Worth upgrading GPU or other components

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JefersonEuclides

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Jan 14, 2014
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Hello!

I have some spare money right now and I'm considering the idea of upgrading my GPU.
What I have right now: ASUS P8H61-M, 8giga ram, I5 2500k, AMD r7 260x, 450w psu, playing on a 1600x750 monitor;
I was looking at the R9 380X, I know a PSU change might be needed, but is it going to be worth even with my 2.0 pci motherboard?
If not, what is the recommended? There are some new technologies coming, it is always wise to wait, but sometimes these changes don't alter that much some prices.

PS: games targeted: Witcher 3, Batman AK, and similar.
 
Solution
TheTerminator8
Alright. So my advice is to first of all sell any parts you will be upgrading such as the PSU and GPU. You will need a better PSU for a R9 380X, about 500-600 watts recommended, and also gives some headroom for other upgrades down the road. Speaking of new technology, AMD Ryzen is releasing the rest of their processor lineup very soon. This will be great for you if you are tight on money because they will have some great price-to-performance processors operating on 14nm technology, supporting DDR4, and many other new things. I think a good idea would be to build a new PC, and possibly sell your current PC to get some cash flow and rebuild a new build with Ryzen, and Pascal. Here's a short list of what I think would be a great build...
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Alright. So my advice is to first of all sell any parts you will be upgrading such as the PSU and GPU. You will need a better PSU for a R9 380X, about 500-600 watts recommended, and also gives some headroom for other upgrades down the road. Speaking of new technology, AMD Ryzen is releasing the rest of their processor lineup very soon. This will be great for you if you are tight on money because they will have some great price-to-performance processors operating on 14nm technology, supporting DDR4, and many other new things. I think a good idea would be to build a new PC, and possibly sell your current PC to get some cash flow and rebuild a new build with Ryzen, and Pascal. Here's a short list of what I think would be a great build including all the new bells and whistles: (Just for having options open)

CPU: AMD Ryzen R5 1300 4-cores 8-threads/8MB L3 cache/65W TDP/3.2GHz clock, unlocked/ - $180 (Soon to be released, just look on newegg from time to time for availability.)
MOBO: MSI B350M Gaming PRO Micro-ATX (Supports OC) - $85
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144019&cm_re=B350M-_-13-144-019-_-Product
RAM: HyperX Fury 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4 2400 - $60
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104713
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING - $192
(For The Witcher 3, this will destroy it b/c the recommended requirements are a GTX 770 or R9 290)
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814487263
CASE: COUGAR Spike Black (I have a friend with this case, super solid, stylish, and aggressive.) - $33
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811553011&cm_re=Micro_ATX_case-_-11-553-011-_-Product
STORAGE - SSD: Toshiba OCZ TR150 2.5" 120GB (For OS) - $83
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820228141
STORAGE - HDD: WD Blue 1TB ( For games/media) - $52
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339&cm_re=HDD_1TB-_-22-236-339-_-Product
PSU:Corsair CX600 - $57
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028&cm_re=600W_PSU-_-17-139-028-_-Product

I really hope this helps, the entire build comes in at around $750, but I added roughly $3-$5 headroom for tax and stuff. So you could be saving up to $30 dollars due to my overkill future proofing. You can also build a PC that is WAY cheaper than this if you want to save money. Though my recommendation is that if you are tight on money, (which is totally fine, you just have to be smart with your purchases.) just save until you have enough to purchase the parts. Limit yourself to minimum and practical things, then you can have the PC you want! I included all the links to Newegg because they are a really good company. You can always find other parts on places like eBay for cheaper.

Again, I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
God bless,
~David
 
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Solution
YOur R7 260x came out in 2013. If I were you I'd go for he RX 470. Here is a link to one at Newegg at $149.99 after rebate. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150781 You go from just under 900 stream processors to 2048 stream processors. It is a Direct x12 card. and you go from 2 gigs of ram on the card to 4 gigs of ram. The power requirements are similiar as well which means you would not have to upgrade your power supply. It is backwards compatible with your PCI express 2.0 slot. You have to spend more another $50 dollars to get a better card and it would only be marginally better.
 
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Thank you VERY much for your answer. As I mentioned I knew about Rysen, and was considering a full new build. The problem is that taxes where I am are very high, saving money for a new build might cost me years lol
Adding to this discussion, what do you think about zoridon's idea on a Rx 470?
 
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Thanks for your response!
That looks like a great idea! Is it normal that the price on it is so low? Even if it is 2.0 compatible, will it cause any bottleneck?
 
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Just a quick response to this, your CPU is actually pretty solid even though it's 5 generations behind. If you overclock it it'd be even better. As for the card, you will probably need a PSU upgrade. The one I sent you would probably be the best bet. You can have headroom, again, for more upgrades, and room for overclocking. If you don't know how, there's roughly 10 billion videos of how to do it on YouTube. It's super easy, no reason to fret!

Hope this helps,
~David
 
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Hmm...so his recommendation for the RX 470 is nice because of price to performance. AMD's forte. I will say that the GTX 1060 that I sent you for only a not too bad $40 more has it's pros and cons. I recommended this card mainly because I took note of the games that you "targeted" to play. The 1060 has a bit more horsepower than the 470, though it is just $40 cheaper. If you want the real technical specifications, I have them listed below. VRAM doesn't really have a huge effect anyways, in this situation the 470 having 4GB and the 1060 at 3GB. The 1060 also has a much higher base and boost clock over the 470, equaling more performance as well. (Specs for that below)

In all honesty, if you want the best expirence for games at a cheap price, for the games you have the 1060 is the best choice. Most people on the internet say it does anyways. (Proof of that here and many other places if you look it up: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3170178/gtx-1060-3gb-470-buy.html) Oh, I haven't even mentioned the GTX 1050/1050 Ti. This card is on par with the RX 460/470 and is cheaper as well.

GTX 1060
CUDA Cores: 1152
Base Clock: 1506 MHz
Boost Clock: 1708
Memory Clock: 8008Mhz
Nanometer technology: 16nm
VRAM: 3GB GDDR5
Memory Interface: 192-bit
DirectX Support: Version 12
PCI-E Support: Version 3.0
Ports: (1) HDMI 2.0b, (3) DisplayPort 1.4, (1) Dual Link DVI

RX 470
Shaders: 2048
Base Clock: 1226 MHz
Boost Clock: NaN (Though it is very overclockable.)
Memory Clock: 6600 MHz
Nanometer Technology: 14nm
VRAM: 4GB GDDR5
Memory Interface: 256-bit
DirectX Support: Version 12
PCI-E Support: Version 3.0
Ports: (1) HDMI 2.0b, (3) DisplayPort 1.4, (1) Dual Link DVI



Memory Interface = More is better.
VRAM = More is not necessarily better unless at higher resolutions.
Nanometer Technology = Less is better.




So those are the specs. NOTE:The CUDA cores versus the Shaders does not mean the 470 is more powerful because it has more than the 1060, that's just AMD's way of listing it, and CUDA cores is their trademark name for theirs. Last thing, I'm sure you are already are familiar with the software for the AMD card you already have. The Nvidia GeForce Experience application for the Nvidia card is absolutely AMAZING. I have it and you can record up to 4K 60-fps videos instantly and easily. The software is VERY user friendly, and looks super sexy as well. Take a look on YouTube as well for some insight on that.

As always, I hope this helps,
~David

 
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Ryzen = Haswell. So that R5 1300 pretty much will equal the power of a 3.2GHz i7k. How it'll OC on that board is unknown, but looking at other options, I'd guess it's basically the new version of the 760g chipset, so won't OC that well.

The CX 600 is an older design, and not that reliable, best look to the CXM for a better value.

Honestly, the i5 2500k is still a good cpu, not that far behind the newer Intel, by far the cheapest option would be the Rx470 and the gpu should have no issues with backwards compatibility for that age board. Sorry, no OC for you other than some BCLK on a H61 mobo, that's a locked board, you'd need a Z68 chipset for OC.

For bottleneck, the only thing you'd have to worry about would be the ultra intense cpu bound AAA titles, like gta:V with lots of mods or ashes of the singularity etc, but those games are basically optimized for i7 usage and under very high-ultra settings will bog down even an i7. The 2500k and Rx470 is a pretty good balance, so what affects the cpu will also affect the gpu in like %, so mostly bottleneck won't happen as both cpu and gpu get used roughly the same amount.
 
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The CX600 that I listed has over 800+ reviews with a 4-egg/star rating within that massive 800+ review pool, therefore making this PSU very reliable, otherwise it wouldn't have gotten those good reviews.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028&cm_re=CX600-_-17-139-028-_-Product

And the CX600M that would have the optimal wattage equality to the one I recommended is freaking $80+/- more, and JefersonEuclides already has stated that his taxes are higher where he lives, therefore we must look for something cheaper, and the CXM series unfortunately wouldn't help. It's listed here:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA85V3RA7634&cm_re=CX600M-_-9SIA85V3RA7634-_-Product

I understand the 1060 recommendation by me was $40 dollars cheaper, but it's really the way better card between a 470. If anything could compete with it, it'd have to be the 480 if ANYTHING.

As for the processor, only specific boards will allow overclocking. That being the X370, X300, and B350 boards, which just happens to be the one that I included in the list, and as you can see, it's quite affordable. They will be overclockable, obviously, and will feature eXtended Frequency Range (XFR) which is basically a auto-overclocker technology that makes sure that you get a stable, yet powerful overclock on this new board so that people don't blow their hardware. Though as usual, someone will figure out how to do it then it'll most likely go manual from there.
 
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I'd also recommend these suggestions. This will give you a great well rounded system with future upgrade potential.
 
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Honestly, you need to take amazon/newegg reviews with a grain of salt at best. Many post right after they get the unit and say it works great had fast shipping etc. What they rarely do is hunt down their post 6 months later and change the 5egg rating to 1 egg cuz the unit died. The CX 600 is a mediocre unit at best and the CX line as a whole has an average lifespan of 18months. They are not quality units and if you go to Corsair's website, even they say it's not designed for gaming use, but light duty applications.

The rx460 is quite far behind the performance of the 1050, which is just behind the 1050ti, but easily beaten by the Rx470. They are not on par or anything close. Only the 1060/480 bump heads depending on games but where the 1060 wins its by a larger margin than when the 480 wins by, and thats mainly due to the games optimization.

A 1060 will not destroy Witcher 3, the recommended gpus are not for ultra settings but for medium settings in order to get decent fps. You'll also need a cpu with decent power since Witcher 3 is a heavier cpu usage game. You can expect 55-60fps at ultra settings with hairworks off at best average. Compared to the 300fps I get on cs:go at ultra on a gtx970, I'd say 55-60fps isn't exactly destruction.

I don't meant to burst ya'lls bubble the 1060/480 is a great budget gpu for 1080p, but it's still a budget gpu and easily overshadowed by its bigger brothers. Both cards can still run into fps issues, but they are highly dependent on the game and settings.

Forget about newegg for reviews, most are ignorant or non-specific to the gpu. Instead look up the reviews by the experts like anandtech or realhardtechx, hardware secrets, techpowerup etc and yes, that includes Tom's Hardware.
 
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Hmmm, got it. Now I see a big price fluctuation on the 1060, I noticed a lot of vram changes, but most times it was only a brand change with the same amount of vram (3gb). Should I be ok with most brands or just stick to the known ones (Asus, evga, etc)?
 
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Yes I was watching some reviews and gameplays, but they're still a better option than my actual components, I'll wait for Ryzen to come here and compare some prices.
For now I might stick to the 1060, even though it won't be 'destroying' most games, as I said, it will be better than now.
 
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Guys, thanks for all your responses, I'm still asking some things but I chose TheTerminator8 answer as the solution because he offered some deep insights and options.
I decided to wait for Ryzen 5 to come here and compare some prices, if it is not worth it I'll choose a 1060 and a psu upgrade, later I'll change my mobo and processor, unfortunately on countries with high taxes you either wait a decade saving money or upgrade component by component.
Thank you again for sharing all your thoughts and sorry, if for any reason, this disturbed you! :)
 
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Not at all, Jeferson! Thanks for the best answer, and good luck to you on your PC building! Just save for a while, and it'll pay off. Trust me.

God bless as always,
~David
 
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I'll be sure to do that, and what I mean't by my simple phrase 'destroy' which I saw repeated a couple times now was that it'd be a far better upgrade than the R9 380X, and still be affordable, just to specify for any misunderstandings.

~David
 
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Yeah, even the 3Gb 1060 does a number on a 380x beating it handily. You'd need a r9 390 to have a somewhat equivalent comparison. And you'll not see much h price drop on the older gen cards since they were originally bought expensive, so need to be sold for at least cost. That and supply/demand lottery. So new gen cards are a much better value in terms of price-performance..

So no worries, it's all good. OP has a plan now, so that's all that's needed.
 
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