• Finally admitting that I need to upgrade my PC, looking for hardware recommendations
    22 replies, posted
Well, after finding out that GTA V won't even start on my system I've admitted that I need to upgrade. My current system is about 5 years old, and I have a GTX460, 8gb RAM (the RAM is newer, so I should be able to reuse it), and an Athlon II x4 processor. My PSU is 650W, so that SHOULD be able to handle most modern hardware iirc. I don't plan on overclocking, but I may get adventurous a few years down the line. Budget: -I'd like to spend around $300 for the mobo and processor, if possible, but I could go higher if I need to. I would like to keep the GPU cost around $200 or less. Questions: -What brands/models of motherboard should I look at if I want to get an Intel i5? I'd like the option for SLI/Crossfire but it's not an absolute necessity. As for my RAM, I can just buy new RAM sticks if what I find isn't compatible with them. -Is the i5 still the ideal model to get? I heard about a year ago that i7's don't really make much of a difference in a gaming scenario. -I'm also looking for a recommendation of GPUs; I'm not really savvy on what the newer cards are all capable of and which ones would suit my needs. tl;dr I need to upgrade my system, and I'd like to play most modern games at 1080p on high settings at 60fps and keep to a total budget of $500 if possible. I'm not completely rebuilding my PC, and the rest of my system is still good to be reused.
The PSU is a Corsair TX650W, and the RAM is DDR3. How does the R9 280 compare with the GTX 960? The only reason I'm asking is because some of the 960's on newegg come with The Witcher 3 for free :v:
i dont agree with getting amd, they're way louder and run more hot. gtx 960 is fine, can run most games maxed out 1080p60 but more demanding ones only high.
Okay, I think I have something. As of right now I have: ASRock H97 mobo Intel i5 4440 GTX 960 2GB (I may wind up getting the 4gb version, if I find I can stretch my budget by a couple extra bucks) The total cost is around ~$470 if I get everything from Newegg, not counting shipping costs etc. Thanks for the input!
i have the gtx 960 g1 gaming and i would probably recommend getting the 4gb version if you can stretch it as i said the 960 can play most games maxed out but it can't run everything at a constant 60fps, it's just for the peace of mind really. [editline]17th May 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;47742096]based on what[/QUOTE] based on reviews of the r9 280 and my personal experience (i have a gtx 960)
The 960 is pretty much the least bang for the buck you can get right now, either step up and go with a 970, or go with AMD. (Or try to find a cheap refurbished GTX 680 or 770)
Okay, thanks for the advice. I think I could probably stretch my budget enough for an R9 280x.
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OKay, finished list: ASRock H97 mobo Intel i5-4440 Haswell @ 3.1 Ghz MSI R9 280 3Gb total cost ~ $457 Just to double check, all this would work on a 650 Watt PSU, right? or would I have to step it up there?
[QUOTE=Schmaaa;47742015]The PSU is a Corsair TX650W[/QUOTE]
Okay. I was looking at an R9 280x that would've been in my price range, but in the specs it said that it "requires 750 Watt power supply"
[QUOTE=Schmaaa;47742806]Okay. I was looking at an R9 280x that would've been in my price range, but in the specs it said that it "requires 750 Watt power supply"[/QUOTE] You should be well within acceptable range with a 650 watt power supply. The manufacture specs have a big margin because a few cheap PSUs, supply ~20% less then specified on the box in certain configurations. Besides that your GPU is not the only device in your machine that consumes electricity, if you'd had a FX-9xxx CPU, which doubles the TDP of a i5-4440, it would still work with a shitty 750W PSU. If you don't believe me just google "R9 280x PSU" and you'll find countless of topics about, where people are confused a about the 750W requirement, but it ends up running on their 500W PSU anyway.
[QUOTE=Cold;47743045]You should be well within acceptable range with a 650 watt power supply. The manufacture specs have a big margin because a few cheap PSUs, supply ~20% less then specified on the box in certain configurations. Besides that your GPU is not the only device in your machine that consumes electricity, if you'd had a FX-9xxx CPU, which doubles the TDP of a i5-4440, it would still work with a shitty 750W PSU. If you don't believe me just google "R9 280x PSU" and you'll find countless of topics about, where people are confused a about the 750W requirement, but it ends up running on their 500W PSU anyway.[/QUOTE] awesome, if that's the case I'm going with the 280x. It was like, maybe $30 more expensive
I wouldn't worry about power issues with a 280x, its not a power hungry card like the next one up in the series and it'll happily run on a 550w bronze rated psu. Your TX650 will be fine as long as you don't try to run two together with 5 hhds. :v:
Strange how it doesn't at least run for you could be the cpu probably? Anyways this game is really picky, I had to do 2 things to make it finally work properly, set my virtual memory to my ssd (this one is really major I had the memory set to my hdd and the game would stutter which made it unplayable) and also set the gta5.exe priority to high. I run the game maxed with every setting except AA,high quality shadows,extended distance/shadow rendering. And it somehow runs 10x better than gta 4 maxed out at 30-60 fps average I shit you not. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/EZ5q780.png[/IMG] I made a great choice on the components on this pc 4 sure.
[QUOTE=spectator1;47751825]I had to do 2 things to make it finally work properly, set my virtual memory to my ssd (this one is really major I had the memory set to my hdd and the game would stutter which made it unplayable)[/QUOTE] are you maxing out your memory when playing? sounds like you either need to optimize/close what you have open when gaming or download more ram.
[QUOTE=ief014;47751978]are you maxing out your memory when playing? sounds like you either need to optimize/close what you have open when gaming or download more ram.[/QUOTE] Yeah I probably need more ram, i checked task manager while in gta online and it had like 7 gb ram usage. But the game runs completely fine like this anyway. I only have realtek,nvidia and steam in the background processes nothing else.
[QUOTE=ief014;47751978]are you maxing out your memory when playing? sounds like you either need to optimize/close what you have open when gaming or download more ram.[/QUOTE] Could do with plumbing on more vertex pipes while at it
[QUOTE='[EG] Pepper;47752112']Could do with plumbing on more vertex pipes while at it[/QUOTE] Nah, if you just add some ROP's the the dual ranked DIMM's you should get an extra giggleflop of performance.
[QUOTE=Levelog;47752161]Nah, if you just add some ROP's the the dual ranked DIMM's you should get an extra giggleflop of performance.[/QUOTE] High memory traffic can easily cause congestion, though. He could also add some lights to his rig for traffic control.
The reason I can't run gtav is because my 460 only has 768mb of vram. I don't have enough even for low settings.
[QUOTE=Levelog;47752161]Nah, if you just add some ROP's the the dual ranked DIMM's you should get an extra giggleflop of performance.[/QUOTE] You underestimate the microstructural vertex shader ASIC cores, those could net you an extra megawob over those dimms.
[QUOTE='[EG] Pepper;47758455']You underestimate the microstructural vertex shader ASIC cores, those could net you an extra megawob over those dimms.[/QUOTE] I was really confused because I got this thread mixed up with our HBM talk.
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