Looking for any upgrade thoughts

[supermanu15]

Here are my specs, not really that much but very happy with it

CPU: AMD Athlon x4 640 3.01GHz
Motherboard: ECS-MCP61M-M3 v7.1
GPU: ASUS EAH6770 DC
RAM: 2 x 4gb Kingston 1333MHz
PSU: CoolerMaster Extreme Powerplus 500w
Chassis: Segotep Raynor G2 Tower
Hard Drive (Internal): Seagate Barracuda 500gb and Western Digital 320gb

And I am meaning to ask for any upgrade thoughts from the community, any hardware components in mind that won't bottleneck my build because i cannot really see myself upgrading my GPU from 6770 to a 7990 for example, or any middle to enthusiast level Rx Series from AMD. I would really appreciate any thoughts from the community and thank you in advance

 

[plaintuts]

A r7 260x or 265 can be a nice addition, but for stability and overall quality, change the power supply to something like an xfx 550 watts or seasonic 500 watts or a corsair TX v2 550 watts.

 

[jaraldo]

Well besides the GPU and PSU, you could always get a 120gb SSD (they are only $20 more than the 64gb)
The boot times are nicer and helps load games faster; among other things. You can also reuse it if you ever decide to build a new computer

 

[supermanu15]

A r7 260x or 265 can be a nice addition, but for stability and overall quality, change the power supply to something like an xfx 550 watts or seasonic 500 watts or a corsair TX v2 550 watts.

is the r7 260x the rebranded version of the 6790/7790? :/ or was it the 7850?i am pretty happy with the power supply but your recommendations are noted! thank you!

 

[supermanu15]

Well besides the GPU and PSU, you could always get a 120gb SSD (they are only $20 more than the 64gb)
The boot times are nicer and helps load games faster; among other things. You can also reuse it if you ever decide to build a new computer

that is noted! however where i am from the prices of SSD's are a bit of a pain in the butt but thanks for bringing that up i've noticed in youtube videos of NCIX or Linus tech tips that they are always using the SSD as the main boot drive and using HDD's primarily for storage, thanks a million

 

[plaintuts]

Its essentially a higher clocked 7790.

 

[supermanu15]

Its essentially a higher clocked 7790.

but is it on par with the 7850?or not being able to touch that bracket?

 

[jaraldo]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/R9_260X_iPower_IceQ_X2/26.html

It's a step down from the 7850 in the hierarchy

 

[supermanu15]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/R9_260X_iPower_IceQ_X2/26.html

It's a step down from the 7850 in the hierarchy

oh you mean that card is > than 7790 but < 7850?, thanks for the article, i will research more on this, seems interesting enough, all i see in shops now are the Rx series but doesnt really matter as I have read they are the rebranded HD 7xxx series, so with my current build i should be on the look out for GPU's better than a 7790?

 

[jaraldo]

Well depends how high you want to go, you said you don't want anything enthusiast in the OP, which I agree with.
A 7790/r7 260x or a 7850/r9 270x would both be a nice boost compared to what you have now. I would get whatever is the best price/on-sale.

 

[jaraldo]

Here's some final info.

7850-vs-r9-270x Between the 7850 and r9 270x, the r9 270x is $20 more, but looks like the better card by a nice margin.
7790-vs-r7-260x The 7790 and r7 260x seem to be on par, so I'd get the 7790 if you are going the cheaper route.
This list also reflects that http://videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

I just did a basic amazon comparison, I know it may differ in your country, but price/ratio wise I'd think they'd be similar.

7790 = $110
r7 260x =$130
7850 = $180
r9 270x = $200

The only thing that might make a difference is that I did see a few 7850 that were $150, which could make the 7850 a contender for you to consider
Lastly, remember you won't be getting full performance from these cards since if I read correctly, your mobo does not have any PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. I'm not sure how each cards performance will be effected because of this.

Based on all this and the age of your PC, I think any of the 7790/r7 260x (even a GTX 750) would be a great pick and they are all fairly similar, so again, which ever you can find a sale on.

 

[supermanu15]

Here's some final info.

7850-vs-r9-270x Between the 7850 and r9 270x, the r9 270x is $20 more, but looks like the better card by a nice margin.
7790-vs-r7-260x The 7790 and r7 260x seem to be on par, so I'd get the 7790 if you are going the cheaper route.
This list also reflects that http://videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

I just did a basic amazon comparison, I know it may differ in your country, but price/ratio wise I'd think they'd be similar.

7790 = $110
r7 260x =$130
7850 = $180
r9 270x = $200

The only thing that might make a difference is that I did see a few 7850 that were $150, which could make the 7850 a contender for you to consider
Lastly, remember you won't be getting full performance from these cards since if I read correctly, your mobo does not have any PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. I'm not sure how each cards performance will be effected because of this.

Based on all this and the age of your PC, I think any of the 7790/r7 260x (even a GTX 750) would be a great pick and they are all fairly similar, so again, which ever you can find a sale on.

Holy cow you dug deep and researched thanks a million man, always love the forums so many proactive people lending their hand yeah i sort of was in a hurry because this was a bundled set at first then i decided to change a few things like the video card, PSU and chassis :/ my failure for not researching enough before buying right now i was suppose to be leaning on a 7850 and yes I wanna keep this build AMD themed but based on your findings looks like I'm well off with a 7790, 260x or a 270x but isnt the 270x more of a rebadged 7850? :/ and if I go with the 7790 is it considered to be just a small step? Again thank you for bearing with me because I just wanna make sure this time before going all out and buying.

 

[jaraldo]

Well, if you see in the link, the 270x has big increases on the 7850, 20-40% in some areas . The 270x seems to be an overclocked 7870.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+7850
You can see the 270x is about 1000 scores higher (15 places or so) than the 7850.

The 7790 is quite a bit better than the 6770 in most areas. http://www.hwcompare.com/14347/radeon-hd-6770-vs-radeon-hd-7790/

I'm not really sure of your budget so all I have to go on is "not enthusiast"

 

[supermanu15]

But i won't be able to maximize the full potential of 260x,270x,7850 or 7870 because my mobo is specified to be PCI-E 2 and those cards go beast mode if they have PCI-E 3.0 something new I learned today so thank you. I did a little research while the 7790 kicks the 7770 off the bat in most cases but not in a very sound margin, I also read that it has bigger power consumption and heat output especially under load which is why i chose the 6770 in the first place O_O

I'm not really sure of your budget so all I have to go on is "not enthusiast"

Nah, doesn't really matter I mean the budget I am scooping up for this is the type of budget where everything works well while having a performance boost while not having any bottlenecks or overkill scenarios in my build. And did i mention everything is in stock configuration? Stock cooler for CPU, no overclocks and that I have an AOC 1943w 18.5 monitor which obviously works well in the 720p spectrum and which is why I have been smooth sailing on max settings in any game my 6770 has been thrown at.

 

[jaraldo]

I have a 7790 in one of my computers and the prices are comparable to a 7770 where I am, so I choose the 7770.

I was going to ask this earlier, but I thought you would have already mentioned it.. ^^ If your 6770 can do everything you want now, why would you want to upgrade? I just assumed you might upgrade your PC in a year and reuse the new GPU.

 

[supermanu15]

I have a 7790 in one of my computers and the prices are comparable to a 7770 where I am, so I choose the 7770.

I was going to ask this earlier, but I thought you would have already mentioned it.. ^^ If your 6770 can do everything you want now, why would you want to upgrade? I just assumed you might upgrade your PC in a year and reuse the new GPU.

While I am all good with most games at 720p, nowadays I feel the need to be able to play 1080p which probably means I have to upgrade my monitor too and that could possibly send a domino effect through some of the components I have in my system I just want this sense of future-proofness in me

 

[jaraldo]

hehe, ok understandable. It would be better however to save up and do a new build if you wanted to "future proof". Technology moves too fast and especially at the budget level future proofing is really hard. If you notice, retail-wise, old computer parts don't really go down as much. Which is why it's better to buy new.

2 personal examples I can give you of this are the 7790 I bought 2 years ago, it's only $10-20 less on average now. The other is a friend had a computer from 2006 and wanted to add some RAM. He was shocked when he saw the prices were even higher than ddr3 now.

I think you have enough information though to make your decision if you do want to upgrade your GPU. Just remember about your PSU, Coolermaster is "ok" but it might not be able to handle a big upgrade from a new GPU; I don't have info to back this up but it's just precautionary.

 

[supermanu15]

hehe, ok understandable. It would be better however to save up and do a new build if you wanted to "future proof". Technology moves too fast and especially at the budget level future proofing is really hard. If you notice, retail-wise, old computer parts don't really go down as much. Which is why it's better to buy new.

2 personal examples I can give you of this are the 7790 I bought 2 years ago, it's only $10-20 less on average now. The other is a friend had a computer from 2006 and wanted to add some RAM. He was shocked when he saw the prices were even higher than ddr3 now.

I think you have enough information though to make your decision if you do want to upgrade your GPU. Just remember about your PSU, Coolermaster is "ok" but it might not be able to handle a big upgrade from a new GPU; I don't have info to back this up but it's just precautionary.

oh alright i will choose your reply as best answer since you went through all the trouble of dealing with me hahaha i will be on the look out for your recommendations from here on. But i think my PSU will be fine, i remember when choosing or thinking of this build i wanted a "non crossfire" rig seeing that people were having problems in crossfire driver-wise, now i remember. But still happy that this thing can pretty much withstand anything as of now but i will be considering your suggestions, i'll start with the fans though because this thing runs real hot :/ again thank you so much for the help!

 

[jaraldo]

I agree, crossfire can be an issue.
Was nice helping you since you knew a lot already Enjoy your build!