Possible Upgrade route?

Fantom

Fantom

Fantom

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Hi all,

I haven't looked into hardware for a while so Im not sure the best route on this, what I currently have is:

CPU: Intel Core i7 950 Bloomfield @ 3.07ghz
Mobo: Gigabyte X58A-UD7
Ram: 12GB Triple channel OCZ PC3-8500F
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5
PSU: 700w bequiet brand
Boot/os: 128gb OCZ Vertex450
Screen: 1920x1200 samsung, but tempted to bring into lounge to plug into 4k tv.

I'm looking for the best upgrade route if there is one for gaming, any suggestions?

To run an additional GFX card, or one any larger than the 5850 I would need to get a new case which is not ideal, but worth considering.

Thanks in advance
 
A new GPU would give the most immediate improvement - 1gb VRAM doesn't really cut it any more. Depending on your budget you could go for a GTX960 / R9 380 (the 4gb variants would be best) or R9 390 / GTX970
 
What's your budget OP? As ExRayTed says, the component that will improve your gaming performance the most would be a new graphics card. That 5850 is pretty weak for gaming by today's standards. I'd recommend an r9 390 or a gtx 970 if your budget will stretch that far.
 
theMilitant said:
What's your budget OP? As ExRayTed says, the component that will improve your gaming performance the most would be a new graphics card. That 5850 is pretty weak for gaming by today's standards. I'd recommend an r9 390 or a gtx 970 if your budget will stretch that far.
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Hi, I hadn't really thought about budget, but was thinking due to the pc being quite old that I may be able to pick up a bargain upgrade or two on the second hand market, perhaps another bigger SSD and a better graphics card, what would be most cost effective? I'm toying with the idea of plugging it into my tv so I guess I would need to pour money into it to get it to game on 4k?
 
Gaming at 4K is still a pretty tall order for most GPUs, but I suppose it depends on what games you play. To be honest, unless you're going to fork out for a 980ti then you're probably going to need to be prepared to dial down graphics settings or deal with lower frame rates. I suppose you could always use a non-native resolution, but I'm guessing you're not moving your PC to your living room so you can continue to game at 1200p.

I'm not even sure if AMD's/ Nvidia's next generation of GPUs will be able to handle 4K well OP, so I'd even hesitate to recommend waiting in anticipation of a card that's up to the job. I'd personally probably just advise getting a 970 for the time being, and potentially selling it and upgrading again this time next year once the GPU landscape has changed.
 
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