Looking for some advice upgrading my CPU and GPU

Ryan McKenzie

Ryan McKenzie

Ryan McKenzie

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8 Apr 2017
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7
Hi guys!

I am looking for some advice when it comes to potentially upgrading my CPU and GPU. I have around £200-250 that I can put towards upgrades and am not expecting to get anything super special. I am a casual gamer who enjoys playing games like Overwatch, PlayerUnknown's BG, Witcher 3, etc. I am completely open to any suggestions of better options for CPUs and GPUs for me.

My current setup:

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P - 5.0 - motherboard - micro ATX - Socket AM3+ - AMD 760G
Graphics Card - GeForce GTX 660
CPU - AMD FX 4100 Quad-Core (95Watt)
RAM - Kingston HyperX Genesis 16Gb DDR3
PSU - Corsair CX430


Items I am looking at:

Graphics Card Options
- MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB OC GDDR5
- MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X 4G 4 GB GDDR5
- Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 1050Ti WF2 OC 4GB GDDR5
- EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC (Superclock) GAMING 4 GB GDDR5

CPU
- AMD FX 8350 Black Edition "Vishera" (125Watt) = £125.89

I have been looking at a number of potential items but I still have a few questions.

Can my motherboard support a 125watt processor (I think it can), and will my PSU handle the new GPU and CPU options I am looking at?

Are the components I have chosen all compatible with my current setup?

What is the better GPU out of the 4 I have chosen and are they good cards for around the £140 mark?


Any help would be awesome, thanks!
 
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Thanks for the fast reply and advice!

Looks like the AMD FX-8320E Black Edition 8 Core CPU might be a better option for my motherboard.

Any idea of the best GPU I can get for around £100-150?
 
Yeah I play at 1080p preferably.

When it comes to picking a 1050ti for example, what is best to consider? the ones I have listed on my main post, is there a GPU that is say "the better one"?

I am new to this so thanks for helping out.
 
You can get a rx480 4gb for £170 that is a stonking card for 1080p if your budget can stretch.

Save your money dont get the 8320 put the money towards a cpu motherboard memory upgrade in the future, overclock your 4100
 
Im with mickyflinn oc it, stick rx470 and keep the rest ££££ for future plans.
P.S. if oc'ing maybe better cooling???

Btw if you like more to the green team then there is no difference between them, just coolers/warranty/size. So its up to you which can fit your box
 
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Ah okay that's an idea. I have never oc'd before but am sure i can manage that, will my processor be stable when clocking it at say 4.5?

Also the temp may be higher so better cooling like you say may be a good shout. Put new thermal paste and cooling gear on. Any coolers you recommend?

Is getting the new processor a bad option? I want more juice and would love more stability and higher consistent fps when gaming.

Switching from an nvidea gpu will mean un installing nvidea drivers and installing new ones I guess?

Again, cheers for the help!
 
Ryan McKenzie said:
when clocking it at say 4.5?
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try looking for some videos on youtube, or even try finding here some info. i'm new with oc'ing too so can't give you much of advise (started last year to play around my old timer with oc'ing it). Found on web with air you could get ~4.6 on air so just do some researches about it.
Ryan McKenzie said:
better cooling
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again depends on the case that you have.
Ryan McKenzie said:
processor a bad option
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you would't gain much, waste of $$$ better keep it for new build :)
Ryan McKenzie said:
will mean un installing nvidea drivers
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any hardware change will ask for re-installation ;)
BTW didn't see if your with HDD or SSD?? Get yourself SSD for the money left after GPU and HSF. That will give nice boost too :) and once again try checking some videos for the parts that we suggested
 
Cool! This is awesome, thanks for the help!

I will try oc'ing my current CPU and see how that works out. I will look around for a CPU cooler and GPU like you guys suggested.

Currently I have a 250gb SSD and 1tb HDD.

Hoping to run games with no frame issues and on reasonable graphics quality. I am not looking to build a completely new PC for at least another 2 years, so i dont mind spending £200-250 so i guess i have a decent amount to play with for a small upgrade.

Thanks for taking time to help a newbie out! :)
 
I can't remember what the GTX660 was like in comparison, but when looking to replace my GTX670 recently, the GTX1050Ti didn't seem to offer up a particularly large improvement, may be worth considering a 3GB GTX1060 instead (can be had around £185) if you're wanting to stick with nVidia? The RX480 is also a good performer at that price range but seen a lot of people complaining about build quality issues on the cheaper RX480s.
 
Okay so I can go for these upgrades:

CPU - AMD FX 4100 Quad-Core *Overclocked* (My current CPU)

CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Air

GPU - Radeon RX 480 Nitro 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express RGB or Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 1060 WF2 3GB GDDR5 PCI-E

I should be able to achieve these upgrades easily under my £250 budget.

Cheers! Looking forward to getting these installed.
 
If you are going to overclock your current cpu then keep a eye on the vrm temps as they have no heatsink at all. If they overheat they will throttle the cpu. This is why it would be a bad idea to fit a FX8000 series cpu in that board as they really hammer the vrm's.
 
The price is day and night too, his entire budget would be gone on just the card. 3GB will be an ample upgrade from an old GTX660 and by the time you genuinely need to worry about 3GB of VRAM not being enough, a GTX1060 would be struggling anyway.

I heard all the same sort of chat when I bought my GTX670, get the 4GB because the 2GB won't last bla bla bla. By the time I was anywhere near worried about the 2GB VRAM not being enough, the chip was long obsolete anyway.
 
Kenai said:
The price is day and night too, his entire budget would be gone on just the card. 3GB will be an ample upgrade from an old GTX660 and by the time you genuinely need to worry about 3GB of VRAM not being enough, a GTX1060 would be struggling anyway.

I heard all the same sort of chat when I bought my GTX670, get the 4GB because the 2GB won't last bla bla bla. By the time I was anywhere near worried about the 2GB VRAM not being enough, the chip was long obsolete anyway.
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For all GPU's now prices are sky high... keeping my eyes for 1050ti ir rx470 too :D just for 1080p. But the prices atm hmmmmmm...
 
I am willing to give oc'ing a go and see how I get on but I am just wondering about how long I will get out of my CPU once oc'd.
Instead of oc'ing and purchasing a new CPU cooler, would buying a better CPU be less hassle and more stable?

pastymuncher said:
bad idea to fit a FX8000 series cpu in that board
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So say I was looking to go for a new CPU, I would not be able to use the AMD FX-8320E comfortably in my board?

mickyflinn said:
http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-78LMT-S2P-rev-5x#support-cpu
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^ This link Mickyflinn posted seems to think my board can handle the AMD FX-8320E.

I am not trying to go against what you guys are saying I am just wondering if upgrading the CPU will be more reliable and last me in the long run, especially since Pastymuncher mentioned my boards VRM.

Even if I have to borrow a little bit money from my parents initially I could get these although over budget:

CPU - AMD FX-8320E Black Edition 8 Core

CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Air

GPU - Radeon RX 480 Nitro 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express RGB

Would this be a good option if i push it, or do you think just go with my original CPU (oc'd) with new cooler and get a GPU I want?

Thanks for all the input and time to help me out guys, I am pretty much good to go now i reckon! Not knowing about this stuff has been tough but you have made it way more comfortable :)



 
Ryan McKenzie said:
I am willing to give oc'ing a go and see how I get on but I am just wondering about how long I will get out of my CPU once oc'd.
Instead of oc'ing and purchasing a new CPU cooler, would buying a better CPU be less hassle and more stable?



So say I was looking to go for a new CPU, I would not be able to use the AMD FX-8320E comfortably in my board?



^ This link Mickyflinn posted seems to think my board can handle the AMD FX-8320E.

I am not trying to go against what you guys are saying I am just wondering if upgrading the CPU will be more reliable and last me in the long run, especially since Pastymuncher mentioned my boards VRM.

Even if I have to borrow a little bit money from my parents initially I could get these although over budget:

CPU - AMD FX-8320E Black Edition 8 Core

CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Air

GPU - Radeon RX 480 Nitro 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express RGB

Would this be a good option if i push it, or do you think just go with my original CPU (oc'd) with new cooler and get a GPU I want?

Thanks for all the input and time to help me out guys, I am pretty much good to go now i reckon! Not knowing about this stuff has been tough but you have made it way more comfortable :)
Click to expand...


pastymuncher said:
If you are going to overclock your current cpu then keep a eye on the vrm temps as they have no heatsink at all. If they overheat they will throttle the cpu. This is why it would be a bad idea to fit a FX8000 series cpu in that board as they really hammer the vrm's.
Click to expand...
 
Ryan McKenzie said:
Thanks for the fast reply and advice!

Looks like the AMD FX-8320E Black Edition 8 Core CPU might be a better option for my motherboard.

Any idea of the best GPU I can get for around £100-150?
Click to expand...

It be irrelevant now, but the phenom x 4/6 likely be the Bette choice from the support lists they tend to fair well.
 
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