GPU upgrade ideas?

Hey,
Since my old card finally bit the dust, I'm looking to pick up something new—specifically thinking about this to pair with my current setup: an AMD Athlon ii x4 640;
A Seasonic 520W PSU;
A Gigabyte 880 GA-UD3H motherboard:
And 8GB of DDR3 RAM.

My previous card was a PointOfView GTX460 768 mb GDDR5, but it’s seen better days. It's dead.

I need this primarily for gaming.😁

http://www.newegg.com/p/product_info.php?c...ducts_id=15583

I guess you might want to try a little overclocking on the CPU.

I'm still weighing these two options

Or would they just be overkill for my current build?

They're probably too much for your processor, even if you manage a decent overclock... I'd suggest staying away from Asus cards, though; they usually end up being the most expensive option compared to other brands.

And what if I just go ahead and upgrade the processor too—keep the whole thing under $2,000 total?

You wouldn't really be able to upgrade on that board; I guess you'd have to swap out the whole thing.

Well, since we've already reached this point, we might as well go all in on the full upgrade—no sense in doing things halfway, right? 😁
I'd probably offload the old CPU and motherboard for maybe $500—$200if I can even squeeze more out of them—to fund a new GPU, motherboard, and processor. Everything else is fine, so I don't need anything else. Now, the big question: what should I actually buy? My budget is sitting around $2,000, give or take. Since I'm far from being some hardware expert, does anyone have any solid recommendations?

If you can swing it—like, if you can stretch your budget just a little bit by selling off some extra gear—this would be a killer combo:

FX 6300 + GIGA 970A-DS3P + LC CC 97 + GIGA R9 270 WF OC = $892 including shipping.

I might consider stretching the budget a bit—though I have to see if my bank account will actually allow it. I forgot to mention that I already own a Thermaltake Contac 21, so there's no need for a new cooler, which means $33 less spending ^^. The only real question left is: how long is this build actually going to last? My current setup was put together in early 2011 and it's been running flawlessly until now.

Yeah, you can definitely make use of the cooler then. It really just comes down to what kind of games you're eyeing and what resolution you're running at.

Right now, this setup is plenty for most newer titles on high settings at 1080p—just don't go overboard with the AA & AF. Your CPU actually has enough breathing room to handle an upgrade to a beefier GPU like an R9 280 x. later on. You could eventually aim for an FX 83 xx and pair it with a stronger card. Honestly, you should be pretty much set for another 2-3 years.

Also, if you happen to have the rev 2.0 version of the motherboard, you might actually get an FX 6300 to work—since the official site says it supports the FX 6350 (which is basically just an FX 6300 with slightly higher clock speeds).

I’ve got the v2 motherboard model here, so we could test it—but look, if it doesn't support it, we're looking at a total dead end where the card won't even run without hunting down a compatible board, or at best, we're just nerfing the performance. Are there any other real risks if they aren't compatible? And more importantly—does the Black Friday sale cover this stuff too? 😁 If it does, I might as well hold off on pulling the trigger until then.

The graphics card would handle it just fine, though you won't be hitting maximum performance levels (which honestly varies from game to game depending on the title)

Just grab everything except the motherboard for now. If the build works without it, awesome. If not, you can just pick up a board later and keep running your current processor until then. You won't be hitting the full potential of the GPU right away, but it’ll work regardless. It's definitely going to be an upgrade over a GTX 460 🙂

You could always give it a shot—if it doesn't work, you're basically just looking at needing a new motherboard since the whole PC won't boot anyway, so there isn't much risk there. Don't hold out for big discounts, though. You got this recommendation from an online retailer that operates on razor-thin margins, so their prices are already pretty much bottomed out from the jump. Real sales usually happen at big-box retailers like Best Buy and stuff like that, and even then, if they do go on sale, you probably won't see parts this cheap again—they'll likely be right around this price or maybe even a little higher.

For instance, the Intel Core i5-3570K is actually at its lowest price point since it first launched (it used to hover around $300), and that Giga motherboard has also dropped since it first hit the shelves. Even the NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti was sitting at $467 just a few months ago, so honestly, now is a solid time to pull the trigger. Pretty soon, that Giga board might not be on sale anymore, and you'll likely end up paying about $433 more for it.