4-500$ To Upgrade Thinking GPU,

cheisx

Honorable
Aug 5, 2013
1
0
10,510
Making the switch from Console gaming back to PC gaming Working on upgrade plan, From what i am reading i am thinking GPU is where i need to start. Being candid it is an Alienware machine that was purchased for me as a Congratulations present, i would have prefered to build it myself but it has served me very well so far so i cant complain to much. I have been out of the hardware tech for awhile so i am trying to re-educate myself and make some smart decisions.

Basics of current Setup:
Overclocked Intel Core i7 930 QC (3.36ghz)
12GB Triple Channel 1333MHZ DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
Crucial m4 128GB ATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive
1.5TB - SATA, 3Gb/s HDD (Storage)
875W PSU
Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit



Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: Next 3 Weeks

Budget Range: Would Like to Stay under 500$

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming

Are you buying a monitor: No - Currently Have 2X PX2370

Parts to Upgrade: Thinking GPU?

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: NEwegg / Amazon are my usual Spots

Parts Preferences: I Prefer NVidia didnt have a choice in this machines original build, Currently Looking @ GPU's Such as the GTX 770 and 760

Overclocking: Yes CPU is currently Overclocked

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe There are only 4 PCI slots so i would need to remove the Sound Card to do so.

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920X1080

Additional Comments: Will be playing FFXIV / Battlefield 4 / WatchDogs

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Starting to notice a drop in FPS in games and can not run everything @ higher graphic levels.



I also ran a Passmark test:
http://www.passmark.com/baselines/V8/display.php?id=11515507623
 

ryan27968

Honorable
Apr 25, 2013
834
0
11,360
Seems to me you got a pretty good set up already. Before you blow your money on an upgrade, try this piece of software to speed up your game: http://www.razerzone.com/gamebooster

Use it well, and you could see a dramatic increase in performance. Other than that, if I were you, I would sacrifice my sound card in order to use SLI/Crossfire. You can effectively triple your performance this way. A GTX 770 or 760 would definitely give a huge performance boost.