Looking for advice on upgrading my PC

[hamburgertime]

Currently using:
AMD Athlon II x2 250 / 3.00GHz
4 GB RAM
64-bit
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce 210

I do a little gaming here and there, SWTOR currently, but thinking about buying ESO after checking it out in the beta test. I don't get to play very often, maybe a few hours a week.
It can be a little laggy while I'm playing, but usually it's not bad enough to annoy me.
Other than gaming, my husband watches football card breaks via video streaming once in a while. We don't use the PC for much else, just browsing and emailing.
Because we don't use it a ton, and I don't get to game as much as I used to, we didn't want to spend a bunch of money on the PC. It's 2 years old now.

Apparently, my current graphics card isn't good enough for ESO. And, in doing some reading today, have seen that my dual-core processor is going to hold me back if I try to buy a better card.

Was wondering if anyone out there had any advice for upgrading this thing for better gaming, on the cheap. Or, is it even worth upgrading pieces?? Should I just buy a newer PC?
Thanks!!

 

[IDontUnderstand]

1. What is your budget if upgrading CPU and GPU?
2. Would it be a different budget for purchasing a new system?
3. Was this PC a pre-built? If so, what is the model of it? If not, what are the full specs of your current system?

In my opinion, it'll do alright if you can spend about $150-200 on upgrading the system, but it depends on if your current system can handle the upgrade or not. If the upgrade goes over $300-350, I would just go ahead and purchase a new one, which I can try to suggest later on in our discussion.

 

[geofelt]

2 years is not that old.

As a rule, the graphics card is more important than the cpu for gaming.
What card is recommended for ESO?
How capable is your current psu?
What is your budget?

If the required card fits your budget and will run with your current psu, I suggest you buy it now.
If it ends up that you need a change in cpu, the card will be easily transferred.

 

[hamburgertime]

The "minimum" requirement:
•Video Card: DirectX 9.0 compliant video card with 512MB of RAM (NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 / ATI Radeon™ 2600 or better)

And, the "recommended" requirement:
•Video Card: Direct X 11 compliant video card with 2GB of RAM (NVIDIA® GeForce® 560 Ti / ATI Radeon™ 6950 or better)

Freaked out a little when Nvidia showed me 3 recommended upgrades, the cheapest one was $599!

I was hoping to find an upgrade for less than $100, but could go up to $150, I suppose. I feel like if I need to spend more than that, might as well buy a new tower. (Saw some cool ones at Fry's for around $300)

Bought this as a pre-built from Fry's - Dell Inspiron 570

Thank you both for your assistance! I know enough about computers to make me dangerous, but not enough to make sense of it. haha

 

[IDontUnderstand]

I'm not sure how well the CPU can handle games, but if you're looking forward to spend $150 on GPU, then GTX 750 Ti or R7 265 will be your best bet.
R7 265 (performs better, uses more power, also just came out to market. I have no idea when it will be back in stock):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202096
GTX 750 Ti (performs about 15% worse than 265, uses very little amount of power):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127784

I've just looked up ESO and it says
PC Recommended System Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit or Windows 8 64-bit
Processor: Quad Core 2.3GHz or equivalent processor
Memory: 4GB System RAM
Hard Disk Space: 60GB free HDD space
Video Card: Direct X 11 compliant video card with 2GB of RAM (NVIDIA® GeForce® 560 Ti / ATI Radeon™ 6950 or better)
Sound: DirectX compatible sound card

That Quad core recommendation tells me that it's a somewhat CPU intensive game.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1655710/inspiron-570-upgrades.html

However, AM3 processor has been discontinued, you can only find used ones on eBay and no one can guarantee how long they will last or even work at all.

My point is that, if you want to play ESO with medium settings @ 1080p, you will probably need a new system, if you're ok with lower settings and such you can just upgrade to GPU and keep that GPU for future systems.

 

[Erman Yudhistira]

for the cheap solution, GTX 750 Ti is good choice. if you want more powerfull processor, you can buy phenom II 945 from this http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B002TQYUAE/ref=sr_1_4_olp?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1394493425&sr=1-4&condition=used (sorry, but i don't know if your motherboard compatible with phenom II 945 or not)

 

[geofelt]

Pre built pc's will have only minimum power psu's. That will limit you to a card that does not require a pcie power connector,
The strongest card in that category from amd would be a 7750.
The strongest card from nvidia would be a GTX750 or GTX750ti. They are somewhat stronger than the 7750.
That assumes that your psu can deliver 20a on the +12v rails.
Look at the data plate specs to see what you have.
Otherwise, you are looking at a psu upgrade also.