Upgrade time! Thoughts/recommendation appreciated.

R

rudini

n00b
Joined
Oct 9, 2015
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5
Hey all,

First time poster, long time reader.

I've posted my specs in my signature below, hoping that would help.... I'm looking to upgrade only my video card and stay in the sub $200 range. Spending more, i figured would create an "upgrade bottleneck", but I'm not sure.

What brought this about? Damn Star Wars Battlefront beta. Damn thing won't even run, errors out after EA logo (complains about my video card not have 2GB of RAM) :(

I found these, but I was hoping to get some feed back from you guys:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=REVIEWS&PageSize=30

Thank you in advance!!
Rudy

PS: Haven't had an issue until now. But I haven't tried AAA titles like Witcher 3 and MGS 5. Two games I've been wanting to play.

PPS: I've pre-ordered the Steam Link. Want to maximize compatibility there.

PPS: AMD or Nvidia. I have no brand loyalty.
 
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For $200 find yourself a use d R9 290. If it must be new the 380 and gtx 960 are the only ones worth looking at.
 
EBay is probably the easiest to find a cheap 290, just get one with serial number warranty like MSI or Asus.
 
Well... 960's suck and the 780ti isn't in stock. Its just a placeholder. Are you super limited to sub-$200? Is newegg your only choice?
 
"Bottlenecking" is one of the most misused and misunderstood terms on these hardware forums. Your i7 will do pretty well paired with almost anything. When you are getting to stuff like SLI 980ti's or Titans then yes, you are crazy for not upgrading the CPU. Your 'bottlenecking' might cost you 5 FPS or so versus a newer CPU. Keeping that CPU will save you hundreds of dollars. Hundreds of dollars put towards the graphics card will get you more than 5 FPS.
 
Your CPU is adequate and won't cause a bottleneck in virtually all games out there, especially with the OC you have on it.

Therefore, for a good 1080p experience, I'd look at the 970GTX (probably above your budget) or an R9 290 card (going for ~250 these days).

If you're set on the sub-$200 pricepoint, it'd be between the R9 280 and 960GTX, neither of which will be able to max out every AAA game at 1080p.
 
Let us know what you pick. Like the above posters said your CPU is just fine, so any video card will go great with it.
 
LigTasm said:
Well... 960's suck and the 780ti isn't in stock. Its just a placeholder. Are you super limited to sub-$200? Is newegg your only choice?
Click to expand...

Definitely not married to Newegg or Amazon. Those are just two vendors I've used and feel comfortable with.

I picked the $200 price point, because that how much I spent on my current card in 2011. It has served me really well for 4 years. Also, I don't need everything on EXTREME all the time. I prefer a smooth experience over perfect graphics (heresy?).

I have it pre-ordered, but I'm hoping to take advantage of the Steam Link as much as possible in the near future.

All the Valve and Blizzard games, run really well (according to my standards) on my current machine, and that's what i mostly play. I say this to give you guys a point of reference. I recently started BioShock Infinite and that runs well, too. I know these are older games, but you know.

Thanks again for your help!
Rudy

PS: Is it worth waiting for possible black friday or cyber monday deals?
 
Reason I ask is games like TW3 are going to crush a $200 card even at medium settings. IMO for $200 a 4GB R9 380 might be your best bet if you have to buy new. The 960 is pretty gimped. If you can move up to $250 a R9 290 can usually be found new on sale for that price which will be much faster.
 
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