Is buying a graphic card enough to play new games or should I upgrade my CPU (Phenom II X2 555) as well?

[bk683]

Hello!

I have a PC with following harware:

• 
  ■ Thermaltake SopranoRS 101 VG75021W2E 500W ATX Mid Tower
  ■ Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H (Rev. 1.0) AM3 AMD 785G + SB710 ATX AMD Mainboard (D-Sub DVI HDMI)
  ■ AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz 2 x 512KB 6MB AM2+/AM3
  ■ 2 GB RAM

My purpose is playing new games (like Civ 5, HOMM 6, CoD Ghosts, Battlefield 4, Dragon Age Inquisition etc) for at least a couple of years with at least acceptable settings. I like mostly strategy, FPS, RPG and racing games.

Would a graphic card with a price less than 200 USD be sufficient for this purpose? If yes, which card would you suggest? Or would you suggest a mainboard, CPU and RAM upgrade in addition to graphic card?

I can spend around 1000 USD for this, but I don't want to waste it. I am from Turkey. I use http://www.teknofiyat.com/ for price search. These days 1 USD = app. 2 TL.

Please give me advice. Thank you!

 

[Srimoldi]

I'm no expert, but your CPU looks as if it will handle most games just fine. Maybe do some more digging if you want but I think you will be fine.

 

[Dalle4]

I'm really not an expert in AMD CPU's but it looks like it's going to be ok, but you should really consider upgrading to some more ram, and which GPU are you considering buying

 

[coozie7]

A few questions first:
What GPU is currently installed?
What is the resolution of your display?
What power supply is installed-Exact make and model, please.
What operating system is installed and is it 32 or 64 bit?

The CPU is fairly capable but current games all run better with a quad cored CPU, and the faster the better.
Good news is that the motherboard supports a nice wide range of processors:
http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3154
As for graphics, it'll depend on monitor resolution but for 1080 gaming A GTX760 or HD7950 class of card will run everything out there at high/ultra settings.
You state up to $1000 but I get the impression you would like to spend much less so for now I'll only mention the possibility of a Intel Haswell CPU/MB/RAM upgrade which will push your budget close to that $1000 maximum when a new graphics card is included.

 

[bk683]

A few questions first:
What GPU is currently installed?
What is the resolution of your display?
What power supply is installed-Exact make and model, please.
What operating system is installed and is it 32 or 64 bit?

The CPU is fairly capable but current games all run better with a quad cored CPU, and the faster the better.
Good news is that the motherboard supports a nice wide range of processors:
http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3154
As for graphics, it'll depend on monitor resolution but for 1080 gaming A GTX760 or HD7950 class of card will run everything out there at high/ultra settings.
You state up to $1000 but I get the impression you would like to spend much less so for now I'll only mention the possibility of a Intel Haswell CPU/MB/RAM upgrade which will push your budget close to that $1000 maximum when a new graphics card is included.

Thank you for your reply.

My mainboard has ATI Radeon HD 4200 GPU onboard. Currently there is not any additional GPU installed.
Resolution of my display is 1920x1080p (22 inch monitor).
Power supply in my case is Thermaltake TT-500AL1NC.
Windows 8 64 bit is installed.

Yes, I prefer not to spend more than necessary. I am thinking of buying a GPU and RAM first. If it won't be enough, I'll consider upgrading mainboard+CPU. I have AMD A10 CPU in my mind.

Would HD7790 or HD7850 be enough for me for the games I mentioned?
Can I use Nvidia GPU with my current mainboard and CPU?