Need some opinions on upgrading my system

[Dan_Dano]

Hey all,
In about 3 months I get the chance to upgrade my current system for around €200. ($210, £170)
So far I'm pretty satisfied with my system, although is has some difficulties playing some heavy games like 'ARK: Survival Evolved' and Rust.
I'm considering upgrading my GPU to a Radeon RX 470, since it has a really nice price for it's benchmarking results. Would this be a good choice, or is there something way more obvious that I should do to improve my gaming experience?

My current specifications:
CPU: AMD FX-6300
GPU: MSI R7850-2GD5/OC
RAM: 8GB Dual-Channel DDR3
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3
Storage:
- Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB
- 5400rpm 1TB harddisk
PSU: Corsair CX 430W

Thanks in advance,
Thomas

Edit: Taking a look at the forum, I might have posted this topic in the wrong subcategory. Please excuse me for my negligence.

 

[Multipack]

The RX 470 is about the max your CPU could handle, and there may be a slight bottleneck but overall I'd say you'll get a huge improvement and is a great choice.

One thing though, your PSU is bare minimum and not the greatest quality so could do with upgrading if you want to be safe.

 

[burgessanthony]

Yep, 470 would be decent but that PSU is not. I'd look to upgrade.

Depending on the game I'd still expect the cpu to cause some issues.

 

[Dan_Dano]

Thanks for the replies!
My current graphics card has a TDP of 130W, and the R470 has a TDP of 110W.
I haven't had any issues so far with this card in the past 2 years, so does that mean it would be okay with the R470?

 

[Multipack]

Its more the quality of the components than the wattage, and 430w should be just about adequate provided you arent doing any serious overclocking.

 

[Dan_Dano]

Ah, thanks for clearing up.
Guess I'll just buy the new card and upgrade the PSU later if it causes any issues.

 

[burgessanthony]

Tdp isn't the same as peak draw. Most cards exceed tdp peak in gaming. My cards tdp is something like 180....exceeds 200 quite happily.

Yes, THe Cx are ok psus. However, id advise something a little more solid for a gaming based rig.

 

[Dan_Dano]

Ah, my bad. I thought I read somewhere on the internet that TDP meant the maximum amount of watt it could use.
When looking for a 'solid' PSU, should I be looking for one with a higher wattage or with a higher certification?

 

[dontlistentome]

Some games aren't optimized well, so they will struggle no matter what videocard you have. One way to test this is to run your games at the highest resolution you can, for example medium settings at 1080p, then at the lowest resolution you can, ie medium settings at 720p. You should see a large jump in framerate as the resolution gets lower. This means your computer could run the game faster with a better videocard. If the framerate does not increase much, this means your system is already at its limits and a better videocard won't help.

 

[Dan_Dano]

I understand what you mean by badly optimized games. Both of the games I mentioned are alpha games so they indeed aren't optimized well.
On ARK: Survival Evolved I have around 30 FPS on the highest resolution, and hit the 60 FPS cap when on the lowest resolution.
This would mean there is enough room to improve, right?