Need advice on upgrading my "gaming" pc. Please help!

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ryzmohd

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Hello everyone.

These are my current specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz
Gigabyte P35-DS3L Motherboard
2GB DDR2 RAM
XFX AMD Radeon HD 6970 2 GB
500gb HDD

I understand almost everything i have is outdated. But I would like to know what is the biggest bottleneck in my system and should be first thing i upgrade.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
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An R7 265/7850 is equivalent to his 6970 so that cant be called an "upgrade". The 750 ti is also a bit weaker than his...
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Scremin34Egl

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Your 6970 is roughly equivalent to a 7850/R7 265 in today's gpu's which is actually not that bad

The weakest parts of your system is your cpu and ram which I would consider upgrading first. With that you will need a new motherboard

I would go for an i5 or if low on a budget fx 6300 or fx 8320
 
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pierrerock

pierrerock

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What is your budget ? since your motherboard is very outdated, changing it would allow you to get better memory and CPU, but you would need to change these parts aswell. your card is probably the better component of your system.

Your card is on this chart from tom's : http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2014-vga-charts/02-Unigine-Heaven-1080p,3594.html

As you can see, your cheapest options for upgrading your GPU would be a GTX 750 TI or a AMD R7 265 which are both around 140 $

Your CPU wouldn't bottleneck these cards but if you are planning to go for something better, it would cost alot more.
Hope this help

 
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pierrerock

pierrerock

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changing CPU mean changing the motherboard, the memory and the CPU we talk of 300 $ there
 
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Scremin34Egl

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Exactly, that's the bottleneck and it needs to go. His gpu is fine
 
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Scremin34Egl

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An R7 265/7850 is equivalent to his 6970 so that cant be called an "upgrade". The 750 ti is also a bit weaker than his 6970
 
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ryzmohd

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Thank you everyone for the quick response!

So from what i understand, the cpu, ram and motherboard need to be changed. Would an SSD be needed too?
I fear all this would shoot the upgrade costs significantly. i wanted to make some small (but visually noticeable, not just a jump in 3-5 FPS) upgrades of about 200-300$ until i build a totally new system about 1-2 years later.

I am currently able to play crysis 3, splintercell blacklist etc on 1080p, but yes, at about low-mid quality at a manageable FPS. I am willing to spend 200-300$ to eliminate whatever the bottleneck is, if it would let me play at a higher quality setting.
 
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pierrerock

pierrerock

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SSD won't help enough since this is not the main bottleneck. your CPU is comparable to and X4 750K which is used in budget-wise gaming pc (lower than 600$) just upgrading this to let say :
I3 4130 : 120$
MSI H97 pro guard : 100$
any DDR3 2X4GB : 70$

performance would go up but not so much. But this system would be upgradeable for any other LGA 1150 intel CPU like I5 and I7 and any PCIE 3.0 GPU. You would get probably same performance upgrade by going for a second 2GB DDR2 RAM dimm and a R7 265 which would get you a 5 to 15 FPS performance boost from your actual card you can see on tom'S chart here : http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2014-vga-charts/compare,3594.html?prod%5B6788%5D=on&prod%5B6799%5D=on&prod%5B6845%5D=on
 
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Scremin34Egl

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No, an ssd would be nice for faster boot, load times but would not give you more fps in games. With that budget you should get a nice cpu, ram and mobo combo

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($149.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $299.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
 
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pierrerock

pierrerock

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would save some money with this unless planning to OC :
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
 
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ryzmohd

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So you are saying that just an additional 2gb ddr2 ram would give me some noticeable difference?
CPU-Z tells me that its pc2-6400 400MHz 1GB x 2 slots... should i throw those out and get new ones or add the same type? i doubt any retailers would have such outdated memory...
 
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Scremin34Egl

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Getting more "slower" ram is not going to change anything. The games you want to play (crisis 3 and blacklist) are cpu taxing. An fx 8320 should give you a significant boost in most modern games especially crisis 3.
 
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ryzmohd

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Thank you everyone! This has given me a general idea. I will check out the availability of the mentioned CPUs, motherboards and ram in my local store (since online purchase + shipping makes it too expensive in my part of the world) and keep you guys posted.
 
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