Upgrade options for £300

bioshockeruk

bioshockeruk

bioshockeruk

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16 Aug 2012
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Ok as title suggests I'm looking to upgrade my rig this week and have a strict budget of £300. I was thinking maybe getting Msi r9 390 flu but maybe cpu or ram upgrade would suit better?

My current rig is, fx 6300 with 2x 4gb crucial ballistix tactical tracer ram, msi 990 fx gaming mobo with msi radeon 7870 hawk. My psu is antec 750w and I have custom water loop with 240 rad for cpu cooling. My current overclock is 4.4ghz
 
I currently only have a 120gb SSD now as my 480gb died after setting up my loop (appears that the sata connection are not hot swappable! :( )

I will replace it soon but feel that right now either GPU or CPU would be more beneficial.

Also forgot to mention that my monitor is 1080p HD with 60Hz refresh rate so ideally gaming at 1080 with 60fps locked or higher with v-sync enabled is kinda what im after with this rig.

I could possibly go higher with my OC on the fx 6300 as currently at 4.4ghz with prime95 temps at around 54C. But maybe I'm doing something wrong as Prime95 always crashes out after I increase past 4.4ghz

EDIT: also is 8gb enough nowadays for gaming as I heard that Battlefront requesting upto 16gb?!
 
Don't think it matters as far as processor affinity. Tough choice though. AMD is hot card, more power, more noise under load, more VRAM that you could ever need, allegedly better Async Compute support (so more DX12 potential further down the line). GTX470 is quieter, uses less power and runs cooler, has under 4GB VRAM.
 
I think the power and noise are not an issue for me really and if I have options to change screens later then the r9 390 is looking promising in that respect.

Would some current games such as gta v use most of the 8gb vram on 1080 res?
 
No not really. Games seem to top at most 3GB. VRAM usage can explode (custom texture packs, resolution), but vanilla AAA games are written with a memory budget in mind (usually, consoles). Fallout 4 will be interesting. Shadow Of Mordor, Battlefield 4, GTA 5 seem to be able to use more than 3GB. Going over the VRAM budget has massive consequences though.

http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/89/much-vram-need-1080p-1440p-4k/index.html
 
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Interesting read there. Think I'll stick with the 390 as it allows a path to a better res later on.

Also my PSU only has 2x 6pin connectors for GPU. The 390 requires 1x 6pin & 1x 8pin. Now apparently the box has a 6pin to 8pin adapter, so that is useful, but is this safe to use or would I need a PSU with the right connector to provide the right power to the card?
 
Yes the PSU is ok. Antec is a good brand, and 750 watts is plenty of headroom. However it sounds strange that a Antec 750 (TruePower TP-750?) Doesn't have any 6+2 pins, and requires an adapter. What's the model?
 
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It's the antec 750w gamer and I just looked and it appears that it does have 6+2 connectors. I was confusing with my last psu I think! Awesome so that's gpu sorted. :)
 
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