GPU Upgrade - Looking for Suggestions

[mnash88]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently looking at purchasing an upgrade from my current GPU. ( You can view it here! )

I'm looking at anything in the 100-150 dollar range that can play games like Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3.

The reason I'm looking at upgrading is because I run at around 20-30 fps on the more current games when the settings are maxed. Is this due to the 512mb memory on my current GPU? Or is it an issue of clock speed?

Here is my full build:

3.1 GHz AMD x3 Processor
4 GB DDR2 Corsair RAM
500 GB Western Digital 7200 SATA
650 Watt Corsair PSU
HD Radeon 5670 512mb
Monitor Resolution is 1400x900

I think I listed all of the relevant hardware. If you'd like to educate me on what to look at while looking at new graphics cards, I'm welcome to that as well!

Thanks in advance!

P.S. Can someone explain to me the different levels of AMD cards? I see mine (5670) and think hey it must be better than an HD Radeon 4890. Is there a way to figure out which card is definitely better than the other?

 

[Warmacblu]

For your budget I would recommend a GTX 460 1GB or an HD 6850. Although, the rest of your system is getting pretty dated so you may want to consider upgrading the others components, especially if you want to play BF3.

 

[mnash88]

Which components would you suggest upgrading?

I've heard that my CPU isn't good enough to run some of the top games maxed out and I guess my RAM could use an upgrade to DDR3. Is 8 gigs of RAM needed now a days?

Thanks for the reply!

 

[cps1974]

i found a neat webpage for giving you a meaningful gpu analysis

http://www.hwcompare.com/category/gpu-comparisons/

select your cards are look at the comparisions



i dont know much about AMD cpu but I'd imagine at that speed it shoudnt be a bottleneck, if you are considering GTX 460 you may aswell consider GTX 560 which is very similar but has higher clocks - they are very closed priced together - examples...

gtx 460
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127518 160 USD
gtx 560
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127593 199 USD

to be fair, the GTX 460 will overclock easily to reach the 560 clock speeds, on the other hand the GTX 560 will overclock further



at your target resolution Id be surprised if you couldn't find very playable settings for BF3, bear in mind that even low settings look great - id imagine you'd be able to achieve high settings.



regarding memory upgrade, your motherboard will dictate if you can use DDR3, 8GB not necessary but its so cheap (8GB DDR3 cost me approx 50 USD), what motherboard do you have?


chaz