What part to upgrade

[Rebel_Justin]

ok this Christmas i plan on upgrading my gaming computer but im stuck on what to upgrade i have about a $200 limit heres my specs

-amd fx-6100
-8gb ram
-radeon 6770
-550w psu
-1.5tb of hardrive
-some msi motherboard >$100
also i plan on recording game play with fraps

thanks

 

[johnsonjohnson]

For that budget upgrade the GPU. What's your monitor resolution?

 

[Rebel_Justin]

1920 x 1080. also my friends have been telling me to switch over to intel and get an i-5, is intel really that much better

 

[twelve25]

Sell fx6100 on ebay for about $100
Sell 6770 on ebay for about $60

Add $160 to $200 you have which gives you $360

Buy fx6300 for $140
Buy Radeon 7870 for $220.

Enjoy!

 

[twelve25]

1920 x 1080. also my friends have been telling me to switch over to intel and get an i-5, is intel really that much better

i5's are the best, but once you add in the cost of a motherboard, even selling some older components wouldn't leave enough to get a good GPU upgrade. 6770 is the weakest point in your system.

 

[Rebel_Justin]

Sell fx6100 on ebay for about $100
Sell 6770 on ebay for about $60

Add $160 to $200 you have which gives you $360

Buy fx6300 for $140
Buy Radeon 7870 for $220.

Enjoy!

would a 550 or 560 perform decent the 7870 is a little to steep

 

[eshepard]

Buy an SSD! it will improve your everyday experience so much, its crazy. I know this is a gaming computer, but it has such a dramatic impact on everything in your day to day life it's mind blowing.

Your GPU and CPU are fairly well matched at the moment, your hard drive will give you the most noticeable difference in performance.

 

[bgrt]

would a 550 or 560 perform decent the 7870 is a little to steep

550 is barely better than the 6770, so not worth the upgrade. 560 is but not really enough for modern games at 1080p. Try a 7850. You can easily get those for under 200.

If you're able to cash out the 6770, an SSD boot drive is your next best choice.

 

[twelve25]

I like SSD, but they are kind of a gimmick. I put that last on the list of performance upgrades. It's more of a "feel" thing than real performance. Your games load 10 seconds faster, but out of a gaming session that lasts an hour, big deal. Program installs take longer, but how often does that happen. If you are on a limited budget, GPU first, then CPU, then think about SSD.

 

[twelve25]

would a 550 or 560 perform decent the 7870 is a little to steep

560 Ti would be OK, but 7850 would be better. 7850 overclock well and you can usually OC a 7850 to perform like a stock 7870.

I went from a 5770 (same chip as 6770) to a 7850 OC and it was a great upgrade. I kinda wish I did 7870 though, so if you can, do it.

 

[Rebel_Justin]

alright ill consider it also i have never overclocked should i. i get around 50 fps in bf3 on low or 45fps on medium and that was fine for me should i overlcock and what does overclocking do.

 

[bgrt]

I like SSD, but they are kind of a gimmick. I put that last on the list of performance upgrades. It's more of a "feel" thing than real performance. Your games load 10 seconds faster, but out of a gaming session that lasts an hour, big deal. Program installs take longer, but how often does that happen. If you are on a limited budget, GPU first, then CPU, then think about SSD.

Not a gimmick at all. Application load times, not just installs improve. Your apps also make frequent random reads/writes to your disk while they run. I wouldn't build another computer without an SSD. My company also puts SSDs in all employees' laptops and I can say for sure it increased my productivity since the applications I run at work make frequent disk accesses.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

I say get the 7850. As for CPU, forget the i5 you've got a board save up and grab an 8350 later.

 

[twelve25]

Not a gimmick at all. Application load times, not just installs improve. Your apps also make frequent random reads/writes to your disk while they run. I wouldn't build another computer without an SSD. My company also puts SSDs in all employees' laptops and I can say for sure it increased my productivity since the applications I run at work make frequent disk accesses.

I've got two SSDs in this system I am using. They are nice, but when you are building a gaming rig, they do not take priority over CPU and GPU.

Application load times save seconds. Installs save a few minutes, Boot time saves about a minute. All cool, but not going to help you get more fps or higher texture quality.

 

[twelve25]

alright ill consider it also i have never overclocked should i. i get around 50 fps in bf3 on low or 45fps on medium and that was fine for me should i overlcock and what does overclocking do.

If that is fine, why are you looking to upgrade? 7850 is going to give you the same on ultra, higher if you disable MSAA.


Overclocking just increases the speed of the memory and processor on the video card which makes it perform faster at the expense of a little extra heat. There's a balance there where you can get a certain amount of "free" speed without running the card too hot.

 

[Rebel_Justin]

Best answer selected by Rebel_Justin.

 

[Rebel_Justin]

thanks ill probably upgrade that so that way when using fraps i can get a decent fps while on high or ultra