What GPU Should I Buy In My Budget Range and With My Specs?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
J

JNHaulbrook

Reputable
Jun 8, 2015
9
0
4,510
This is my first post and I am sorry if it is in an incorrect tag. I am looking to upgrade my gaming PC that is about 4 or 5 years old. My specs are as follows:

Motherboard: GA-870A-USB3
Power Supply: RX750-S-B 750 watt
CPU: AMD Phenom II 1055T ~2.8GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
Hard Drive: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA
RAM: 4GB

I have 450 dollars to work with. I definitely want to get 8GB of RAM as I am always hitting 99% memory usage in my task manager. I was also thinking the GPU should definitely be upgraded. I was wondering, first off, am I correct in thinking I should upgrade my GPU first, and secondly, what would be good buys for a GPU and RAM that will work with my specs in my price range?


Someone recommended the GeForce GTX 970, so I started to check it out and it seems there are many different versions. I would like to get the best version my rig can support, I was wondering which of these that would be?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
J

JNHaulbrook

Reputable
Jun 8, 2015
9
0
4,510


Is there any RAM that you recommend to go along with this ? Also, I am wanting to make sure that the lag problems I am currently having will be completely over with, which version of this GPU would you recommend, as it seems there are many different versions?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
L

Lightning Reborn

Honorable
Nov 12, 2013
52
0
10,660




Honestly, any RAM works. Corsair and G.Skil, Adata, pretty much just whatever is cheapest- its really all pretty much the same. A Corsair stick with 8Gb @ 1333Mhz with all the same timings and everything won't be much different than a Kingston 8GB 1333mhz.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

JNHaulbrook

Reputable
Jun 8, 2015
9
0
4,510
I actually just found out that I have a bit more money to spend. I built a virtual PC with all my specs using the GTX GeForce 980 and it seemed to not have any complications. Do you think my PC could run the 980? Also, I forgot to mention this but my current setup has two sticks of RAM totaling 4GB's. I was thinking of grabbing two 4 GB sticks of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600. Do you think this would be a good fit?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

JNHaulbrook

Reputable
Jun 8, 2015
9
0
4,510
I actually just found out that I have a bit more money to spend. I built a virtual PC with all my specs using the GTX GeForce 980 and it seemed to not have any complications. Do you think my PC could run the 980? Also, I forgot to mention this but my current setup has two sticks of RAM totaling 4GB's. I was thinking of grabbing two 4 GB sticks of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600. Do you think this would be a good fit?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

JNHaulbrook

Reputable
Jun 8, 2015
9
0
4,510
I actually just found out that I have a bit more money to spend. I built a virtual PC with all my specs using the GTX GeForce 980 and it seemed to not have any complications. Do you think my PC could run the 980? Also, I forgot to mention this but my current setup has two sticks of RAM totaling 4GB's. I was thinking of grabbing two 4 GB sticks of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600. Do you think this would be a good fit?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

Sav4

Distinguished
Jul 30, 2013
349
8
18,865
The 980 is a good card which CPU and power supply ?
Link your build.
It is a good idea to run the same type of ram either get some more of the same ram or sell your existing ram and get a 8gig set.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Jomari Gonzales

Jomari Gonzales

Reputable
Jan 15, 2015
474
0
4,960


980 would be fine, though personally it's not worth the price premium vs the 970. if got additional money to burn, id rather go straight to 980Ti which in my opinion would be better off buying instead of the 980 at this point in time.

for you RAM, it means you got 2x2GB kit, you can get another EXACT SAME set of it to make it total of 8GB to avoid any complications/issues or just get the Corsair one and sell/remove the old RAM set.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

JNHaulbrook

Reputable
Jun 8, 2015
9
0
4,510
Motherboard: GA-870A-USB3
Power Supply: RX750-S-B 750 watt
CPU: AMD Phenom II 1055T ~2.8GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
Hard Drive: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA

I was wanting to get rid of what I have as far as RAM and get the two 4GB cards of the Corsair Vengance. Also, I was wondering if the 980 will work, what brand should I go with... MSI or EVGA that sort of thing?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Jomari Gonzales

Jomari Gonzales

Reputable
Jan 15, 2015
474
0
4,960
both are good brands for the 980, either one will have significant advantage over the other, just go with one that's cheapest.

however if i may suggest, just get a 970 and upgrade your CPU, i think your current one was released back in 2010 although i think it may be faster than an i3, but some games that are CPU intensive might be an issue because of that.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

JNHaulbrook

Reputable
Jun 8, 2015
9
0
4,510
Thanks for all of your help. I am going to go with the 970. My last question was about RAM. Will I be able to run Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 at 1600 Mhz with my CPU and Motherboard or will it drop it down to 1333 Mhz?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Jomari Gonzales

Jomari Gonzales

Reputable
Jan 15, 2015
474
0
4,960


i believe your mobo can run overclocked RAM, just go to BIOS and set it to 1600Mhz
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

JNHaulbrook

Reputable
Jun 8, 2015
9
0
4,510
I have purchased the 16GB or RAM as well as the 970 and was wondering will my CPU not bottleneck it? I have read a couple of threads that state that it will. If this is true, is there any CPU compatible with my current motherboard that can utilize the 970 to its potential, or will I have to upgrade my CPU?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Jomari Gonzales

Jomari Gonzales

Reputable
Jan 15, 2015
474
0
4,960


your current proc is still quite okay imo. not sure if it will bottleneck, and if so i think it might be very minimal probably less than 5fps, if you do play CPU intensive games such as MMORPGs which require a lot of CPU power, you might feel the struggle, but on Graphics intensive games, not so.

however if you really wish to upgrade, now might not be the best time to do so since your cpu can still handle most tasks especially gaming, do wait for skylake or zen processors, by that time im pretty sure youll need to build a new system (you can keep your RAM and GPU of course, it still will be adequate enough), skylake will be before this year ends, zen will prolly be early 2016
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

JNHaulbrook

Reputable
Jun 8, 2015
9
0
4,510
Ok, so look into skylake. I play H1Z1 and I am about to get ARK. Do you have any idea of a ball park of how much these CPU's will cost? I just want to make sure it isn't a crazy amount that I will never be able to afford. Also, Is there a good motherboard to be on the look out for that would fit well with these CPU's?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Jomari Gonzales

Jomari Gonzales

Reputable
Jan 15, 2015
474
0
4,960
prices today of proc will carryover to their equivalent releases in the future give or take 5-10% markup or markdown, really depends on how market prices react on technological advancement. an example would be if you see an i5 4th gen ranging at $200 dollars today, more or less the next generation equivalent of that would be around $210+ at release, so many factors to consider before concluding how much it will really cost.

best thing to do is just be patient and wait till it already comes out and you have enough information/resources from reviews to consider which you really want to buy, same goes for motherboards.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
kwa-e

kwa-e

Admirable
Mar 1, 2015
2,835
0
7,460
If your games are still running smoothly with your Phenom II then go for the 970, You won't regret it.

As for Skylake, It's still not out yet but expect pricing similar to today's Haswell, Maybe a bit more expensive.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom