What to upgrade - £200 ish

Hawkesbury · 10 Mar 2019 at 21:28

Evening,

Currently using a 5-6 ish year old set up.

AMD 8320
16gb Ram
7950 GPU
23inch 1080p screen

I am looking to spend up to about £200 now and then another £250-300 or so in the Summer. I am looking to play The Division 2 - the beta ran okay in terms of FPS on low settings but looked like my 5 year old had drawn it.

What do I upgrade first?

As some AMD cards are coming with the game thrown in id probably look at one of those over the Nvidia equivalent as that saves some cash. I am not planning on getting a new screen.

ilc72 · 11 Mar 2019 at 21:45

The best upgrade now would probably be an RX580 8GB if you can get a good deal, it’s a very competent 1080p gaming card and comes with two free games when purchased from a participating retailers.

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

I’m not sure if OcUK is participating, it was but perhaps @Gibbo could confirm.

Lemin · 11 Mar 2019 at 22:08

Need to tell us make and power of your psu also.

theforce · 12 Mar 2019 at 00:51

Lemin said:
Need to tell us make and power of your psu also.

A stock 580 shouldn't be more power hungry than his current 7950.

Beren · 12 Mar 2019 at 04:05

Like most things - just spend a little more...
You can get a Vega56 for 270 right now which will cover you in case you upgrade your monitor down the line and you get the Division2 for free + Devil May Cry and Resident Evil - which you could sell to make up the difference.

Or you go Nvidia with a 1660ti at 260 - which performs about at Vega56 level, is a new card, but doesn't get the free games.

Alternatively you can get an RX580 with the Division and Devil May Cry for 180.
I am running an RX590 and can play pretty much anything at 1080p on Ultra settings - the 580 is a stonking 1080p card.

Either way you are then looking at a bottle neck from your 8320. The bad news is the next upgrade is going to be CPU+RAM+MB which is going to be more like 350-450 than 250. (A Ryzen 2600 + 16gb + B450 board is about 380 pounds at the moment - but I think the Ryzen 3000 chips will add at least 50 to this)

But if you go AMD you do save having to pay for the Division... so that is a plus

Lemin · 12 Mar 2019 at 10:22

theforce said:
A stock 580 shouldn't be more power hungry than his current 7950.

6 ish year old set up !!

Hawkesbury · 12 Mar 2019 at 15:28

Lemin said:
Need to tell us make and power of your psu also.

Lemin said:
6 ish year old set up !!

Just found the OCUK invoice from 2013.

It is a Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power supply

Hawkesbury · 12 Mar 2019 at 15:42

Beren said:
Like most things - just spend a little more...
You can get a Vega56 for 270 right now which will cover you in case you upgrade your monitor down the line and you get the Division2 for free + Devil May Cry and Resident Evil - which you could sell to make up the difference.

Or you go Nvidia with a 1660ti at 260 - which performs about at Vega56 level, is a new card, but doesn't get the free games.

Alternatively you can get an RX580 with the Division and Devil May Cry for 180.
I am running an RX590 and can play pretty much anything at 1080p on Ultra settings - the 580 is a stonking 1080p card.

Either way you are then looking at a bottle neck from your 8320. The bad news is the next upgrade is going to be CPU+RAM+MB which is going to be more like 350-450 than 250. (A Ryzen 2600 + 16gb + B450 board is about 380 pounds at the moment - but I think the Ryzen 3000 chips will add at least 50 to this)

But if you go AMD you do save having to pay for the Division... so that is a plus

Thank you for your responses. So to clarify I think I am looking for the following:

RTX580 with games for £180ish - Is there a best brand of card or do I just want the longest warranty? The Vega 56 is just a bit too much over budget, although this at £250 seems an option if I could sell the other 2 games.

With regards to the CPU, MOBO and RAM - is there anything new on the horizon worth waiting for? I know when I got the 7950 it was 'old tech' and discounted.

orbitalwalsh · 12 Mar 2019 at 15:56

gtx 1660 is out end of the week, dont get vega 56 with that FX chip, will be paying for wasted frames , specially if at 1080p ! take a fx chip and vega 56 then move it to a ryzen 1400/2400 and you'll see good 15 fps increase on average.

only slightly slower then gtx 1660ti and if not gaming at 1440p, slower ram doesnt effect it to much

Beren · 12 Mar 2019 at 21:36

I am not an expert - I would do your own research on specific model reviews, I would only be parroting the things I have read. I have a Sapphire Nitro+ and it is a great card, but I don't know much about others. I also got a good deal on it at Christmas - I wouldn't pay current RX590 money, certainly not with the OCUK prices on Vega!

The Vega56 would be bottle necked by your current CPU - but when you upgrade later you will see the benefit - it is exactly like your 7950, a great deal at the end of it's life span. You would be getting nearly twice the GPU for $50 more.

There are likely to be some very good clearance deals on Ryzen chips in June/July/August?? When the Ryzen 3000 chips launch - not to mention a flood of people like me getting rid of Ryzen 1xxx and 2xxx chips to upgrade to 7nm.

If you do get an RX580 it will still be a great chip - it is a very significant step up from your 7950. Whatever you buy now will be held back by your FX chip.

On PSU - it should be fine depending on how overclocked your 8320 is?

Hawkesbury · 16 Mar 2019 at 19:25

I bought the Asrock 590 today - I know it will be bottlenecked by the rest of the PC but I will upgrade the rest later on. I looked at the 1660 as well but for me, the money saved on buying The division 2 and then whatever I can get for the other games pays towards the rest of the upgrades later in the year.