Looking for upgrade advice please

[NLS666]

Hi, I'm looking to get some advice on upgrading my old system for under £200 if you wouldn't mind helping. I know there's lots of threads on the same subject but I'm long out of date with pc components and it would be helpful to get specific advice.

Approximate Purchase Date: 5/6/7? years ago
Budget Range: £200
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Games, everything else runs fine

Parts to Upgrade: Currently I have:

MB - Asus P6T
CPU - core i7 920 @ 3.66Ghz
GPU - Radeon HD 5870 1Gb
RAM - 6Gb DDR3 Corsair Dominator (3x2Gb @ 1600Mhz)
OS - Windows 10 64bit
Monitor - 24" 1920 x 1080
HDD - no solid state drives

Location: UK
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: No
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Recently bought Battlefield 1, system I have now struggles to play on lowest settings.

Had a read around various forums trying to get back up to speed with what's out there and I'm currently looking at getting a Sapphire R9 290 4Gb graphics card for £100 and replacing RAM with 16Gb HyperX Black DDR3 @ 1600 Mhz for about £70. Planning on staying with the I7-920 CPU and ASUS mobo.

Does that sound like a good way of increasing playability on Battlefield 1, or would you recommend a different graphics card/ram/cpu/mobo? I'm not really looking to spend more than that for the time being, plus that's the only new game I've bought in a while.

 

[Dethan1999]

I think a new Graphics Card will provide you the best improvement for gaming. The i7-920 is old, but it should still hold up fairly well today. If you were to upgrade your i7-920, you would need a whole new motherboard, which will end up WAY over your budget...

A new GPU will help a lot. Perhaps a RX 480 or GTX 1060 will be good. Whatever is in your price range. Nvidia's GTX 10 series is a good choice if you find one within your budget. RX 480's are also very good.

As for RAM, I think it could be worth upgrading in the future. But if you are looking for something that will really improve performance, a new GPU is the best option.

 

[Lehan123456789]

One thing, do not get 16gb ram. 8gb of ram should be sufficient for many years. A new GPU would make the largest difference, something like an Rx 480/470, a 1050 ti or low end 1060. Unfortunately battlefield 1 is a very cpu intensive game, so as soon as you can get it after your GPU, I would get a RYZEN 5 or RYZEN 3 CPU (although no word on when the new lowest end amd platform will be released).

 

[Dethan1999]

One thing, do not get 16gb ram. 8gb of ram should be sufficient for many years. A new GPU would make the largest difference, something like an Rx 480/470, a 1050 ti or low end 1060. Unfortunately battlefield 1 is a very cpu intensive game, so as soon as you can get it after your GPU, I would get a RYZEN 5 or RYZEN 3 CPU (although no word on when the new lowest end amd platform will be released).

I agree. I forgot to go in depth about the RAM. 8GB should be fine in your case. I think in a few years 8 GB will be the new "minimum" like 4GB was a while ago.

 

[Lehan123456789]

One thing, do not get 16gb ram. 8gb of ram should be sufficient for many years. A new GPU would make the largest difference, something like an Rx 480/470, a 1050 ti or low end 1060. Unfortunately battlefield 1 is a very cpu intensive game, so as soon as you can get it after your GPU, I would get a RYZEN 5 or RYZEN 3 CPU (although no word on when the new lowest end amd platform will be released).

I agree. I forgot to go in depth about the RAM. 8GB should be fine in your case. I think in a few years 8 GB will be the new "minimum" like 4GB was a while ago.

Glad you agree