GPU/System Upgrade Advice

Hey, I’m looking to upgrade my GPU a bit—just enough so I can actually run some shooters without everything lagging out on standard settings.

Motherboard: ASUS P5KPL-AM
Check out this ASUS P5KPL-AM motherboard. Just dropping the link here for anyone actually looking for specs.

CPU: Q8200
GPU: GTX 220 1GB
RAM: 2x 1GB

Is it even worth grabbing a GTX 650 2GB and maybe some 2x2GB DDR2 for this rig—or am I better off just biting the bullet and buying a new PC?

frozenpanther11 said:Hey, I’m looking to upgrade my GPU a bit—just enough so I can actually run some shooters without everything lagging out on standard settings.

Motherboard: ASUS P5KPL-AM
Check out this ASUS P5KPL-AM motherboard. Just dropping the link here for anyone actually looking for specs.

CPU: Q8200
GPU: GTX 220 1GB
RAM: 2x 1GB

Is it even worth grabbing a GTX 650 2GB and maybe some 2x2GB DDR2 for this rig—or am I better off just biting the bullet and buying a new PC?

That's an old platform; you'd definitely be better off buying something new. What kind of budget are we looking at for a new build?

Looking at about $3,000—and that’s without an HDD. For a starter setup, I was thinking of just grabbing something like a GTX 650 to get by, then moving it over to a new rig down the road. Is that actually a decent plan or am I just wasting my time?

Adam Moore3 said:That's an old platform; you'd definitely be better off buying something new. What kind of budget are we looking at for a new build?

Sell that junk. You'll have enough for a decent new rig. For $3,500, you can grab a really solid machine.

Futura IT

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...b86be6505d54e0

A little more than $1000

If I can keep my current case and power supply (keeping the drive too), I'll sell off the rest and grab this for $1.25:

1 x ASRock Z97 PRO4, s1150, Intel ® Z97
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz, Haswell
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingston, HyperX Fury, 1866MHz, CL10
1 x MSI Radeon R7 260 OC 1GD5, 1GB DDR5, DVI-I, DVI, DP, HDMI, R7 260 1GD5

Or maybe just pick up the Sapphire R7 265 2GB GDDR5 Dual-X, 2GB GDDR5 256bit, 28nm for $0.39 (the Q8200 should still pull through most games) and then once I save up another $1.00 I'll get the rest of the 😬

It's a bit of a joke that there isn't 4GB of VRAM, though...🤔

1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm, 92mm
1 x XFX R7-265A-CNF4, Core Radeon R7 265 925M Boost 2GB DDR5 Display
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P, AM3+, AMD 970 SB950, 4x DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866
1 x AMD FX-Series X6 6300 3.5GHz Processor, 14MB, 95W, AM3+, FD6300WMHK

$1078 ADM

I guess the GTX 650 is going to feel pretty weak really soon... this one is about three times faster. Or maybe just grab the R7 265 for now; it might bottleneck, but I think you'll see better results in games.

analogtiger19 said:If I can keep my current case and power supply (keeping the drive too), I'll sell off the rest and grab this for $1.25:

1 x ASRock Z97 PRO4, s1150, Intel ® Z97
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz, Haswell
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingston, HyperX Fury, 1866MHz, CL10
1 x MSI Radeon R7 260 OC 1GD5, 1GB DDR5, DVI-I, DVI, DP, HDMI, R7 260 1GD5

Or maybe just pick up the Sapphire R7 265 2GB GDDR5 Dual-X, 2GB GDDR5 256bit, 28nm for $0.39 (the Q8200 should still pull through most games) and then once I save up another $1.00 I'll get the rest of the 😬

It's a bit of a joke that there isn't 4GB of VRAM, though...🤔

Wait, what? 🤔 Why would he want an overclockable i5 and a pricey motherboard for a build with less than 4 gigs of RAM? He's blowing 60% of his budget on the CPU and motherboard for a gaming rig, only to slap in a weak R7 260 non-X. An FX 6300 would be the move, paired with a better GPU—probably some R9 270 for that kind of money.

crimsonstag84 said:1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm, 92mm
1 x XFX R7-265A-CNF4, Core Radeon R7 265 925M Boost 2GB DDR5 Display
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P, AM3+, AMD 970 SB950, 4x DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866
1 x AMD FX-Series X6 6300 3.5GHz Processor, 14MB, 95W, AM3+, FD6300WMHK

$1078 ADM

I guess the GTX 650 is going to feel pretty weak really soon... this one is about three times faster. Or maybe just grab the R7 265 for now; it might bottleneck, but I think you'll see better results in games.

👍 Just add another 4 GB of RAM and it'll be perfect.

Adam Moore3 said:Wait, what? 🤔 Why would he want an overclockable i5 and a pricey motherboard for a build with less than 4 gigs of RAM? He's blowing 60% of his budget on the CPU and motherboard for a gaming rig, only to slap in a weak R7 260 non-X. An FX 6300 would be the move, paired with a better GPU—probably some R9 270 for that kind of money.

👍 Just add another 4 GB of RAM and it'll be perfect.

I get the point, but he could just stick with the Q8200, grab another 2GB of RAM for about $100$50 and an R7 265 for $1,160, which I suggested as my second option. Then he can upgrade the rest later and swap the card. Even the Q8200 can run almost anything on High with this GPU. He’s just looking for something to play Call of Duty on normal settings; with these minor tweaks, he gets way more than what he actually asked for...

He’ll probably have to overclock without bumping up the voltage, at least. I guess the Q8200 is a bit weaker than an X4 740, and it likely struggles to push those kinds of GPUs to their full potential at stock speeds.

Let's wait for the author's reply first. 😉

analogtiger19 said:I get the point, but he could just stick with the Q8200, grab another 2GB of RAM for about $100$50 and an R7 265 for $1,160, which I suggested as my second option. Then he can upgrade the rest later and swap the card. Even the Q8200 can run almost anything on High with this GPU. He’s just looking for something to play Call of Duty on normal settings; with these minor tweaks, he gets way more than what he actually asked for...

Let me jump in here 😁 regarding that ASUS P5KPL-AM motherboard. That board tops out at 4GB of RAM (2x2GB). Looking at his specs above, he’s running two 1GB sticks, so he’d have to pull those out and buy two 2GB sticks to make it work. I actually own that exact same motherboard, a Q8200, and an HD6850. To be blunt, modern titles like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare or Far Cry 4 just aren't happening. It’s a mix of heavy hardware requirements and terrible game optimization. I tried running Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare at 1024x768 with everything on Low and turned off, and it was basically unplayable due to lag. Even if they release a patch, I doubt it’ll perform miracles. As for Far Cry 4, it’s playable on some Medium or even certain High settings if you turn off AA or FXAA, but you're still going to see the frame rate tank to 10-15 FPS in any area with decent detail. So, when it comes to newer games, he can forget about having a good time, especially if he's aiming for "High" settings. Not to mention that most recent games really need at least 6GB of RAM to breathe. Older titles run fine, though. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Battlefield 3, and Need for Speed: The Run all run without a hitch on High or Ultra. Once you get to Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts, you're looking at a High / Medium combo at best.

swiftfalcon89 said:Let me jump in here 😁 regarding that ASUS P5KPL-AM motherboard. That board tops out at 4GB of RAM (2x2GB). Looking at his specs above, he’s running two 1GB sticks, so he’d have to pull those out and buy two 2GB sticks to make it work. I actually own that exact same motherboard, a Q8200, and an HD6850. To be blunt, modern titles like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare or Far Cry 4 just aren't happening. It’s a mix of heavy hardware requirements and terrible game optimization. I tried running Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare at 1024x768 with everything on Low and turned off, and it was basically unplayable due to lag. Even if they release a patch, I doubt it’ll perform miracles. As for Far Cry 4, it’s playable on some Medium or even certain High settings if you turn off AA or FXAA, but you're still going to see the frame rate tank to 10-15 FPS in any area with decent detail. So, when it comes to newer games, he can forget about having a good time, especially if he's aiming for "High" settings. Not to mention that most recent games really need at least 6GB of RAM to breathe. Older titles run fine, though. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Battlefield 3, and Need for Speed: The Run all run without a hitch on High or Ultra. Once you get to Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts, you're looking at a High / Medium combo at best.

Everything you said holds water. I was running a Q8200 with stock settings, 4GB of RAM, and an HD7850 until recently, so I'm speaking from experience. I was playing everything at 1080p too. 😬 Just don't forget that the OP is looking for options to run Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. standard...and honestly, this thing can handle it without breaking a sweat, even if you have to shell out a little extra cash. 😉

If that motherboard from the link actually has four RAM slots, then fine—but at the end of the day, it all boils down to what he’s actually looking for and how much cash he wants to drop.

Thanks for the input, everyone—shout out to the guys suggesting the Q8200, haha.

If I end up buying a new rig—which, honestly, is looking more likely by the day—I’d probably just hang onto my old HDD. Might swap the case too, but it’s an mATX case, so who knows if everything will even fit?

Still, my wallet might take a bit of a hit at $833 :P

I guess it's the Fortron Hexa plus 500 w power supply.
The MSI Radeon R7 265 2GD5 OC features 2GB of DDR5 memory and comes equipped with DVI-I, DVI, DP, and HDMI ports.
The Zalman mid tower case in black, specifically the ZAL-ZM-Z1 model.
I guess the DeepCool Gammaxx 300 is worth looking at for a CPU cooler. It seems like a decent little option.

Total comes to $2,015.00 via PayPal.

+
I saw this listing for some RAM on Craigslist earlier. I guess it might be worth looking into if you need an upgrade.

Maybe try overclocking the CPU just a little bit, like up to 2.7-2.8GHz.

I guess I should probably weigh in here.

One AMD Athlon II x4 860 with a 3.70GHz clock speed and 4 cores (4MB cache).
Just one 4GB stick of Crucial DDR3 at 1600MHz CL11.
One MSI Radeon R7 265 2 with 1GB of DDR5. It’s got DVI-I, DVI, DP, and HDMI ports—basically everything you'd need.
One Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler, 92mm, fits 1156/775/FM1 sockets—roughly 96.5×51×125 mm.
One Fortron 500W power supply, Hyper series, model PPA5005003, featuring a 12cm fan.
I guess I’ve got an Asrock FM2A78M PRO4+, which is just a little mATX case style board for the AMD FM2 socket.

$839 I guess I should probably mention ADM.

You'll probably see better results with the first option if you follow through on everything mentioned, though it’s going to be a massive headache and you'll eventually have to swap out your RAM, CPU, and Motherboard anyway. The second option is more of a turnkey solution, but the overall performance might be a bit lower. Plus, you get to keep your current mATX case since everything fits, which definitely helps with the budget.

An mATX case should work fine. Just which specific power supply model are you running?

EDIT

That whole argument about the case doesn't really hold up, especially since the motherboard you linked is an ATX

Not 😛

1 x Asrock FM2A78M-DG3+, AMD FM2+ Socket A78 Chipset MB
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x Procesor AMD Kaveri Athlon II x4 860 3.70GHz 4cores,cache : 4MB
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 ,hladnjak, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm ,92mm
1 x Sapphire R7 260X 1GB GDDR5 OC, 1GB GDDR5 128bit, 28nm
1 x Napajanje Zalman 500-GS_II PSU, 500W, ATX12V V2.31, active PFC

$842
better GPU 😬
1 x Asrock FM2A78M-DG3+, AMD FM2+ Socket A78 Chipset MB
1 x Procesor AMD Kaveri A10-Series X4 7850K (3.7GHz,4MB,95W,FM2+)box
1 x Napajanje Zalman 500-GS_II PSU, 500W, ATX12V V2.31, active PFC
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 ,hladnjak, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm ,92mm
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingston, HyperX Fury, 1866MHz, CL10

$869 I might go this route instead. You get decent integrated graphics—way better than what you're running now—and you can always slap in something beefier later, like an R7 265 or a 270. 🙂

crimsonstag84 said:Not 😛

I'm talking to the author here, not about your specific setup.