Upgrade in question - CPU or GPU?

[Mazdadriver]

Hello,

4-5 year's I skipped the ''upgrade question'', so the spec's are:

E4500, Gigabyte P35-DS3R, 2x1GB DDR-2 800Mhz, XFX 8800GTS 320MB and a Chieftech 500W (black) power supply.

I don't want to spend much, because I bassicaly use computer for office purposes, photoshop, web-browsing etc., but I wanted to see, how BF3 and the upcoming GTA V would look in atleast medium graphics.

So, the question is - were I start?

Looking for your opinions. Thanks.

 

[jmsellars1]

Well you would definitely need to upgrade graphics which would mean upgrading the PSU too. You would probably need 4GB of RAM as well which means getting a new build almost. I'd just save a bit and try to get something like this:

Pentium G840
4GB DD3 1333Mhz
GIGABYTE GA-H61M-DS2
HIS HD 6770 1GB
Antec Earthwatts 430W

Total is ~$300 and would be a big upgrade from what you have.

 

[swifty_morgan]

those e-4500's used to over clock extremely well. having said that, short of revamping the entire system I would add memory and that's it. forget the 2 games........... you need too much to have them play well... $$$

 

[Mazdadriver]

Thanks, I thought of something like that, but i3-2120 in place of G840, and maybe a GTX 550Ti?

I live in Latvia, so we have different price policy, for G850 ~50 LVL (~100 USD), 4GB DDR3 ~11-12 LVL ( 22-24 USD), motherboard ~34 LVL (68 USD)... for graphics card, need to choose different brand, because there is no HIS in stocks, so MSI/XFX around 70 LVL (140 USD), and for PSU, I think the Chieftech will do the job, so the final cost would be ~320-330 USD.

 

[jmsellars1]

The i3 would be a bit better than the Pentium and the 550Ti a bit better than the HD 6770 as far as I know.

 

[jmsellars1]

If that PSU is 5 years old I would seriously consider replacing it or you could run into massive reliability issues.