Hooray! Need help selecting Graphics card to complement my system or recommendations to...

[Urbanengineer]

Hey guys, total hardware newbie here. Big car guy. Owned a 2006 Infiniti G35 for around 8 years now for 100k miles and still grabbing the groceries quick.

I'm looking for something newer on a new platform, PC Gaming. Much more affordable if you look at the big picture... I digress. I am hoping to convert my parents old dead HP Pavilion into my low-medium graphics HIGH FRAMERATE gaming PC. Ill add a picture to the end. Let's just call this a sleeper model PC . This PC will also be used for office Professional and Photoshopping to make my friends wives look better for them.

So you guys have a form, I'll follow it. Thanks ahead of time for your responses. I was pointed this way from a friend in my college of engineering. Side note, current setup (I don't know if the drivers for the AMD processor are even set up correctly...) plays Skyrim at 1 fps on minimum graphics and The Sims 3 at 20 fps, why?

In order to make things easy, copy and paste the following template into your post and edit the italicized examples to suit your needs:

Approximate Purchase Date: Anytime, I have the money "I HAVE MICROCENTER"

Budget Range: 500$ ALL IN Before Rebates?

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, photoshop, office documents

Are you buying a monitor: No, LG Flatron W2361V (1920x1080)

Parts to Upgrade: CPU, Graphics Card?, MOBO, Power supply (currently Inland 400W [Obvs need to upgrade]), Fans?

Do you need to buy OS: No, HDD has 8.0

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg if it has to be online, microcenter is a mere 10 minutes away (its cold and dark outside, but I guess I could venture out if it would help me venture Skyrim).

Location: Cincinnati, OH Near Microcenter

Parts Preferences: Any, I want the best value that will get me the low-medium at high FPS.

Overclocking: Maybe (only for gaming)

SLI or Crossfire: Microcenter tells me crossfire

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 64 hz?

Additional Comments: I mean no one can complain about a lack of noise. I will be running The Sims 3, Skyrim, Civ 5, BF4 (Free from AMD, doesnt work with current settings :[ )

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Xbox bores me, my car is costly in track maintenance.

Include a list of any parts you have already selected with descriptively labeled links for parts. Please do not post only links.


A10 7850K 4.0 GHz Black Edition Boxed processor For $129.99
A78M-E45 FM2 mATX AMD Moterboard For $29.99 (Deal with AMD Processors)
Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 4GB Memory Modules) $64.99 (Crucial Special)
Silver Series ILS-400-2 400 Watt ATX Power Supply $29.99
Stock Shell & Other cables, Stock fans (1 at south of CPU), stock front panel, etc. (Ask if something is missing.

What could I do to make this system get to my requirements? (Those are low-medium settings with HIGH FPS) I currently get 1 fps on skyrim and 20 fps on the sims 3. If i bought a bad combo, I would like to know, just got these 2 days ago b/c its what the microcenter rep said would be good. Feel free to call me an idiot for trusting him if the parts are dinosaured together, I trust you guys to make the best decision. What should I do?

THANK YOU!!!!

 

[veladem]

At first glance might I suggest a FX-6300? 109.99 at Microcenter.

 

[woltej1]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2SlXW
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2SlXW/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2SlXW/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($114.47 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB Video Card ($229.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $519.43
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-12 23:55 EST-0500)

This is as close as i can get and still be ok with it.

 

[tshrjain]

Actually, your specs look good enough to me. I wouldn't say the microcenter guy duped you or anything. You have the latest Kaveri APU which is capable of providing quiet a good playable frame rates for most modern games on low to medium settings. Would have been better with better RAM, something like a 2133MHz. Anyways, you can get a discrete GPU for now. Go for an R7 250 card and you'll see significant improvement in frame rates.
P.S: an R7 250 or R7 240 will work in crossfire with the integrated GPU, that's why I suggest that graphic card as low cost add on.

 

[veladem]

I could have sworn the RAM Freq. almost never improved gameplay and at too high of Freq. could actually hinder gameplay? I might be imagining this though . . .

 

[woltej1]

RAM frequency has extremely marginal effects, mostly negligible, on gaming. Video and image editing benefits from high freq RAM.

 

[veladem]

Well, although this PC will be used for Photoshop, I'd have to weigh in and say that I also mainly use my PC for gaming, and edit my Cannon 60D images rather fast and smooth on my PC with just 1600Mhz freq. RAM . . . But, my PC is also kinda a high end with it's SSD, Radeon 7770 Ghz Ed., and FX-8120. So how much my speeds factor into my other parts compared to my RAM, no clue, I would still suggest 1600Mhz just as a baseline for PC's as that is what most apps operate best at, games most I think.

Thanks for the info also woltej1

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Do you need to buy OS: No, HDD has 8.0

You're already getting build advice. I wanted to comment on the above, though. You cannot move a HDD from one system to another and expect the OS to work. You will need to do a fresh install of the OS on the new system.

 

[tshrjain]

RAM frequency doesn't matter if you have a discrete GPU, but for an APU (CPU with integrated GPU), RAM frequency can make a lot of difference.

 

[veladem]

tshrjain, Damn your right, I didn't think about that, sorry for sounding like I was blasting you xD

I must say to go with a GPU also, I don't really mind for APU's, personal preference. xD

 

[Urbanengineer]

Your responses are well thought out and you took time to look for me, THANK YOU! Getting a little confused though... :

Well I figured this one out the hard way, I keep having to use windows recovery tools to boot because the OS is looking for the NVidia Cpu/gpu/etc. and it doesn't find it. In process of moving all my personal data to ExtHDD. Should I reset the HDD now or after I am done with hardware stuff?

Do you need to buy OS: No, HDD has 8.0

You're already getting build advice. I wanted to comment on the above, though. You cannot move a HDD from one system to another and expect the OS to work. You will need to do a fresh install of the OS on the new system.

Which one?:

Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB Video Card ($229.99 @ Amazon)

R7 250 or R7 240 will work in crossfire

So you recommend upgrading to 2133 MHz Ram?

RAM frequency doesn't matter if you have a discrete GPU, but for an APU (CPU with integrated GPU), RAM frequency can make a lot of difference.

Woltej recommends I return all this stuff and restart, is that going to be smarter? I dont really understand if an APU is better or worse then a seperate GPU and CPU. The mobo was so cheap with what I had :\. So should I return this stuff and have a "discrete GPU?"

 

[Urbanengineer]

Any help with the above?

 

[veladem]

Most gamers don't go with APU's, but, it's not impossible. I would suggest a dedi GPU and CPU.

 

[Urbanengineer]

Most gamers don't go with APU's, but, it's not impossible. I would suggest a dedi GPU and CPU.

Thanks.

 

[tshrjain]

Yeah if you can return that's kinda great option. You can start afresh.