AMD A8-5500 and GTX650. What should I upgrade first?

Horribad

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Looking at upgrading one or the other. Which should I upgrade to avoid bottle necking or any other foreseeable problems?
 
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Mmo's are primarily CPU intensive games, so a stronger CPU is always a bonus. Since you are running a pretty much balanced CPU/gpu, you could go either first, depending on what your preference in direction is. While decent speeds, the A8 is not a particularly strong CPU, as half the die is dedicated to the integrated gpu, sacrificing the 'L' caches. For an FM2, the best CPUs are the x4 750k or 760k, both are strong performers. These will help considerably in MMO's.

As for other game types like watchdogs and bf3/4,these are primarily gpu intensive, so an upgrade there to a gtx 760/770 or r9 280x/290 would be a huge improvement in fps over the gtx 650 you currently have.

As far as AMD vrs nvidia goes, that's all a matter of preference...

TechHelpNO

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Then i would go upgrading the video card because you have a quad 3,7(Turbo mode) Ghz cpu and the newest games like watch dogs (for example), its good but you are going to lag with that video card,
So i suggest go upgrade video card first then cpu :)
 

TechHelpNO

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No problem by the way :D (for the reply function)

 

Horribad

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Thanks for the response and yes you're right about fps lag in watch dogs, I can only really get around 30fps (which isn't really acceptable). I'm also interested in mmo games - could I still see an increase in performance if I upgrade my gpu with mmos? If so, would an nvidia card be ok? I don't know much about compatibility between amd and nvidia hardware
 

TechHelpNO

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Well almost all games are dependent on gpu the mmo's are more dependent on the cpu :/
But you will get an increase if i am not mistaking.
Before compilating any video cards, what kind of budget are laying on, so that we could find a good card for the money and performance :)
 

Horribad

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My budget is around £200. Do you think I could find something worthwhile for that price?
 

Karadjgne

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Mmo's are primarily CPU intensive games, so a stronger CPU is always a bonus. Since you are running a pretty much balanced CPU/gpu, you could go either first, depending on what your preference in direction is. While decent speeds, the A8 is not a particularly strong CPU, as half the die is dedicated to the integrated gpu, sacrificing the 'L' caches. For an FM2, the best CPUs are the x4 750k or 760k, both are strong performers. These will help considerably in MMO's.

As for other game types like watchdogs and bf3/4,these are primarily gpu intensive, so an upgrade there to a gtx 760/770 or r9 280x/290 would be a huge improvement in fps over the gtx 650 you currently have.

As far as AMD vrs nvidia goes, that's all a matter of preference not performance,, as pretty much both trade blows, a 760 will trade blows with a 280x depending on the settings, the game etc. Es h has its strong points and weaknesses, nvidia having shadowplay, physX, etc AMD has eyefinity and generally better performance at high resolutions like 3x monitors. So, preference.

Only one thing to remember with a new gpu. Get rid of all traces if old drivers/software before installing new ones, or you will end up with driver errors from incompatible versions. This is especially important if switching from AMD to nvidia or vice versa. Either way, the CPU type/brand is unimportant to the gpu, it only cares whatslot it sits in.

Also, upgrade CPU, and there are no other upgrade requirements. Upgrade gpu and chances are good you will also have to upgrade the psu to matchthe power requirements and connections of the gpu.
 
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TechHelpNO

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For that budget i think that i have found one : http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-2GB-Graphics-Cards-R7260X-DC2OC-2GD5/dp/B00FW4LF4Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1402783151&sr=1-3&keywords=ati+r7+260x

The Asus Radeon R7 gpu from amd. I think that it would be a massive upgrade even though its not a r9 or a nvidia titan. I reccomend that you stick with the amd for gpu because they are cheaper (sometimes double as cheap) and they dont have a big performance difference than the nvidia :)

 

Karadjgne

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for less than 200 you can get a gtx 760 or r9-280, 500-550w psu, just over 200 is the r9-280x, 550w psu, and around 230 is the gtx 770, 600w psu, all these on good psu's, quality psu's can be slightly less, not so quality will be slightly more, as far as power requirements go.

www.pcpartpicker.com, set for united kingdom, will have a good selection of brands and prices, aswell as rebates, sales etc for different vendors