Hi folks, I'm hoping there's some knowledgeable folks out there that can help me out. I'm fairly computer savvy but I'm a little bit out of the loop with current tech, I tend to research the hell out of it every time I'm due a new PC and then have a few years off until the cycle starts again!
The last machine I got was back in 2012 and while it was fairly decent at the time it was by no means top of the range. My main gaming interest is FPS as everything else I tend to go via the Xbox, but I've played FPS for so many years on PCs that trying to use a joypad on a console is horrific!
I've no desire for a machine that is cutting edge, I'd just like to be able to play some of the best FPS from the last 4 or 5 years at a reasonable level of detail.
Given the age of my machine I was assuming it was passed the point at which upgrading would be viable, but now I'm not so sure. From what I can tell processor tech hasn't improved dramatically in that time and it may be that a simple GPU upgrade would give me what I need.
My current spec is an i5-2400 (running stock at 3.1ghz) with 8gb RAM and a Radeon 6700. I recognise that the graphics card is a massive bottleneck, it wasn't the greatest card when I specced it but I needed to save costs somewhere and that was it, it sufficed at the time but obviously is no good for any modern games.
Do you think a simple graphics card upgrade would enable me to play games from say 2012-2017 at a reasonable level? Is the processor still able to hack it, still enough RAM? I'm also not sure what my options are graphics wise, my motherboard is an Asus PH-61-M, will this restrict me in anyway? The PSU is a Corsair CX500 (75-001667), are modern cards likely to put too much of a strain on this or are they all more power efficient these days?
I started speccing up a new system but it's looking like even a midrange machine is going to be in the order of £600-800, whereas if a simple graphics upgrade at £100-150 would get me decent results I'd rather go that route.
The last machine I got was back in 2012 and while it was fairly decent at the time it was by no means top of the range. My main gaming interest is FPS as everything else I tend to go via the Xbox, but I've played FPS for so many years on PCs that trying to use a joypad on a console is horrific!
I've no desire for a machine that is cutting edge, I'd just like to be able to play some of the best FPS from the last 4 or 5 years at a reasonable level of detail.
Given the age of my machine I was assuming it was passed the point at which upgrading would be viable, but now I'm not so sure. From what I can tell processor tech hasn't improved dramatically in that time and it may be that a simple GPU upgrade would give me what I need.
My current spec is an i5-2400 (running stock at 3.1ghz) with 8gb RAM and a Radeon 6700. I recognise that the graphics card is a massive bottleneck, it wasn't the greatest card when I specced it but I needed to save costs somewhere and that was it, it sufficed at the time but obviously is no good for any modern games.
Do you think a simple graphics card upgrade would enable me to play games from say 2012-2017 at a reasonable level? Is the processor still able to hack it, still enough RAM? I'm also not sure what my options are graphics wise, my motherboard is an Asus PH-61-M, will this restrict me in anyway? The PSU is a Corsair CX500 (75-001667), are modern cards likely to put too much of a strain on this or are they all more power efficient these days?
I started speccing up a new system but it's looking like even a midrange machine is going to be in the order of £600-800, whereas if a simple graphics upgrade at £100-150 would get me decent results I'd rather go that route.