrade at some point in the future if you buy a new GPU, but I don't see the point in doing that right now.

 

[Poss273]

I updated the PSU in the original post, Corsair TX-750W

 

[paulbatzing]

The first generation one? Corsair actually had them made by three different manufacturers afaik.When did you buy it?

Update: Ok, if it says CSMPU-750TX on it, it is a CWT PSU. I would say it is fine, but it is not as solid as the seasonic one (750TX-V2). It has 5 years guarantee, so if you bought it after 2009 you are still in warranty. In that case, go for it I would say.

 

[Calnin]

You should be fine for power then. I'd recommend r9 280 as the highest you should go, but I'm not sure when the bottleneck will begin to show. But I'd imagine the r9 280 would be around the highest area maybe already showing diminishing returns from possible bottlenecks. At least with the 280 you'll have a higher chance of getting more out of your CPU if you can overclock it.