Hard to believe it's already time. To upgrade my PC

[Geoff]

http://www.vaultf4.com/threads/building-new-gaming-pc-from-scratch.2310/

Huge thanks to Vintage and Reechard all those years ago for helping me pick parts. Now, it's time to upgrade.

Basically, looking to change my graphics card (GeForce GTX 660) and my CPU (AMD FX-6350 Six-Core Processor. I have zero idea what's better and for a good price. I won't be able to make the upgrades right away, but it would be nice to know what's good to look at. Not aiming for the most recent and expensive, just affordable ones, so I don't have to worry about upcoming games.

 

[Statboy]

I believe it was Reechard who told me about EVGA.com. I bought a GTX 960 video card from them at about half of what Amazon was selling them for. Newegg.com is good if they have what you want on sale, otherwise its cheaper at EVGA. THE 960/970 video cards are nice and not overly budget breaking. My 960 has 2 fans on it and is impossible to overheat, though I have a large tower with plenty of room for circulating air.

 

[Reechard]

If I were upgrading my own machine right now, I'd be looking at:
CPU: Intel i5-6600K
Motherboard: MSI Z170M
Graphics: MSI GTX1060

I'm not sure of your proximity to the nearest MicroCenter, but they have a pretty good bundle on that CPU/Motherboard, and they have that GPU for $220... grand total would be right around $500 for the three.

 

[Reechard]

Just realized... the new gen is on DDR4 RAM... so you'll need that too. 16GB of DDR4 3000 is about $70 on top.

 

[Geoff]

Crap, I forgot the motherboard. Do I need a new one of those as well? Figured I could just use the one I had.

 

[VintagePC]

If you want a new CPU, more than likely, yes (check the socket types for the one you have and the one you want.)

TBH for a low budget, if you have enough memory , just upgrade the graphics card and you'll be pretty good to go, that's where most of the newer games are demanding... if you're low on RAM, could potentially upgrade that too if you're in the sweet spot where it's not quite obsolete enough to be rare, but obsolete enough to not be top dollar anymore.

Looks like your system is recent enough to take 16GB easily.

 

[Geoff]

Yeah, I can easily get 16GB, which I've wanted to do for awhile now. And I definitely want to upgrade my graphics card first. Budget is tiny right now, so I gotta figure it out.

 

[Reechard]

I'm pretty sure you have about the best CPU you're gonna get for that generation. I would say start with the graphics card and see if that just fixes your entire performance issue. I only have 16GB RAM because I don't want to close my 40 or so chrome tabs while I'm gaming... I don't think I've ever used over 8GB with my browser closed. Here's a good deal on the 970, which is a pretty amazing card at 1920x1080. I was running the new Doom at max settings in ultra-widescreen, and Fallout 4 looked pretty awesome too, though I couldn't quite max it out in ultra-widescreen, I could in 1920x1080. It's still got a few years of running every new game left in it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127966&cm_re=gtx970-_-14-127-966-_-Product

 

[Cheese4Everyone]

Just realized... the new gen is on DDR4 RAM... so you'll need that too. 16GB of DDR4 3000 is about $70 on top.

If you get some DDR4 that has a clock speed over 2133 make sure to enable the XMP profile in the Bios. DDR4 defaults to 2133 unless you enable the XMP profile. Also make sure to get something with a low CAS latency. Favor low CAS latency over higher clock rates.

 

[Cheese4Everyone]

Don't know if you're playing Overwatch but it benefits heavily from RAM if you are looking for a stable 144fps on ultra.