A good upgrade for $200?

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Mikhaeel Mahomed

Honorable
Jan 20, 2014
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Hello all

I am seeking to upgrade my (formerly gaming) PC, which is now unable to max my games, and run them well enough with ENB's and mods activated. For instance: in Skyrim (Medium-high settings @1600x900), my FPS drops from 49 to a measly 13. Thing is, I am on a tight budget of around $200, but do not need any 'extra' upgrades - just the bare bones.

My Specs At the moment:

Pentium Dual Core E5400 OCed at 3.6 GHZ
4GB RAM
Forsa GTS 250 512MB GDDR3
Huntkey 450W PSU

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
lonewolf7
For now a GPU upgrade will do it for you. GTX 650Ti Boost 2GB is a decent card for your purposes and will not get bottlenecked by CPU. When you have more cash you can upgrade the CPU/MB/RAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB Video Card ($134.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $194.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-20 10:27 EST-0500)
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GamerDrone

GamerDrone

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Jun 11, 2013
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Change your CPU to AMD Fx 6300 ($110) and Your Mobo to Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 ($50).. It has USB 3.0 ports as well and has heatsinked VRM's so u can overclock the fx 6300 waith Ease ( only after u buy a after market cooler) ! And get an additional unit of 4GB RAM similar to the one you have right now.. Then in the future when u have a bit more cash you can upgrade you GPU !
 
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Yoann Teodosieff

Yoann Teodosieff

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Dec 9, 2013
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I dont thing you could upgrade something, but you could OC your 6300 to 4GHz and the 650ti to 1000MHz and you will have a very good performance. Also you should have a storage and a optical drive and a case ofcourse so thats the best you could do if you want a good update.
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ TigerDirect)
Motherboard: ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($53.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB Video Card ($134.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($73.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $427.95
 
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lostgamer_03

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Aug 4, 2012
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You have to understand, that this upgrade won't just be $200 and then everything will be fine. You will have to upgrade both CPU and GPU to balance your build and achieveenjoyable FPS. As upgrading your CPU not will yield much of a performance increase and same with the GPU.

Upgrading your GPU first and then your CPU will provide the best solution atm. So surely start with a new GPU and then when you can upgrade again, then use the money on a new CPU and a new MOBO. CPU and MOBO are irrelevant right now.

So for $200 you'll be able to snatch a R9 260/260X or a GTX 650 ti boost or GTX 660. Going above these GPUs and your PSU will be bend to its knees, so make damn sure that your PSU can take it. Provide details of your PSU so people can help you choosing the right components.
 
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lonewolf7

lonewolf7

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May 6, 2013
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For now a GPU upgrade will do it for you. GTX 650Ti Boost 2GB is a decent card for your purposes and will not get bottlenecked by CPU. When you have more cash you can upgrade the CPU/MB/RAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB Video Card ($134.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $194.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-20 10:27 EST-0500)
 
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Solution
M

Masonrk

Honorable
Jan 19, 2014
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10,640
Go for a EVGA GTX660($197) or you could upgrade PS to a 600w and upgrade your ram. I would upgrade the PS because you need more wattage for a higher powered graphics card.

Hope this helps :)

Regards, Mason.
 
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GamerDrone

GamerDrone

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Jun 11, 2013
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According to me what you guys are overlooking is that he already has a GTS 250 which gives equal performance to a HD 7750 and almost equal as GTX 650 .. But his CPU is pretty old dual core CPU which has been OC'd upto its limits and has become unstable, explaining the frame drops.. He needs to change his CPU first and then he can later on get a better GPU..
 
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GamerDrone

GamerDrone

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Jun 11, 2013
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Plus I am pretty sure he has a DDR3 Ram .. Also to get a GTX 650Ti would be a waste of money as there will not be much change in performance.. Lastly he does not need to change his PSU because the power draw of a GTX 660 is equal to the power draw of a GTS 250..
 
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lonewolf7

lonewolf7

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May 6, 2013
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GTS 250 is a 145W card whereas GTX 650Ti requires only 110W or 120/130W on max load.

GTS 250 is way slower than GTX 650Ti.

GTS 250 is a DX 10 and OpenGL 3.1 card released in March 2009, whereas GTX 650Ti is a DX 11.1 and OpenGL 4.3 supported card released in OCT 2012.
So the OP will be able to play modern day games which cannot be played with a DX10 card.

Huntkey 450W PSU is not a trusted unit, the OP maybe lucky for some time now but eventually the PSU will fail. Only Huntkey Jumper is a TIER 2B quality PSU and that is not OP's PSU, any other model will be treated as a crap/cheap unit.

So power draw is not the most important thing here, but the reliability of the unit.

And for now the OP's budget doesn't support to upgrade the whole system, so a GPU and a PSU will be Op's best bet, at least I think so.

 
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