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Upgrade Advice - Just GFX or both GFX/CPU with $400 AUD Budget?

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  • AMD
  • Geforce
  • CPUs
  • GPUs
Last response: in CPUs
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June 21, 2014 6:47:55 AM

Hi guys,

I'm currently running with the following:

CPU: AMD Phenom ii x4 965 BE @ stock
GFX: GeForce 560
PSU: Antec 750W
I'm looking to spend $400 AUD, but I'm unsure whether to upgrade just the GFX and over clock the CPU (I have a Noctua DH-14), or whether I should upgrade both the GFX and CPU.

If just GPU:

Gainward GeForce GTX 770 GS 2G ($355)

GPU + CPU

CPU: AMD FX-8120 ($119)
GFX: Gigabyte R9 280X 3GB ($269)

Which would give me a better improvement in performance with a single 1920x1080 monitor for BF4 Multiplayer?

Cheers

More about : upgrade advice gfx gfx cpu 400 aud budget

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a b à CPUs
June 21, 2014 7:04:44 AM

I would go with just the GPU.
CPUs really aren't as well-utilised in games as everyone thinks, and the 965 is still a pretty good CPU imo.
Even more so because the CPU upgrade you listed is Bulldozer (Booo, hisss! :F).
One word of note is that it's quite power hungry, especially if and when overclocked, your cooler can handle this but your motherboards VRMs might not be able to.

With the GPUs though, either the 770 or the 280x will serve you well, Nvidia do like to mark things up a bit, in this instance I would possibly suggest you go for this instead:

CPU: FX-8320 (Newer Piledriver architecture, around the same price).
GPU: R9 280x.

The CPU is dependant on how you plan to do the upgrade, if you're buying a new board for it I would recommend going with a more recent Intel chip, if you're reusing a socket AM3+ board from your 965, then this upgrade will be simple.

Make sure to check your motherboards page on the manufacturers website to make sure if your current BIOS version can support the newer FX line and/or if they've released an update to do so.
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