Opinions for upgrading

DevilxDog

Reputable
Nov 23, 2015
45
0
4,530
I'm thinking about upgrading my GPU. My stats are:

CPU: AMD A8-5500
GPU: XFX R7 250X 2GB
RAM: 8GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600
PSU: 500W Antec Basiq Power
Motherboard: MSI MS-7778 (Jasmine)
Monitor: ASUS VX228H

I'm looking for a card that will last me a couple years for gaming. I just got a 1080p monitor in the last year and will not be upgrading that. I am not a computer person so I will not be overclocking, SLI or any of that kind of stuff.

I will be getting some gift cards from best buy so I will be purchasing from there. I know they don't get the best deals but free money is free money. I'm not sure of my budget yet but thinking it's around $200, maybe I'll be able to stretch it to $250 but not sure.

If there's any other info you need let me know. Thanks in advance.
 
You probably need to upgrade both cpu and gpu to have a decent gaming experience. But since you only have 200$ that's not gonna work. If you want to upgrade your gpu first you could have a look at the new gtx 1050ti price/performance ratio should be very good, but your cpu will bottleneck it quite a bit.
 

DevilxDog

Reputable
Nov 23, 2015
45
0
4,530
Will the 1050ti be good enough for 1080p and decently high graphics for a couple years? I thought I saw that the ti was slower than the plain 1050. How do I find out that my CPU will be bottlenecked with a new GPU and is there a way I could compare CPUs and GPUs to see if I could find a combination that would work near my budget?
 
If I was you here's what I'd do: Wait till you get the 1080p monitor. When you do, test your favorite games on it at two resolutions(720p & 1080p) and low settings. Check the framerate you get at each resolution. If the framerate increases a lot when you drop down from 1080p to 720p that means you could benefit in those games from a more powerful videocard. If your framerate does not increase that much, it means that in those games your current performance is limited by your CPU and a more powerful videocard won't help you.

Use low settings for this test since you want to make sure the limiting factor(if any) is the CPU, not the videocard.
 

DevilxDog

Reputable
Nov 23, 2015
45
0
4,530
I've been doing some research and if I have to upgrade my CPU then I need to build a new computer. My motherboard limits me to only a few CPUs and there not much of an upgrade and come with an integrated graphic card install and that would be a waste since I will be using a dedicated card.