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Help about upgrading my graphics card and other components?

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  • Graphics Cards
  • Components
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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October 1, 2014 3:26:13 PM

Hi, I am fairly new to this PC stuff ,and I've just started a college course thats helping me, but i need to upgrade my graphics card but i dont have a clue on which card to upgrade to, or if i need to. And also would anyone recommend a SSD for my PC as i'm currently running a HDD.
I've been looking at the HD 7850 2GB DDR5 and the HD 7870 GHz Editon 2GB DDR5, will any of those two bottleneck? I'm looking to spend no more than £200 on the graphics card.

PSU 550 watts
Processor AMD FX(tm)-4100 Quad-Core Processor
Manufacturer AMD
Speed 3.6 GHz
Number of Cores 4
Video Card AMD Radeon R7 200 Series
Manufacturer ATI
Chipset AMD Radeon R7 200 Series
Dedicated Memory 1.0 GB
Total Memory 4.0 GB
Memory 8.2 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1 (build 7601), 64-bit
Service Pack 1 Size 64 Bit Edition Ultimate
DVD TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-222BB ATA Device
CD TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-222BB ATA Device
Drive
Size 931.4 GB
Free 807.7 GB

More about : upgrading graphics card components

October 1, 2014 3:59:16 PM

I definitely recommend the Radeon R9 270X for a graphics card. Not only because I have it, but because of its value. I am the kind of guy who recommends off-brand products (not that AMD is an off brand, but if you look at the facts, AMD is best for the price/performance ratio). The Radeon R9 270X is basically a re-branded 7870 with a bit more modern design (depending on manufacturer) and a bit better performance. It goes for about $170 at Newegg. I am using the R9 270X right now and I can play Battlefield 4 on Ultra at extremely smooth framerates. If you're looking at a budget card that is fantastic for gaming while not breaking the bank, I do recommend this.

Now I know that the GPU is only $170 (only about 135 euros), but you also asked for an SSD. In my PC right now, I have a SanDisk Ultra Plus 128GB SSD that goes for 65 dollars (~52 euros) which will land you with a little under 200 euros.

If you are thinking of going for 200 euros with the graphics card and spending a bit more for the SSD, I recommend the new Radeon R9 285. It is 199 euros, right at your price. I do recommend that SSD again as well if you choose this way to go. It's an all around great SSD. I have about 10-15 second boot times, right into Google Chrome.

Here are your choices if you decide to go the AMD way:

To total about 200 euros with GPU and SSD:
R9 270X: http://goo.gl/4oNYr7
SSD: http://goo.gl/9OkFZr

To total about 200 euros with just the GPU and to spend a bit extra on an SSD:
R9 285: http://goo.gl/HKYTQm
SSD: http://goo.gl/9OkFZr

These cards will definitely suffice for any gaming needs! The SSD definitely compliments if you want to put your OS on it and maybe a few games. It's at a very good price.

Hope you find this guiding and helpful!
a b U Graphics card
October 1, 2014 4:00:17 PM

The FX 4100 isnt that powerful, and it will bottleneck both of those cards a little bit. It won't be a very severe bottleneck, but you should be considering upgrading to at least FX 6300 soon to have a smoother experience
Related resources
a b U Graphics card
October 1, 2014 4:03:01 PM

Consider the SSDs that ragingninja77 mentioned later. Focus on not getting basic bottlenecks first. SSDs aren't going to help bottlenecking
October 1, 2014 4:28:28 PM

Thank all of you for the reply's much appreciated, I was wondering if the Dual-X 285 will work with my motherboard as it says PCIe 2.0 X16 by the PCIe port and this card???
October 1, 2014 4:47:58 PM

What motherboard do you have?
October 1, 2014 5:31:27 PM

Sorry I didn't need to ask that. You have an R7 card so yes, the 285 will work.
October 1, 2014 5:36:01 PM

I've been researching since i posted this and have decided on the R9 270X, but with a choice of 3 makes, Sapphire Dual-X, Sapphire Vapour-X and MSI Gaming. Which one would you choose?
October 1, 2014 5:39:20 PM

I have the MSI one, only because it was the cheapest at the time and it comes with a choice of some games (not sure if it still does). I got DiRT 3 and Sleeping Dogs. You can get others like Thief, and a bunch more. Brands aren't really my specialty though, it's more about price/performance ratio for me. I've heard Sapphire makes really good quality cards, but again, it's mostly up to you.
October 2, 2014 5:31:15 AM

Looking at my specs how much DDR5 Memory on the graphics card should I look for ???
October 2, 2014 11:12:25 AM

2GB is perfectly fine. If you are doing 3D rendering a lot or using a lot of monitors you might want more, but 2GB is perfectly find for any gaming, workload, etc.
October 8, 2014 2:37:06 AM

OK ive don alot of reasearch and decided in the next year or so to build this, i was wondering on peoples opinions and really if it would work, thanks

(Graphics Card) Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card - £150 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX...
(SSD) AMD Radeon R7 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive - £75http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD...
(CPU) AMD FX-8350 - £125http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-FX8350-Edition-Processor-4-...
(RAM) AMD Radeon™ R9 Gamer Series–8GB (2x4GB)
DDR3 2400 MHz CL11 Memory Kit - £90http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY...

(PSU) Aerocool GT-S Series 700w - £70 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA...
(Motherboard) MSI A88X-G45 Gaming AMD A88X - £90 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB...
(Monitor) LG 22MP55HQ-P 22" LED IPS HDMI Monitor - £101
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO...
(Mouse) Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500 DPI Xtreme Precision Left Handed Edition Gaming Mouse - £44 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB...
(Keyboard) Razer Blackwidow Chroma Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - £145 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB...
a b U Graphics card
October 8, 2014 4:35:28 PM

K3va_C said:
OK ive don alot of reasearch and decided in the next year or so to build this, i was wondering on peoples opinions and really if it would work, thanks

(Graphics Card) Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card - £150 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX...
(SSD) AMD Radeon R7 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive - £75http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD...
(CPU) AMD FX-8350 - £125http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-FX8350-Edition-Processor-4-...
(RAM) AMD Radeon™ R9 Gamer Series–8GB (2x4GB)
DDR3 2400 MHz CL11 Memory Kit - £90http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY...

(PSU) Aerocool GT-S Series 700w - £70 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA...
(Motherboard) MSI A88X-G45 Gaming AMD A88X - £90 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB...
(Monitor) LG 22MP55HQ-P 22" LED IPS HDMI Monitor - £101
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO...
(Mouse) Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500 DPI Xtreme Precision Left Handed Edition Gaming Mouse - £44 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB...
(Keyboard) Razer Blackwidow Chroma Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - £145 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB...

Looks like a great build! I'd downgrade to an FX-8320 to save money (and it still achieves the same performance as an FX-8350 if you slightly overclock it) and get a 650W XFX or 620W Seasonic power supply.
October 8, 2014 4:51:08 PM

K3va_C said:
OK ive don alot of reasearch and decided in the next year or so to build this, i was wondering on peoples opinions and really if it would work, thanks

(Graphics Card) Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card - £150 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX...
(SSD) AMD Radeon R7 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive - £75http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD...
(CPU) AMD FX-8350 - £125http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-FX8350-Edition-Processor-4-...
(RAM) AMD Radeon™ R9 Gamer Series–8GB (2x4GB)
DDR3 2400 MHz CL11 Memory Kit - £90http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY...

(PSU) Aerocool GT-S Series 700w - £70 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA...
(Motherboard) MSI A88X-G45 Gaming AMD A88X - £90 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB...
(Monitor) LG 22MP55HQ-P 22" LED IPS HDMI Monitor - £101
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO...
(Mouse) Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500 DPI Xtreme Precision Left Handed Edition Gaming Mouse - £44 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB...
(Keyboard) Razer Blackwidow Chroma Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - £145 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB...


Motherboard and CPU are not compatible. The 8350 is socket AM3+, and that MoBo is FM2+
October 8, 2014 5:15:44 PM

You could try this if you want (went the Intel route, 5 pounds more expensive. I can do up an AMD build if you like):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£131.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.90 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£63.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£51.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Tri-X Video Card (£227.00 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£65.43 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: LG 22MP55HQ-P 60Hz 22.0" Monitor (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Razor Death Adder Respawn (£44.99)
Other: Razer Blackwidow Chroma (£144.95)
Total: £894.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-09 01:11 BST+0100

Far, and I mean far, better performance with a R9 290 GPU.

i5 4460 is generally better than the 8350, but cannot be overclocked and has a lower amount of threads. What this means is that in Most games the i5 is better, but in multi-threaded games the 8350 is on par.

Very nice 550W XFX PSU. 80+ Gold rated.

Bit of a strange blue colour scheme going on.

And your same Monitor, keyboard/mouse.
October 9, 2014 3:43:43 AM

Will the MSI A88X-G45 Gaming AMD A88X work with the AMD A10 5800K Black Edition and is it any good or better than the AMD FX(tm)-4100
October 9, 2014 5:18:05 AM

would anyone recommend the asus crosshair v formula-z motherboard? and would it work with a FX-8320?
October 9, 2014 5:29:24 AM

The A10-5800K is an APU from AMD, meaning that is has built-in integrated graphics. The graphics are really bad and cannot be used for games. APUs are mainly used for work loads.

The Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z looks like a crazy motherboard to me! It's very nice and will definitely compliment an FX-8320.
October 9, 2014 5:30:51 AM

If you want more feedback from different people, try making a new topic for recommendations and link it in this thread. I'll go over there and help you out, but I won't be the only one, so you'll have lots of choices to choose from, not just my opinions.
October 10, 2014 2:26:45 PM

That PC build is good. To save money, I suggest going with an FX-8320; it's just about the same processor but a lower price. The power supply is 750W which will leave room for upgrading as well, which is good. The only other thing I would change is the memory. Go from 1x8GB to 2x4GB. You'll have more efficiency.

Hope I've helped!
!