My Son Wants To Upgrade...but I need to know the answer first :) THIS IS UPDATED with more information as I am just a mom

[Bojanduo21]

My Son Has This Gaming Computer - CyberPowerPC Gamer Ultra Gaming PC - AMD FX-6300 3.50GHz, 8GB DDR3 Memory, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 610, Windows 8.1 64-bit - GU6027

HE WANTS TO UPGRADE TO THIS VIDEO CARD
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 Windforce OC 3GB GV-N1060WF2OC-3GD Video Card

Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[aquielisunari]

The 1060 is about 1000% better. The 610 is just a VERY VERY very weak card.

The next upgrade should be the 6300 to the 8350 or 8370.

Or the next upgrade should be an additional 8GB of the EXACT same RAM modules.

After that an SSD drive will round out his gaming rig. The OS can be transferred(cloned) to the SSD. The SSD isn't a critical upgrade but it is much faster than the platter based HDD.

 

[Hellfire13]

Should be a good upgrade and it will definitely improve the pc performance in terms of gaming and graphics.
Wise choice. You can also choose a AMD RX 480 4gb. Equally good card or even better, and a tad cheaper.

 

[Geekwad]

Would be a good upgrade, but will certainly want to verify the power supply is up to the task:

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

An AMD RX 480 is about equal, but it has the ability to work with FreeSync monitors:

http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/freesync

Which are less expensive (are there are more options) to the Nvidia equivalent, Gsync.....in case a monitor upgrade may ever be in the future. Two RX 480's can also be paired together for even more GPU horsepower, whereas the GTX 1060's cannot.

Either way they will be a substantial improvement over the existing card, opening up options and settings that were not available before.

 

[k1114]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from Bojanduo21 : "My Son Wants To Upgrade...but I need to know the answer first "

Can you replace the 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 with GTX 1060 Windforce OC 3GB

I think the GT 610 is PCI-E 2 x16, the Windforce is PCI-E 3 x16. Looks like it's backward compatible.

If the mobo doesnt have a PCI-E 3 x16 slot

But you'll need power to plug into the Windforce.

Ugh, of course this doesn't make any sense to me. Thank you Paul - did you see my updated question?

What is the brand and model of the existing power supply?

System Power Supply Requirements for a single NVIDIA Reference Design GeForce GTX 1060
• NVIDIA specifies a minimum of a 400 Watt or greater system power supply. (Minimum system power requirement based on a PC configured with an Intel Core i7 3.2GHz 130 Watt TDP processor.)
• the system power supply must also have a maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 25 Amps or greater
• the system power supply should also have at least one 75-Watt 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector. There are some non-reference design cards that require one 150-Watt 8-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector (e.g. MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6 GB).

 

[Shaun o]

The cheek of it, Cyber power calling a Pc built with an FX 6300 amd Cpu, 8gb of ram and oh lordy ! a 1 GB Nvidia Geforce 610 graphics card calling it a CyberPowerPC Gamer Ultra Gaming PC.

That is Laughable so say the least.

No dig at you in anyway Bojanduo, or your son.
But more of an annoyance in how cyber power have the inclination in pretending it`s a ultra gaming pc.

As for upgrading.

Cpu wise again I would opt for a FX 8350 cpu with 8 cpu cores vs the current FX 6300 cpu in the system as it stands.
And as said I would double the amount of 8Gb of DDR3 memory to 16Gb.

I would though if you have not opened up the side of the tower case first check to see if the motherboard fitted or used in the system has four DDR 3 memory slots to add another matching pair of 2 x 4 Gb memory sticks.

The upgrade to a Nvidia GTX 1060 card will as said by the other poster greatly improve the gameplay of games your son intends to, or wishes to play.

It might also be worth just having a look at the current power supply unit also in the system as it stands Bojanduo.
Just to make sure that along with the other upgrades mentioned for Cpu and graphics it is enough to power the whole system adequately.

So if you could find out how many watts the PSU quotes it can output here on the forum we can tell you if it will be ok with the system upgrades to power them, or if you will also have to consider buying a new one with more wattage output ok.

 

[Bojanduo21]

The 1060 is about 1000% better. The 610 is just a VERY VERY very weak card.

The next upgrade should be the 6300 to the 8350 or 8370.

Or the next upgrade should be an additional 8GB of the EXACT same RAM modules.

After that an SSD drive will round out his gaming rig. The OS can be transferred(cloned) to the SSD. The SSD isn't a critical upgrade but it is much faster than the platter based HDD.

 

[Bojanduo21]

The cheek of it, Cyber power calling a Pc built with an FX 6300 amd Cpu, 8gb of ram and oh lordy ! a 1 GB Nvidia Geforce 610 graphics card calling it a CyberPowerPC Gamer Ultra Gaming PC.

That is Laughable so say the least.

No dig at you in anyway Bojanduo, or your son.
But more of an annoyance in how cyber power have the inclination in pretending it`s a ultra gaming pc.

As for upgrading.

Cpu wise again I would opt for a FX 8350 cpu with 8 cpu cores vs the current FX 6300 cpu in the system as it stands.
And as said I would double the amount of 8Gb of DDR3 memory to 16Gb.

I would though if you have not opened up the side of the tower case first check to see if the motherboard fitted or used in the system has four DDR 3 memory slots to add another matching pair of 2 x 4 Gb memory sticks.

The upgrade to a Nvidia GTX 1060 card will as said by the other poster greatly improve the gameplay of games your son intends to, or wishes to play.

It might also be worth just having a look at the current power supply unit also in the system as it stands Bojanduo.
Just to make sure that along with the other upgrades mentioned for Cpu and graphics it is enough to power the whole system adequately.

So if you could find out how many watts the PSU quotes it can output here on the forum we can tell you if it will be ok with the system upgrades to power them, or if you will also have to consider buying a new one with more wattage output ok.

 

[Bojanduo21]

Okay Shaun...my son was just 12 when he bought this with his own money. He mostly games on his PS4, Xbox One, etc so for Christmas he was asking to upgrade this "ULTRA gaming PC." I know, it's kinda funny but I really don't understand most of this. Of course he is gaming right now so I may have him check out your post to see if we can figure it out. I already bought him an Asus MG248Q monitor so I wanted to only spend $200 or less. He's only 14.

 

[Hellfire13]

With that kind of budget, you should only stick to the gpu upgrade atm, albeit your psu permitting. You should still get a significant performance increase over the 610 ofcourse.

 

[Bojanduo21]

Would be a good upgrade, but will certainly want to verify the power supply is up to the task:

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

An AMD RX 480 is about equal, but it has the ability to work with FreeSync monitors:

http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/freesync

Which are less expensive (are there are more options) to the Nvidia equivalent, Gsync.....in case a monitor upgrade may ever be in the future. Two RX 480's can also be paired together for even more GPU horsepower, whereas the GTX 1060's cannot.

Either way they will be a substantial improvement over the existing card, opening up options and settings that were not available before.

 

[Bojanduo21]

Some great information here. I will have him check into this to see if the power supply can support. He is getting a new Asus Monitor MG248Q so I think we are good there. He's only 14 and wants to build it all up but I just wonder if it pays to keep putting money into this or save up for a real gaming computer? Thanks so much!

 

[Geekwad]

Some great information here. I will have him check into this to see if the power supply can support. He is getting a new Asus Monitor MG248Q so I think we are good there. He's only 14 and wants to build it all up but I just wonder if it pays to keep putting money into this or save up for a real gaming computer? Thanks so much!

If it is the Asus MG248Q with FreeSync:

https://www.asus.com/us/Monitors/MG248Q/

Then I would certainly lean towards the AMD RX 480 GPU (checking power supply compatibility):

http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/freesync

As for putting more money into a processor upgrade, I wouldn't. After a GPU and possibly power supply upgrade, then I'd look at upgrading the whole computer (though transferring the new GPU and PSU to the new computer).

Be sure to save the old stuff that comes out, so it can go back in if upgrading the platform later.

 

[Hellfire13]

That chip is already very old and wont give you much shelf life beyond another year maybe. It would be a much better idea to save for a better gaming build altogether.
Otherwise as Shaun suggested above, you can go with a better cpu along with a gpu and extract another couple of years maybe from this rig.