What Should I Upgrade First

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
E

elfin8er

Distinguished
May 5, 2013
73
0
18,630
I bought a Desktop from HP around a year and a half ago. Here's what's inside:

Motherboard: MSI MS-7778 (FM2 Socket)
Processor: AMD A6-5400K
RAM: 8GB DDR3
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?sp4ts.oid=5295962&spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c03513392-13%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

I'm looking to upgrade my computer. What would be the first thing you guys would recommend upgrading/adding? I want to use this computer mostly for gaming. I'm thinking I should upgrade the video card, then the processor? What should I put more money into buying?
 
Solution
photonboy
QUICK ANSWER:
Get the X4-760K CPU, and the Asus GTX750Ti graphics card. Possibly the CPU cooler I link.

LONG ANSWER:
You don't have a video card.

You have an "APU" which is a CPU with a GPU (graphics processor) on the same chip. If you buy a dedicated GRAPHICS CARD and attach the monitor to the card then you will use only the CPU portion of the APU and the new graphics card.

You also only have TWO cores in the CPU portion which will cause an issue for some games like SKYRIM and BF4.

I would replace the GRAPHICS portion first with a GTX750Ti or better, followed by replacing the APU with a better CPU. Note you have an FM2 socket, so the best CPU you support is the X4-760K.


Example:
- X4-760K CPU -...
Sort by date Sort by votes
bccorrupt

bccorrupt

Distinguished
Apr 18, 2012
990
16
20,465
How soon do you plan on doing one after the other and do you play more 1 player games or multiplayer online games? If you play more single player games I'd go with a video card first, then a 750k or 760k processor. If it's going to be a while between upgrades and you play more multiplayer games I'd go with an A10 now and then a video card later.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
photonboy

photonboy

Titan
Jun 20, 2006
21,567
13
85,015
QUICK ANSWER:
Get the X4-760K CPU, and the Asus GTX750Ti graphics card. Possibly the CPU cooler I link.

LONG ANSWER:
You don't have a video card.

You have an "APU" which is a CPU with a GPU (graphics processor) on the same chip. If you buy a dedicated GRAPHICS CARD and attach the monitor to the card then you will use only the CPU portion of the APU and the new graphics card.

You also only have TWO cores in the CPU portion which will cause an issue for some games like SKYRIM and BF4.

I would replace the GRAPHICS portion first with a GTX750Ti or better, followed by replacing the APU with a better CPU. Note you have an FM2 socket, so the best CPU you support is the X4-760K.


Example:
- X4-760K CPU - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad760kwohlbox

- GTX750Ti graphics card http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx750tioc2gd5

(there are slightly cheaper GTX750Ti's however I recommend the ASUS version for quality and noise)

Anything more powerful and you need a better Power Supply. So for $215 (after MIR, before tax/shipping) you replace the APU with a much better CPU and graphics card.

I do NOT recommend just getting the best APU you can afford. It would be better than you have now but not as good as the combo I recommend above. The A10-7850K for example is $170 but not as good as what I recommend for about $45 more.

Other:
1) CPU cooler:
You need to be careful removing the CPU cooler or you may damage it. It's probably a stock cooler. For about $30 you can alternatively replace it with a quieter cooler: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rr212e20pkr2

Make sure your FAN CONTROL SOFTWARE is setup for the motherboard so the CPU fan varies according to the CPU temperature.

2) APU's and System memory:
Just FYI, but the System Memory that the CPU works with is shared with the GPU inside of the APU. If you bought a good APU you would severely bottleneck it unless you had really fast System memory which is unlikely so you might get 60% the performance that some benchmarks show for that APU. Just another reason to NOT consider another APU.

The best APU's need more than 2133MHz Dual-Channel or they bottleneck the APU's GPU.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom