Upgrading my PC's Graphics Card (<= £300) and RAM

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AngeloH

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Apr 18, 2016
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So, my birthdays coming up and I'm looking to splash some cash on upgrading my computer as I recently picked up dark souls 3 and am being forced to run the game on low settings and still experience some pretty nasty frame drops. Praise the lord its playable, but occasionally my computer sounds like its preparing for a nuclear meltdown. And thus, I feel its time for a new graphics card and a little bit of extra RAM.

Here are the current specs (if easier, I can grab a CPU-Z Report);
Motherboard: ASUS P8H61-MX USB3 [Link]
CPU: 3.20GHz Intel Core i5 3470 (Quad Core)
RAM: 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM
GPU: 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
OS: Windows 10 64x
PSU: WinPower Plus MP 550 (230V / 50Hz / 3A. It has a max output of 550W)
(You can also see my PC on amazon [LINK] - yeah, i know, filthy prebuilt)

I'm looking to upgrade the RAM to some Corsair 16GB (2x 8GB) [LINK], and the GPU to the an 8GB XFX Radeon R9 390 [LINK].

My question is, since I'm a complete DIY-noob, can my current computer handle said upgrades?
Also, would you recommend an alternative GPU? I'ma try keep the GPU price under £300 because I don't need to be rendering the entire world anytime soon :^)

EDIT: Preferably only popular sites such as Amazon for recommendations, due to parental website trust issues
 
Solution
tothergnome
For a £300 budget, the 390 is an excellent GPU. Though the problem is that you need a really good PSU to feed that beast, so go 970 if you're not upgrading your PSU anytime soon. Also your RAM is not compatiable with your motherboard.http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J8E8Y5C/?tag=pcpapi-20 is compatiable.
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PrankDudeTb

PrankDudeTb

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Jan 23, 2014
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OK so first off the upgrade to 16gb is not that necessary if you're gaming unless you have super old or slow RAM and next is I would definitely go with the R9 390 for the price point but go with the sapphire one instead and since it's huge if it doesn't fit in your case go with either MSI or XFX (I'm biased towards MSI so I won't comment).
 
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AngeloH

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Apr 18, 2016
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Accidentally hit that 'solution' button a lil quickly, mistook it for the reply button. Although the answer did answer most of my question, only other question is do you think my motherboard is suitable for the GPU upgrade then? I presume so since you did suggest it, but just double-checking
 
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PrankDudeTb

PrankDudeTb

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Jan 23, 2014
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Yes your motherboard has a Pcie 3.0 16x slot, perfect for the 390. Btw, are you overclocking your gpu?
 
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tothergnome

tothergnome

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Mar 27, 2016
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For a £300 budget, the 390 is an excellent GPU. Though the problem is that you need a really good PSU to feed that beast, so go 970 if you're not upgrading your PSU anytime soon. Also your RAM is not compatiable with your motherboard.http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J8E8Y5C/?tag=pcpapi-20 is compatiable.
 
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PrankDudeTb

PrankDudeTb

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Jan 23, 2014
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You are correct in every way, I put my answers in for best case scenario but I still don't think the upgrade to 16gb is needed, what do you think?
 
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tothergnome

tothergnome

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Also what you said is wrong. 16GB RAM is needed to play Dark Souls 3 on recommend settings, and minimum settings is horrible.
 
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PrankDudeTb

PrankDudeTb

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Jan 23, 2014
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Ok fair enough, it's just that I've seen youtubers e.g. CultOfMush say that 16gb is reccommended a fair amount nowadays but it's not actually necessary.
 
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AngeloH

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Apr 18, 2016
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I'm not overlocking my current GPU, and haven't ever really considered doing so. Would you recommend doing so (and overclocking the new GPU when I replace the current one)?
 
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PrankDudeTb

PrankDudeTb

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Jan 23, 2014
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I would have to answer yes if you did with the GTX 970 but the R9 390 is great at stock, you just need a decent power supply, so long story short I would not worry about overclocking the R9 390 if you don't have experience. If you do then you might as well because you know how to do it, just make sure that you have good airflow and psu.

Just realised your PSU was only 550w so that won't be able to overclock, but it doesn't matter because 390 is great at stock
 
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AngeloH

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Apr 18, 2016
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So, I just dug into my PC to get the specs of my PSU and discovered its a WinPower Plus MP 550 (230V / 50Hz / 3A. It has a max output of 550W). Not entirely sure if thats enough, knowing companies that pre-build computers thats probably scraping bare minimum to run my components. And I'll look into that RAM thanks!
 
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AngeloH

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Apr 18, 2016
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Alrighty, so no need to overclock then; will avoid that in that case. I'm most likely going to have to upgrade my PSU to run the GPU either way by the sounds of it, but I'll play it safe since I feel that I don't have 'good airflow' at the moment (my case doesn't have any input/exhaust fans, just the ones that are part of the hardware).
 
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