Help on upgrading gpu - Newbie

[joeyboy789]

Hi guys, am looking to upgrade my low end pc slightly and am starting with the gpu, at the minute i have an amd radeon 5450 which is about as bad as you can get

So due to my low budget i'm looking at either the Nvidia GT 740 or AMD FirePro V3900, both ddr3's as thats only what my motherboard will take due to there not being a PCI-E X16 slot next to my graphics card slot (if thats what ddr5 requires?)

My full spec is:
Radeon 5450
AMD Fx-4100 cpu
1tb hdd
16GB Ram
Am unsure on mobo as i bought it a while ago and has been least of my priorities.

So opinions on both and which you think will be best for gaming will be appreciated.

Also, reason for choosing to uprade gpu is going by the windows index scores, which is 4.1 since the gpu scores that therefore being the lowest scorer.

Thanks

 

[postmanfw]

Welcome to the forums

Motherboard model needs to be known...cpu-z will tell you.

Also what psu?
Main thing is how many amps on the 12v rail?
sticker on psu will tell you.

Is the only reason you are upgrading due to the index score?

What is gpu needed for?

 

[joeyboy789]

Thanks for the welcome

Am away from the pc now until later afternoon, but going by my memory and overclockers products I'm 99% its an MSI 970A-G46 960. That's nearly exactly the same as mine bar a few things.

Also unsure on psu, I know it's a 500W but again, unsure on ampage on the 12v rail, and dont recall seeing a sticker on it the last time I looked at it which wasn't long ago.

The reason I want to upgrade is because my gaming experience is near non existent, graphic settings have to be on the lowest settings and even then on some games such as armor 2 or Warface it lags badly.

Just looking to be able to game with slightly better graphics and no lag really.

 

[OspreyO]

What did you get?

 

[new boy]

holy crap, what an awful graphics card. I also want to know what you got in the end as I'm sure you would have been pleased with it. Suprised no one told you not to get a firepro though :S

 

[postmanfw]

Forgot to ask how much you are looking to spend?

Your motherboard will happily take modern gpus just depends on if its a quality psu.
They all have the amps rating on them somewhere...you may have to remove it from the case to see it though.

Decent 500w will have around 40A on the 12v rail....cheap ones will be waaaay lower.

All depends on the budget really

Hope you didnt get either of them cards as pretty much a waste of money for gaming.

 

[ghost.florian]

" both ddr3's as thats only what my motherboard will take due to there not being a PCI-E X16 slot next to my graphics card slot (if thats what ddr5 requires?)"

Not sure who told you that DDR3 vs DDR5 (or GDDR5) simply represents the speed at which the graphics card's memory is clocked. The higher the speed, the better (usually).

Based on your CPU, you will want something which is low power, like a Radeon 265 which only requires a 6 Pin PCI-E cable (google those to see what they look like and if your PSU has one).
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-349-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

If your budget only stretches up to the £60-£70 mark, you will be better off with a second hand option. Try the popular auction site, you can find a mid range last get card for a decent price. Something like an Nvidia 670 or AMD 7870/7950.

 

[tomtalk24]

As posted, I would recommend a 7950 off "a popular auction site". Your PSU has a fair bit of wattage to play with if your 12v rails can take it. The 7950 will use 2 6pin connection. I don't like seeing molex adapters as they always fail in time. Your CPU will be your next bottleneck so a future upgrade to plan and look forward to