Upgrade Advice

[Connar]

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help me here. I am (sort of) a PC gamer. I have never played anything too hardware intensive (Overwatch, ESO, WoW) but I have recently decided to start using my PC to play a more diverse range of games to save buying a PS4/5 or an Xbox. I recently jumped onto Steam and bought AC Odyssey in the summer sale, and wow my PC CANNOT play this game! The graphics quality is on the lowest and it just looks and even sounds dreadful (not sure how the sound is so bad). My PC specs are as follows:

Intel Core i5-4430 CPU
8GB Ram
GeForce GTX 750ti
Corsair VS650

So from what I know I need more RAM and have been told to get a better graphics card. But then I have also been told I might need to upgrade my motherboard and power supply, which I know nothing about. I am no expert on PC's at all and really am just looking for some advice on what parts I should focus on upgrading, so I can get my PC to at least PS4 level graphics (if that makes any sense) - or whether I should just sell the machine and get a new setup.

Budget wise, it's not high. I cannot afford to spend thousands but could probably spend up to 500.00 if I had to on parts - and if it's time to get a new rig then I would probably have to look at saving for that so upgrading what I have sounds like the go to for me.

Any advice is more than welcome!

 

[Quartz]

Now is a bad time to be buying a new GPU: new GPUs are in the offing - probably launching in August. And it is the GPU that will give you the most immediate performance improvement.

A decent GPU - something like a GTX 1660 Super - will consume half of your budget, but a GPU with that performance will be available for £50-£100 less in a few months.

Do you have a SSD? Because that will be the other big change: your PC will be much more responsive. Windows and games will load much faster.

 

[Connar]

Thanks for the response. I have a HDD at the moment. If an SSD is going to be something I could swap out myself then I will definitely look into it.

 

[Connar]

So what I have come across for a reasonable price (under 300.00) is the following:

Kingston 8GB DDR3 - bringing my total up 16GB DDR3 RAM
500GB WD Blue SSD - to replace my 1TB HDD (I am currently only using 200GB of that HDD)
GTX 1660 Super 6GB GPU - to replace my old 750ti

Found all this on E-buyers for under 300.00.

 

[heatonpkmassive]

AC is a very demanding game and your i5 may struggle with it at higher settings. You can look for a second hand 4770k or 4790k, but second hand prices for those don't tend to be favourable. If you could pick one of those up for no more than 100 quid, 120 at a push, then it'd maybe be worth it. I did go from a 4690k to a 4790k and it made a world of difference, 4 threads vs 8.

But a better graphics card and more memory will help, you might not be able to run the game at very high settings, but it'll be markedly better than it is now.

 

[Connar]

Thanks for the advice, I am not looking to push it to the max and play anything on the highest settings anyway - just hoping for games to look less like jittering colourful blocks and blobs on my screen.

 

[Quartz]

Intel Core i5-4430 CPU

Exactly which motherboard do you have? Your motherboard may support a high core count Xeon CPU.

500GB WD Blue SSD - to replace my 1TB HDD (I am currently only using 200GB of that HDD)
GTX 1660 Super 6GB GPU - to replace my old 750ti

Remember that you can transfer these to a new PC later on.

You might also find this video of interest:

 

[Connar]

Exactly which motherboard do you have?

It says ASUSTeK Z87I-Pro

 

[Joxeon]

You maybe better off getting the new ps5/Xbox as they will be quite powerful and to buy a PC at that level with current hardware your looking at almost £1500.

 

[Quartz]

It says ASUSTeK Z87I-Pro

The supported Xeons top out at 4 cores so don't bother there.