Any point in new graphics card with this system?

alex2zulu · 20 Jan 2019 at 17:42

ive got an AMD fx8350 with 16gb ram and an r9 390 graphics card, im thinking of updating just the graphics, will it make that much difference do you think?
i use occulus rift, i play battlefield games a lot aswell

Thanks

ExRayTed · 20 Jan 2019 at 19:23

I'd say probably not worth it. Upgrade your mobo/cpu/ram first in my opinion.

MartinPrince · 20 Jan 2019 at 19:24

You could go to something in the class of a GTX1070 and the CPU bottlenecking would be minimal. What GPU are you thinking of upgrading to?

Have a look here to give you some idea:
https://thebottlenecker.com/calculator

Vexr · 22 Jan 2019 at 06:58

Former FX-8350 owner here who used a GTX 970 at 3440x1440 with it (essentially equivalent to an R9 390). I then upgraded to a 1070 Ti. The improvement in graphics card was only noticeable in a few games / simple scenes, and frame rate came crashing down with more than a few NPCs/in complex areas. I believe I also read somewhere the Oculus Rift taxes the CPU even more due to additional calculations needed for two angles (one for each eye on the Oculus Rift).

I'm no expert on that, but going by my experience with discovering the challenging resolution of 3440x1440 was still bottlenecked by the CPU, I'd say spend your money going over to Ryzen rather than a graphics card, but chances are you'll have to upgrade both sooner rather than later.

This recent thread might be a useful read in your case: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/need-help-deciding-on-gpu.18843786/

MartinPrince · 22 Jan 2019 at 14:53

Vexr said:
...
I'm no expert on that, but going by my experience with discovering the challenging resolution of 3440x1440 was still bottlenecked by the CPU, I'd say spend your money going over to Ryzen rather than a graphics card, but chances are you'll have to upgrade both sooner rather than later.

This recent thread might be a useful read in your case: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/need-help-deciding-on-gpu.18843786/

Thanks for that info. As not having an Oculus rift I would not be able to factor that in how it will affect the system but from your anecdotal experience it seems that it puts more strain on the CPU whereas I would have surmised it would have affected the GPU more.

Bengaboy · 23 Jan 2019 at 13:52

Another previous 8350 owner here. I had a 970 and then a Vega 56. The Vega 56 was an improvement, but not massively so. If you can afford it, I would keep the 390 and buy a 2600 package. You can get a decent mobo / ryzen / ram package for around the £300-350 mark.