Upgrade advise please.

[Dead Dog]

Hi all,
A friend is wanting to upgrade his boys pc's graphics for christmas, I'm totally out of the loop these days so said I'd ask the experts

It was bought as a gaming pc about 4 years ago.
Spec is
GPU - MSI GTX 960(2012)
CPU - AMD FX 4300
MOBO - MSI 760GM-P23
RAM - single slot of 8gb
PSU - Integrator 500w

The son was on about upgrading everything other than the GPU, which I said probably isn't where the gain will be made.
I've had a very quick look this morning and the CPU as a new purchase is a bit of a no go as a better CPU is only a little bit more, so was thinking maybe change that, but then I also read that mobo may top out at the 4300.
But like I said I would have thought the best option will be the GPU.
He's playing Farcry 5 amongst others and saying its struggling a bit.
His budget is upto £450 so maybe there is the option to upgrade a few things.
So what do you think guys

Thanks

 

[AMDPower]

You have not said what resolution you play at but i am assuming its 1080P

You have two choice, if you keep the GPU although not bad, its not really ideal for 1080p gaming.

If you keep the GPU then you can buy

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/amd-...ram-free-240gb-ssd-online-only-bu-01f-am.html

£367.97*

if you decide to buy a new gpu then this will do 1080P resolution gaming just fine

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powe...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-18l-pc.html

£169.99

unfortunately it does come to over your budget a little. You could sell the old hardware to make back some money but both those links are good deals for what you are getting.

I am not sure what power supply that is, but maybe might be worth buying a more decent one. I would not risk it with some unknown Chinese brand.

 

[Dead Dog]

So would you say that cpu is the max for that mobo,
How would just adding that GPU to his setup work?

Thanks

 

[Dead Dog]

and yes it is 1080

 

[AMDPower]

its not advisable look at this video here

Its basically your CPU vs ryzen 1600x which is little slower than the one i recommended to you with a GTX 1060 which is TINY bit slower than the RTX580 i recommended to you. So these results are valid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4unsuHdOE8U

you can see the frame rate difference yourself, there is HUGE difference.

But if you cant afford it, then that motherboard he has now can take AMD cpu max of 95w

You could buy either a FX-8370E, FX 8350 or the FX 6300 for round about the £50 mark you cant buy the 125w parts as far as i know and you will need to upgrade the cooling to a better CPU cooler as those cpu are run HOT.

The issue is that the FX8350 is 125w and is listed as working with the motherboard, best to double check your motherboard will take it before commuting to anything like that.

But definitely change the GPU now and then the rest of the system later when you have money. With one of those FX chips will be a big upgrade over the FX 4300 he has currently but compared to the tyzen build i recommended they are still far away in performance.

 

[Dead Dog]

Many Thanks!

 

[AMDPower]

I just double checked agian with the CPU list for your motherbard and the FX 8350 is not listed as possible, i was right only 95w chips so that leaves you with only the FX 8370E whic is still a big upgrade over the FX4300. It should be enough for the RX580, just barely!( actually its bottle necking it ) If its possible to overclock it ( they run hot need BEEFY cooler) then you might be able to squeeze more performance out of it still.

good luck.


oh if you can find another stick of 8GB ram for cheap then that might help a little, with some games like TombRaider that like more ram loaded into memory. Also get a SSD boot drive if you do not have non then are cheap enough now. Those would tide the system over nicely.

https://storage-asset.msi.com/file/test_report/TR19_24433.pdf

 

[Dead Dog]

Many thanks for the advice, I'll pass that on, he has a few options there