[SOLVED] Need to upgrade for as cheap as possible.

[Dippyllama]

Hello I always come to this site for help the community is great for helping novice builders like myself.

I brought my own question with me to ask today and it's essentially that my PC is a bit dated now and doesn't meet the minimum requirements for my newer games, specifically Horizon zero dawn at 1080p. I have a GTX 960 2GB, i5-4460, 8GB Crucial DDR3 1600 MHz (x2), Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3, a 1TB HDD and a 350W PSU. What upgrades would you guys recommend? even if to just make Horizon zero dawn playable (50+ fps at low - medium settings) budget is £100 - £300. I could stretch it a bit but I don't think past £500 is in the cards. Thank you in advance.

 

[maxamillionfeettall]

You can get a used i7 4770 or 4770k for around £100, you may want a non-stock cooler as well. You will have to get a new psu, the lowest I'd go is the be quiet system power9.

After that, you can consider a gtx 1650 super or anything above that. If you don't have an ssd yet, maybe consider one.

 

[Zerk2012]

Hello I always come to this site for help the community is great for helping novice builders like myself.

I brought my own question with me to ask today and it's essentially that my PC is a bit dated now and doesn't meet the minimum requirements for my newer games, specifically Horizon zero dawn at 1080p. I have a GTX 960 2GB, i5-4460, 8GB Crucial DDR3 1600 MHz (x2), Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3, a 1TB HDD and a 350W PSU. What upgrades would you guys recommend? even if to just make Horizon zero dawn playable (50+ fps at low - medium settings) budget is £100 - £300. I could stretch it a bit but I don't think past £500 is in the cards. Thank you in advance.

Don't expect a lot from that game since it switched to PC from playstation. Your not the only one. From this it just runs crappy even on a high end PC.

https://www.pcgamer.com/horizon-zero-dawn-pc-performance-benchmarks/

I would probably do the video card and PSU and consider adding another set of the memory.

Or sell yours as a working PC and completely rebuild.

Horizon Zero Dawn PC requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system.
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit.
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3GHz or AMD FX 6300 @ 3.5GHz.
• Memory: 8GB of RAM.
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 (3 GB) or AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB)
• DirectX: Version 12.
• Storage: 100 GB available space.

From this just your video card is slacking so a new card like a 1660 super and a decent 450/550 watt PSU would do.

 

[Dippyllama]

Don't expect a lot from that game since it switched to PC from playstation. Your not the only one. From this it just runs crappy even on a high end PC.

https://www.pcgamer.com/horizon-zero-dawn-pc-performance-benchmarks/

I would probably do the video card and PSU and consider adding another set of the memory.

Or sell yours as a working PC and completely rebuild.

Horizon Zero Dawn PC requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system.
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit.
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3GHz or AMD FX 6300 @ 3.5GHz.
• Memory: 8GB of RAM.
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 (3 GB) or AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB)
• DirectX: Version 12.
• Storage: 100 GB available space.

From this just your video card is slacking so a new card like a 1660 super and a decent 450/550 watt PSU would do.

1660 super or 980ti ? They are roughly the same price preowned and i think the best option is gpu upgrade as you say

 

[Dippyllama]

Another question now lads, I completely forgot red team have a gpu line, have nvidia got the best bang for buck on 200 odd quid cards or has amd got an answer ?

 

[maxamillionfeettall]

Another question now lads, I completely forgot red team have a gpu line, have nvidia got the best bang for buck on 200 odd quid cards or has amd got an answer ?

AMD has nothing right at 200, the 5600xt is good at the ~260 mark. At 200 it's only about the gtx 1660 Super.

 

[logainofhades]

Hello I always come to this site for help the community is great for helping novice builders like myself.

I brought my own question with me to ask today and it's essentially that my PC is a bit dated now and doesn't meet the minimum requirements for my newer games, specifically Horizon zero dawn at 1080p. I have a GTX 960 2GB, i5-4460, 8GB Crucial DDR3 1600 MHz (x2), Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3, a 1TB HDD and a 350W PSU. What upgrades would you guys recommend? even if to just make Horizon zero dawn playable (50+ fps at low - medium settings) budget is £100 - £300. I could stretch it a bit but I don't think past £500 is in the cards. Thank you in advance.

With that PSU, you are going to be limited to something like a GTX 1650, non super. If you upgrade the PSU, you can go higher. That CPU can be swapped for a 4th gen i7, or Xeon E3 1230v3, or better. Those Xeons are i7 equivalents, usually without integrated graphics. Avoid the 122x as they are just another i5 equivalent.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-B85-HD3-rev-1x/support#support-cpu

For example
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Xe...sh=item2f389660f7:g:bY0AAOSwqNxdvK8r&LH_BIN=1 £79

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1241 V3 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£79.00)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 570 8 GB ARMOR OC Video Card (£135.27 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£76.98 @ Aria PC)
Total: £291.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-11 15:21 BST+0100

You could also look on the used market for a faster GPU.

 

[Dippyllama]

With that PSU, you are going to be limited to something like a GTX 1650, non super. If you upgrade the PSU, you can go higher. That CPU can be swapped for a 4th gen i7, or Xeon E3 1230v3, or better. Those Xeons are i7 equivalents, usually without integrated graphics. Avoid the 122x as they are just another i5 equivalent.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-B85-HD3-rev-1x/support#support-cpu

For example
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Xeon-E3-1241-V3-SR1R4-3-50Ghz-Malay-Desktop-CPU/202812842231?hash=item2f389660f7:g:bY0AAOSwqNxdvK8r&LH_BIN=1 £79

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1241 V3 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£79.00)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 570 8 GB ARMOR OC Video Card (£135.27 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£76.98 @ Aria PC)
Total: £291.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-11 15:21 BST+0100

You could also look on the used market for a faster GPU.

I have a spare 550w PSU I can throw in to save the £75, I got a spare aftermarket cooler too, what would you suggest in this case? I'm definitely looking on places like eBay right now, I have a 2060 on my watch list at £180 which will hopefully only go to £200, would this be a solid buy or should I be splitting the budget between a GPU and CPU?

AMD has nothing right at 200, the 5600xt is good at the ~260 mark. At 200 it's only about the gtx 1660 Super.

I can probably pick up a used 5600xt for £200 on eBay too
Alot of people are suggesting the 1660 super for its price to performance but they're selling for around £200 themselves aswell, maybe £20 less but surely the jump between the 1660 super and the 2060 or 5600xt is well worth that extra £20?

 

[logainofhades]

Depends on the make and model of said PSU. Some 550w aren't safe to use, even with an IGP only rig.

 

[Dippyllama]

Depends on the make and model of said PSU. Some 550w aren't safe to use, even with an IGP only rig.

Its a bequiet 530W BQTL7-530 is this sufficient?

 

[maxamillionfeettall]

The odds of a rtx 2060 being sold in an auction for under £250 is pretty much zero. Good luck though!

The bequiet l7 is positively ancient, I wouldn't use it.

 

[Dippyllama]

The odds of a rtx 2060 being sold in an auction for under £250 is pretty much zero. Good luck though!

The bequiet l7 is positively ancient, I wouldn't use it.

So scratch the 2060 dream and go for a new psu/gpu combo or get a whole new like logainofhades said with the new gpu/cpu/psu