Worth the upgrade?

LimeyGeeza

LimeyGeeza

New member
Thinking of buying my son an upgrade of a new GPU in the below machine, I know it will be bottlenecked by the CPU somewhat, but it's the fastest the Mobo will take (or at least minimally) - and I don't want to go the full hog just yet on a new PC.

Motherboard: ASUS F2A85-V PRO ATX 4DIM
CPU: AMD A10 5800K Blk
Graphics: HD 7660D + Powercolor Radeon HD6670 800MHZ 1GB GDD
Memory: 8GB Patriot Viper 3 DDR3 1866MHz
Cooling Solution: COOLER MASTER Hyper TX3
Hard-Drives: Hitachi 1TB SATA
Power Supply: Antec 550w
Operating System: Windows 10
Dual 19" monitors at 1600 x 900

Thinking of replacing the HD6670 with a - MSI Radeon R9 380 4G DX12 Graphic Card – 4GB GDDR5.

Right now with the APU and the HD6670 running in dual graphics it's meant to be similar in performance to a HD7870 (this is the best card that will run with the APU in dual graphics)

So question is - is it worth it? Will there be a noticeable difference in performance? Is there something else I could do or go for a cheaper card and still get as good as or close to in performance?

(Originally posted this in the hardware forum - my bad... feel free to delete the other thread mods.)
 
I think upgrading the GPU will bring a difference, but I wonder if upgrading the monitors may bring more joy. Though with higher resolution more GPU power almost a must, so in a way you can't really just upgrade the monitors(as long as we are talking gaming).

My own machines is actually one that has seen two GPU upgrades and also two monitor upgrades in it's time. It started out with a Radeon 1900 XTX which was then replaced bu a Radeon 7970 and then not long ago a Fury X. During those years my main monitor went from a 1920x1200 over a 2560x1440 to now a 4K one. Each time I upgraded I started out with the monitor and then later did the GPU upgrade.
 
He mainly plays Counterstrike: GO and Minecraft, and both of those run just fine. He does play other stuff too, ARK, Day Z, Rust etc.
 
LimeyGeeza said:
He mainly plays Counterstrike: GO and Minecraft, and both of those run just fine. He does play other stuff too, ARK, Day Z, Rust etc.
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I've gone from a 6970 to a 7970, and recently to a R9 390 8GB GDDR5. I've noticed significant increases in performance on each upgrade and this on the same basic system. But, I've also gone from Windows XP to Windows 7 and now to Windows 10...all x64 bit OS.

If you have any interest at all in doing a monitor upgrade down the road, I'd go with the GPU with the most VRAM you can afford for now. I presently run a system with 3 24-inch LCDs...for Eyefinity...and also a 49 inch 4K screen for the excellent visual quality for my gaming from such as XBOX-1 and PS4...and, of course, the PC where I can actually benefit from 4K gaming.

A lot of your decision depends on just how much..and what kind...of anticipated upgrading you may be considering going forward. BUT, those 19-inch monitors are really quite "ancient" in the realm of gaming. ;)
 
OK - time to resurrect this old thread (didn't think it was right making a new one with the same subject!)

So... this Christmas my boy wants to up his gaming performance, but I want it to hit my wallet as little as possible.

I upgraded the Ram in the above machine to 16GB recently, it didn't seem to make any noticeable difference to anything really, but I got it for free so I stuck it in there.

I recently got a good deal on a Sapphire RX 470 4GB OC so I bought it - it'll be his Christmas present.

I am now looking at also doing a monitor upgrade for him for Christmas as well for a surprise (as I remembered the recommendation to do so in this thread - thanks chaps!). He likes to run dual monitors (1 he games on, the other he has Discord or youtube videos open).

I have found a good price on a BenQ 21.5" (1920 x 1080) monitor, so I'd grab 2 of em.

Edit: I should mention - desk space is an issue (2x) 21.5" is probably pushing it for the room he has, but I'll make it work.

Question is similar to above though - a worthy upgrade? I can't afford to get a new CPU or mobo right now as well (as I'd need to upgrade both as its at the max) - and it does seem to run everything he likes to play OK right now, but I hoping this upgrade will be a noticeable one for him?

Thoughts?
 
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IMHO a partner board 470 should a significant upgrade to what you have now.
Your meme is at 1866 so that is not bad.

Running a Firestrike might help set a baseline to evaluate where you will be after the upgrade...
 
Good job, it will be fine. Your cpu is fine, and memory should help if you don't want to upgrade the PC for a while. Let us know how it performs. So how much did you spend on the sapphire? Just curious. :bleh:
 
SSXeon said:
Good job, it will be fine. Your cpu is fine, and memory should help if you don't want to upgrade the PC for a while. Let us know how it performs. So how much did you spend on the sapphire? Just curious. :bleh:
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$189.00 CDN. which is a good deal for here at least.

Good to hear you think it's worthwhile was a little cautious that there would be no obvious improvement.
 
good price on the 470. a HD6670 to a 470? jesus he's in for an awesome christmas :lol: 4gb is fine for 1080 right now, and the 470 wont have enough horsepower to push a game that wants more than 4gb anyway.

dont worry about memory speeds it's irrelevant outside of synthetic benchmarks. for gaming what you have in there is fine and 16gb is great.

the cpu will be a bottleneck but not much you can do about it. he should be fine for 60fps gaming
 
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