Looking for some advice on upgrading my pc.

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cameronmoss

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Jan 9, 2014
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So these are the current specs of my pc.

CPU: AMD FX - 8120 eight core processer.
MB: AMD corporation 970A-D3
GPU: GTX 760 msi
PSU: gxii cooler master 650 watt
RAM: DDR3 16gb (not sure of the make).

I use this pc mostly for gaming however super performance isn't my main concern. I am generally happy with a game running on medium/high at 60fps. At the moment I feel my motherboard really needs an upgrade for my next graphics card etc as well as the CPU. So I was hoping for some recommendations on what to buy with a budget of roughly $300-$400.
 
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you have sufficient amount of ram in your system already (8gb ram for gaming is the sweet spot). upgrading the graphics card will give you more visible and immediate gaming performance improvement.
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JerryJF

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Jul 19, 2015
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i would upgrade the graphics card first, as it will give you an immediate performance upgrade after installation, plus the card will work on any platform whether your future upgrade is a intel or amd platform.

then when your cpu starts to hold back on the new graphics card in the future, you then need to upgrade or cpu before motherboard (given new cpu will work on your existing board, otherwise both needs to be upgraded at the same time). since your cpu is pretty good, i think upgrading your cpu will not yield much performance as you might think a more powerful cpu should.

upgrade the graphics card, it will probably stick around with you through your next few pc builds. 4

gtx 970 is a pretty good choice, much better performance and not a power muncher.
 
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cameronmoss

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Jan 9, 2014
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I didn't realize my CPU was doing ok. The reason I was looking into upgrading the motherboard is that its very small and doesn't fit CPU coolers very well which has been a problem in the past. In that case I may just swap out the motherboard and keep the CPU as is. Would there be any benefit to upgrading RAM? Or is the GPU the essential piece to upgrade?
 
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JerryJF

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Jul 19, 2015
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you have sufficient amount of ram in your system already (8gb ram for gaming is the sweet spot). upgrading the graphics card will give you more visible and immediate gaming performance improvement.
 
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LetsPlayThisBro

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Mar 14, 2015
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400-ish, dollar budget can get you into a Xeon E3-1231v3 and a compatible motherboard. If anything that would be the only real type of upgrade I would do, get into Intel, and if you can stretch the budget a little you can get a 4790k. Otherwise the CPU you currently have is fine... but, if you are going to upgrade to a better motherboard it might be time to consider the CPU upgrade as well.

You can always sell your old chip and board used to help stretch your budget a little... like, buy the new parts on a credit card and then sell the old parts on ebay and pay down the credit card from the sale plus your original budget so you don't get hit with interest. It's what I do to stretch my budget when I'm close to an upgrade like that.

Also, just be sure it's only the motherboard that's holding you back from a larger/higher end CPU cooler in the first place, sometimes those towers can get too tall for the case to hold it no matter the motherboard. Would hate to find yourself trying to fit a tower cooler into a case that won't hold it.
 
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