Question Upgrade to GPU or whole system?

[Taniki]

Hi

I am currently asking on behalf of my dad who has a set up which is a few years old and having intermittent issues with games crashing usually with graphical issues. We have never really resolved this issue. There appears to be no thermal concerns.

I figure its time to upgrade as he also want to treat himself. Should I look at just a graphics card or entire system?

All components are of same age.

Current build:
asus p8z68-v lx
Amd r9 270
8gb ram corsair
i5 cpu

If we can just upgrade gpu please recommend and we would like to stay with AMD as his new monitor supports freesync.

If not, please offer some recommendation for a set up.

He currently plays the latest FPS games as they come out like call of duty, medal of honour, etc.

Budget for a graphics card £200
Budget for a whole system would be £900

Thanks for any help

 

[ElectrO_90]

All depends on his budget - ideally the Rx580 with 8GB is normally the best value for the price in AMD right now.
Also if you can/do get this, recommend Sapphire as the brand.
Quick build - can change how you like
Slightly less powerful CPU and Change the GPU to something like the Rx580 will save you a few pounds more.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£172.50 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: *ASRock - B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (£76.80 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: *Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£85.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£106.98 @ Aria PC)
Storage: *Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K3000 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.39 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI - Radeon RX VEGA 56 8 GB Air Boost 8G OC Video Card (£269.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Phanteks - Eclipse P300 Tempered Glass (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£50.37 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: *Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£67.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £871.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-19 17:39 GMT+0000

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

Sounds like it is just the video card that is the problem. My R9 270X did the same thing. It just died due to age as far as I can tell. Honestly a full PC upgrade would be a reasonable idea. That said, if you just want to save some money and have a GPU that will be solid in a rebuild in another year or so the RX 570 is a decent GPU to look at. The RX 580 would be even better, but the 570 isn't far behind it in performance and the prices on them are pretty good right now in most markets. So... if you want to put off an upgrade I'd suggest spending a little less and getting the RX 570.

If you decide on getting a new PC then ElectrO-90's build is fine machine... mostly... but I'd go with a slightly different setup:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£145.55 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (£89.98 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£106.38 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£64.44 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£59.97 @ Laptops Direct)
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX VEGA 56 8 GB PULSE Video Card (£293.03 @ More Computers)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case (£43.50 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£79.69 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £882.54
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-19 18:26 GMT+0000

 

[Taniki]

Wow that is great. I used to use Sapphire exclusively so no problem going back to them. Thank you for the replies. I'll have a word and think that a whole system is the way to go.