Hello everybody. Two Christmases ago, I got a Black Friday deal on a computer. It was a Dell Inspiron with an I5 4460, 8 gb of ram, and no graphics card. My birthday is near Christmas. So, I decided I would get the PC for Christmas and when my birthday came around upgrade the power supply and add a graphics card. So now, I have a Corsair 430W power supply and a GTX 750 Ti. I get fairly good performance in games (150 fps on Vanilla Minecraft and 45 fps on WarFrame), but I'm thinking about upgrading either my processor to a I7 4790k or upgrade my graphics card to a GTX 970. My question is what would be better to upgrade and would I have to upgrade my power supply for either of them? My budget is $400. Thanks.
Help! What Should I Upgrade?
- Thread starter jmcfall11
- Start date
Solution
Gam3r01
Titan
- Jan 12, 2013
- 25,417
- 976
- 115,440
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($324.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $403.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-06 23:21 EDT-0400
Or
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 8GB Nitro Video Card ($309.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $388.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-06 23:21 EDT-0400
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($324.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $403.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-06 23:21 EDT-0400
Or
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 8GB Nitro Video Card ($309.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $388.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-06 23:21 EDT-0400
kunstderfugue
Honorable
- Mar 12, 2012
- 77
- 0
- 10,660
He won't need a 750W power supply for that build. Even SLI 980 Tis don't go over 600. Instead I recommend the 80 Plus Gold and extremely well built Supernova G2 550 that's fully modular and has fanless mode.
EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20550y1 $83.99
geofelt
Titan
- Oct 9, 2006
- 54,291
- 4,145
- 174,240
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To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:
a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.
b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.
You should also experiment with removing one core. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option. You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.
If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.
It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Your budget will handle one or the other.
If you think GTX970, you will want a 500w psu of good quality.
To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:
a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.
b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.
You should also experiment with removing one core. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option. You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.
If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.
It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Your budget will handle one or the other.
If you think GTX970, you will want a 500w psu of good quality.
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