Upgrading on a Budget

[Tommy Prak]

I am currently looking to replace my current GPU GTX960, for something else I would say under 300$ I am purely looking for performance and nothing super fancy I do not have funds to peacock. I was thinking one of the recent cards such as the 1070,1060,RX480
If someone could chime in (Please no bias remarks) with honest opinions on which of those or other card they believe would fit my needs, I repeat I am looking for a strong performing card, I do not game heavy or do much I mostly play Fallout 4 and mod crazy, or play any huge open world games. I do not overclock or anything fancy simplicity is key,

Other Information
Amd FX 8150
16gb Gskill
Sabertooth 990fx
Corsair TX 850
H80i Watercooler
Currently GTX 960 2gb

Sidenote- I do not intend to 4k game, heck I am playing at 1680x1050 so please any insight would help. Thanks 😀

 

[13thmonkey]

at that resolution a 1070 is a waste as it'll do 1440p very well.

Why replace the 960? what are you trying to achieve.

 

[Trafalgar747]

The GTX 1070 is about a $400 card, so that out of your budget. The GTX 1060 is more powerful than a RX 480, and about the same price. I would only recommend the RX 480 over the GTX 1060 if have a FreeSync display, or if you are going to buy a new display soon, as FreeSync displays are alot cheaper than G-Sync. The thing is though, your current processor will easily bottleneck either of these cards.

 

[Tommy Prak]

at that resolution a 1070 is a waste as it'll do 1440p very well.

Why replace the 960? what are you trying to achieve.

Fallout 4 isnt playing for me the way I want it to, I think its rather struggling to keep up will all my mods running.

 

[Tommy Prak]

The GTX 1070 is about a $400 card, so that out of your budget. The GTX 1060 is more powerful than a RX 480, and about the same price. I would only recommend the RX 480 over the GTX 1060 if have a FreeSync display, or if you are going to buy a new display soon, as FreeSync displays are alot cheaper than G-Sync. The thing is though, your current processor will easily bottleneck either of these cards.

What If I later intended to switch to a 4770k later on down the road.?

 

[13thmonkey]

at that resolution a 1070 is a waste as it'll do 1440p very well.

Why replace the 960? what are you trying to achieve.

Fallout 4 isnt playing for me the way I want it to, I think its rather struggling to keep up will all my mods running.

I think you need to figure out what is your constraint, else you'll update something and have no impact.

 

[Tommy Prak]

at that resolution a 1070 is a waste as it'll do 1440p very well.

Why replace the 960? what are you trying to achieve.

Fallout 4 isnt playing for me the way I want it to, I think its rather struggling to keep up will all my mods running.

I think you need to figure out what is your constraint, else you'll update something and have no impact.

Only thing I can think of is my CPU which I intend to change later on down the road I just wanted to pick up a new card first. I plan to build 2 computers during the whole process

 

[Trafalgar747]

You may find upgrading your processor now instead of the graphics card a better option for Fallout 4 mods. However it would be a better idea to wait for the begining of next year for Intels 7th gen cpus.

For now i recommend you get this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB OCV1 Video Card ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $169.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-09 12:50 EST-0500