Upgrading my Alienware R3

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Skyrim_Gamer74

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Hello all, Im searching for accurate info in regards to upgrading my Alienware R3. I bought this PC from a friend for $300. It has been well maintained and taken care of. It has a standard Nvidia Geforce GTX 580, i7 Quad Core 2600 K 3.40 GHz processor and 8 GB of RAM made by Corsair. Since I'm new to PC gaming, was this a good buy for $300? My questions are, can I upgrade my R3 from the GTX 580 to an EVGA GTX 970 or 980? Or is there another card that performs just as good? Do I need a different motherboard to accomplish this? If so, I'd like some suggestions on which MB is best. Also my R3 is liquid cooled if this makes any difference. The PC performs quite well with the games I've thrown at it so far. Even Witcher 2 does well in high settings.Any advice and help would be appreciated.

Thanks guys!
 
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Kohwali


You're good to go! No, I'm running a GTX 760 haha. I'd get a GTX 970 if I could though. If your motherboard is SLI compatible and you don't want to overclock, then there's no need to upgrade that either.

Pick one of my answers as the solution if I helped! It helps me and it also helps anyone who looks through this thread in the future ;)
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Kohwali

Kohwali

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From what I'm seeing, you only have 4GB RAM? You want at 8GB of RAM for gaming.

EDIT: NVM I think you do have 4GB of RAM. Are these the specs? :http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/321833-31-alienware-aurora-2600k-shipped
 
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Kohwali

Kohwali

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No need! I haven't seen a game use more than 6GB RAM! Your money would be better spent elsewhere!
 
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Kohwali

Kohwali

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If you want to upgrade, you should get a GTX 970 like you said before. I can't find any information on the motherboard, so I'll assume its custom. If you want to upgrade the mobo, get the ASUS Z97-A, although its not necessary to run a GTX 970.
 
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Skyrim_Gamer74

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So, the GTX 970 outperforms the GTX 980 @ a cheaper cost? I was looking at a EVGA 980 on Tiger Direct for $349.99 2GB GDDR5 RAM. Then of course were other brands like Asus, MSI and Zotac. Some people have suggested I avoid anything AMD as they don't have the quality or performance of the Nvidia brand. I play games like Battlefield 4, and Witcher 2 and the 580 I have seems to struggle a bit when attempting ultra settings in either of the two games.
 
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Kohwali

Kohwali

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The GTX 970 definitely does not outperform the GTX 980, however you get more performance for what you pay for (like a performance-to-price ratio).

GTX 980s should have 4GB of GGDR5 RAM.

Those people who suggested to avoid AMD are wrong, AMD their own cards at every tier which also perform well to compete with NVIDIA. However, I personally prefer NVIDIA.


I'd suggest the EVGA ACX 2.0 version to avoid any length incompatibilities a GTX 970 could potentially have with your case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487076
Many of the non-reference GTX 970s have very long coolers such as the Gigabyte Windforce version.
 
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Skyrim_Gamer74

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Yes, this is the exact same EVGA card that I looked at on tiger direct. I was wrong about it being a 980 though. As far as motherboards are concerned, I'm sure its the stock MB that was shipped with it. I think its SLi capable. Holds up to 16 GB of RAM. My power supply is compatable with the GTX 970 and 980 so I'm good there. Are you running a 970?
 
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Kohwali

Kohwali

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You're good to go! No, I'm running a GTX 760 haha. I'd get a GTX 970 if I could though. If your motherboard is SLI compatible and you don't want to overclock, then there's no need to upgrade that either.

Pick one of my answers as the solution if I helped! It helps me and it also helps anyone who looks through this thread in the future ;)
 
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Skyrim_Gamer74

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GTX 970, it shall be then. As for overclocking, I thought of that too. But not sure of a safe setting for the GTX 580. And no page I've read has been clear as to the safe voltage settings after overclocking the cores. And just by what I've read, it doeasnt appear to really be worth doing it for 3 extra fps.
 
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Kohwali

Kohwali

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Heh, that's what I've always though for GPU overclocking. I meant CPU overclocking though, but it's unnecessary if you're only gaming.
 
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Skyrim_Gamer74

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I agree. I'm going to leave the 580 that's in it the way it is. I actually sold my PS4 to buy this PC. It appears the GTX 580 that's in it already outperforms anything the PS4 can do. Thanks for your input. You've been a big help. Game on!
 
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Kohwali

Kohwali

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What a deal you got! A PS4 for this rig is a no-brainer. Although I understand it wasn't that straight forward, you had to sell your PS4 first.

Cheers and have fun with Skyrim!
 
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blakley52

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