Need Advice With Current Build and Upgrades

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ZefpheX

Reputable
Dec 7, 2015
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4,510
So I'm a PC gamer, lol. I've been running the same setup for a while now and I'm in looking to upgrade.
MY PC
- GTX 770 2GB SC ACX
- 8GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance
- AMD FX 8150
- 1TB WD Black
- 120GB Samsung SSD
- ASRock 970 Extreme3
-------------------------------
I'm looking to upgrade in the most cost efficient manner. I have around $300-400 to spend. A family member of mine suggested to upgrade the CPU before getting a new GPU because it would bottleneck. I think the best upgrade for the price would be an r9 390 for just over $300, slightly faster than the GTX 970. The 8gb of vram would also be nice!
--
If you could help me with any suggestions I would really appreciate it, thank you for your time.
~ Zef.
 
Solution
logainofhades
Have to agree, with your family member, on this one.FX 8150 was never a good cpu. It was actually slower than a Phenom II X6, in most cases. Changing to a newer FX 8300 series would be a bit of an improvement, but still would bottleneck a higher end graphics card. Your least expensive option, is to make the move to a Haswell i5/i7/Xeon 1231v3, and H97 board. At least then you could reuse your memory.

Cheapest i5 option
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3-A (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $239.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and...
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Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
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You're going to need to provide some info around the games you play/intend to play before anybody can give true advice.

On the face of it, a CPU upgrade would be beneficial.....to avoid bottlenecking a new GPU. But for a new CPU, you'll likely need a new board.....and likely a new OS. For a new GPU, you might need a new PSU (a component you're missing in your specs).

 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
Apr 27, 2009
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Have to agree, with your family member, on this one.FX 8150 was never a good cpu. It was actually slower than a Phenom II X6, in most cases. Changing to a newer FX 8300 series would be a bit of an improvement, but still would bottleneck a higher end graphics card. Your least expensive option, is to make the move to a Haswell i5/i7/Xeon 1231v3, and H97 board. At least then you could reuse your memory.

Cheapest i5 option
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3-A (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $239.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-07 13:59 EST-0500

Or for i7 performance

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3-A (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $307.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-07 14:00 EST-0500


Latest Gen i5

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($53.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $353.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-07 14:02 EST-0500
 
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