Upgrade advice for older gaming computer.

Stormraven

Reputable
Oct 2, 2014
2
0
4,510
This is my nephew's gaming computer and it may be time for an upgrade. He enjoys FPS, third person adventures games (AC, Watch Dogs, etc) and is looking forward to Middle Earth Shadows of Mordor. Unfortunately the computer struggles with current games on decent settings (medium). What, if anything, do you recommend to improve performance on a $200 budget?

Motherboard: EVGA X58 Micro Edition
Processor: Intel i7 930 2.8ghz but overclocked to 3.5ghz
Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
PSU: 750W (Corsair I think)
HDD: Western Digital 500GB 7200

Thank you in advance and let me know if any additional details are needed.
 

Rapajez

Distinguished
The MSI Gaming Edition GTX 770 is approaching $200. That would be a big leap in performance, and still compatible. The 760 is around your price, but not a drastic leap in performance over the 5870, still would get the job done.

Otherwise, I'd agree that waiting for the 960 is a good option. It may be around $250 on release, if history is any indication.
 

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
An HD 5870 is about on par with an HD 7850 1gb. HD 7950/R9 280/R9 285/ GTX 760 are the places to start, if you do not want to wait. I would suggest, in this case, you wait, as this is just an upgrade and not a repair. That and the wait isn't very long.
 

Stormraven

Reputable
Oct 2, 2014
2
0
4,510
I can definitely wait and thank you both for the feedback. The AMD R9 280's price is perfect and the 3GB is an improvement over the 1GB in the HD 5870. Still, I can wait and see on the GTX 960 price and performance.
 

Rapajez

Distinguished
I would hope the 960 comes in at at least 3GB, and hopefully 4.

That said, 1080p gaming is only now approaching 2GB. Higher resolutions (1440p, 3-monitor 5760x1080, 4k) are the primary factor in driving up Video memory usage. I suppose it's not unreasonable to assume 1080p gaming will make use of 3GB in the next few years.