New CPU+Mobo or New GFXcard??? Sticky situation

[shadasinger]

Hello everyone,

I am in a sticky situation here. I am quite familiar with PC rigs and have already built 2 PCs. The thing is I have a PC laying around to upgrade worth £70 as its budget.

The current PC specs are:
- CPU: Intel E4400 Dual-Core 2.00Ghz
- MOBO: ASUS P5GC-MX/s (only supports upto 2gb of RAM)
- GFX Card: Radeon HD5450
- RAM: 2GB
- PSU: 300W

About 6 months ago I had done an upgrade of which I upgraded the ram to 2GB and had got the HD5450. Now I have some money to do another upgrade, but I am not sure. I would like to be able to play Battlefield 3 (On low settings) at an avg. of 30FPS (that would be great). Up to this put this seems to be impossible with the HD5450 and seems like a useless upgrade back then.

Myself I had figured two options. Either to get rid of the HD5450 and get a GDDR5 HD6670 which can handle BF3 but then I am affraid the 2GB ram and the CPU will bother it and bottleneck it (2GB of Ram is the most my crappy mobo supports). But the CPU upto this point has done a great job for now for gaming to be honest, eventhough it is crap I am not all to worried.

My second option I figured was leave the graphics and upgrade my mobo for 30pounds, get a Intel G530 for another 28pounds and get 4GBs of ram for 17Pounds, which scrapes about 75pounds and that would be good. I am very sure this would be the better option but then the HD5450 would act as an idiot and not do the job for BF3.

SO I am not sure, I really need your help guys, tell me what to do If you have another better suggestion feel free to drop this.

I highly appreciate the help guys, thanks a lot

Shad

 

[Onus]

It sounds like you already realize the entire rig is weak. Get a HD7750 this time around. It will run on your 300W PSU. The slow CPU and limited RAM aren't going to help, but the HD5450 is the killer.

 

[shadasinger]

Looks like a great idea, thanks Would this outrun the HD6670 by far? And do you think the Ram and CPU will cause a threat?

 

[Onus]

The HD7750 is notably stronger than the HD6670.
A threat? You mean like a fire hazard? No, not at all. I'm sure you'll be limited to lower settings, but since that was your goal, you should be fine. You can upgrade the CPU/RAM/Mobo later. To be worthwhile, you'd need a better CPU than the lowest Celeron you can find, something like a Pentium 860 if not an i3.

 

[shadasinger]

Haha, I see what u mean. I will definitely go with HD7750.

Thanks a lot!!!

 

[Onus]

YW, Have fun!