Upgrade advice for 2012 build

Brennan · 26 Dec 2015 at 12:27

Happy holidays all,

Hoping for some advice on the best upgrade for my current rig. My budget is around £150.00.

I have recently bought Just Cause 3 and it does not run at all well. Currently use a 1080p monitor and I have no plans to update in the foreseeable future.

Current set up:
MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB)

I was thinking either a R9 380 or a GTX 960 but not sure which is best, and not sure if any of my other components are a bottleneck.

Thanks

ExRayTed · 26 Dec 2015 at 13:10

Yup, new GPU and you'll be good to go.

Either of the cards you've listed would be a good upgrade - Link to some benchmarks

The rest of your system is still fine for games.

Bickaxe · 26 Dec 2015 at 13:19

A 960 is better but not much in it. I think the extra VRAM you can get with a 380 for a similar price makes it a more tempting card.

You could get a 290 or 780 2nd hand for similar money I think.

Have you overclocked yet?

Brennan · 26 Dec 2015 at 13:33

Thanks for the advice so far. I would prefer to stick with new components.

I have not overclocked as I have no idea what to do or where to start.

I have see the KFA2 GTX 960 is available for £140 and the Asus R9 380 is available for £156, are either of these brands reliable and the best value for money in their respective ranges?

stulid · 26 Dec 2015 at 13:37

Many guides out there to help you overclock (add a bigger heatsink if you are using stock).

The boards BIOS may need updating (use Qflash to di this) to help it recognize newer gpu releases.