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Upgrade Advice Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P

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Zoue

Registered
Joined
Aug 4, 2015
Location
UK
Hi all,

My son's motherboard recently died so I've upgraded to a Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P (needed AM3+ socket). The system specs are in my signature and he wants to use it primarily to play games. I realise it will never be a high end system but the money's not there to get a new one, so it will have to be piecemeal. For my budget I could probably just about stretch to an Asus AMD Radeon R9 270 DirectCU II OC 2GB DDR5 Graphics card, but am worried that it might be throwing money away if the rest of the system will be a bottleneck. So my questions are:

1. Is the above card the right direction to take?
2. Would a cheaper card be just as effective given the limitations of the rest of the system?
3. Would I be better off upgrading the CPU first instead?
4. None of the above!?

Any advice gratefully received
 
The Athlon X2 is going to be your biggest bottleneck, regardless of the GPU you put in it. I would recommend an FX-6300 for under $100. 12GB of RAM is a whole lot, so no need to upgrade that. Then if you are able to scrounge up another $100-150 in the near future, a GTX 750ti or R9 270X is your best bet. The R9 270 is a decent card, but you would benefit much more from FX-6300+ HD5670 than you would from Athlon II + R9 270.
 
Many thanks for your quick reply. I should have mentioned that the primary use is for gaming. Would that make a better graphics card a priority or would your advice still be to change the CPU first?
 
The problem is, you could put a TITAN X with an Athlon X2 and you'd still get like 20 FPS in a lot of games. What games does your son play? If it's TF2, League of Legends,, Minecraft, etc, they are largely CPU bound. Also, what resolution is the monitor he uses?
 
He's not home at the moment but I'll check with him later. I know he likes the Final Fantasy games and Bioshock, for example. His monitor is an AOC 919, with a native resolution of 1440 x 900
 
I would try with a 270x or something similar (GTX 960) first. The CPU won't cripple a low-midrange card like that, but it may leave some FPS on the table.
 
That resolution is good, because a lot of mid-range (or even low-range) GPUs can handle that resolution. I still think the CPU upgrade is your best bet, initially. The resolution is actually the sweet-spot of the 5670's performance, from the few benchmarks and reviews I can find. And if he's not playing Crysis 3 or something, it can probably keep up with those games decently.

The FX-6300 performs in a way that opens up the door for even a high-end GPU like the GTX 970 or R9 280X to be a viable option in the future, if it ever comes to that.
 
@ Earthdog: thanks for your reply, but the 270x andGTX 960 are a little above my price range. The 270 is at the top end but may be able to squeeze it in!

- - - Updated - - -

@Tyerker: well, the FX-6300 works out cheaper than the graphics card (although the gap will narrow if I get a cooler!) so I'm happy to go that route if you think that will benefit him the most. Many thanks
 
I guess it depends on if you foresee yourself doing any other upgrades in the future.

Do you see the upgrade you make now being the end of the line? Or do you intend to be able to spend another $100-150 in the next few months?
 
Firstly: How do have your RAM configured? 12GB leads me to believe you have a mismatch of kits, and that's going to hurt performance. I would take 4GB out, and run with 8 (that is still plenty), checking to make sure that it's running at it's rated speed and timings.

Secondly, I used to play Battlefield 3 with a 550Ti running on a Athalon II 220 at 1080p, and my buddy still uses that PC without the GPU to play DDO. They aren't as useless as you think. I vote for GPU (270 is the best you can do right? That's still better than the 5670) now, then down the road grab that 6300.
 
Firstly: How do have your RAM configured? 12GB leads me to believe you have a mismatch of kits, and that's going to hurt performance. I would take 4GB out, and run with 8 (that is still plenty), checking to make sure that it's running at it's rated speed and timings.

Secondly, I used to play Battlefield 3 with a 550Ti running on a Athalon II 220 at 1080p, and my buddy still uses that PC without the GPU to play DDO. They aren't as useless as you think. I vote for GPU (270 is the best you can do right? That's still better than the 5670) now, then down the road grab that 6300.
Out of thanks, so QFT! :)
 
I think this upgrade will be the only one for a while, unless he finds a job! Realistically it will be some time before the next one

Firstly: How do have your RAM configured? 12GB leads me to believe you have a mismatch of kits, and that's going to hurt performance. I would take 4GB out, and run with 8 (that is still plenty), checking to make sure that it's running at it's rated speed and timings..
The machine originally came with two sticks of 2GB Ram. Can't remember the make without opening up the case again but not one I'm familiar with. I then bought two further sticks of 4GB Corsair RAM. Each are paired together (i.e. 2x2GB and 2x4GB). The original motherboard went and took the Corsair RAM with it, so I replaced the motherboard with the Gigabyte and Corsair are winging replacement modules to me under warranty. So at this moment it's sitting with just 4GB in total, which will change as soon as the others arrive in the post.

Before the mobo went, his machine was running fine and seemed pretty quick. He likes to draw, too, and uses a Bamboo tablet for that. He also has an Xbox One but recently he seems more drawn to PC games.

It's running Final Fantasy fine as it is, apparently, but he wants to play other, more demanding games, too. It's by no means essential that he replace anything immediately but I envisage him getting stuck soon the more games he tries. I'd just like to do something that gives him the best odds for playing most things he wants. I appreciate Crisys 4 at full power might be a bit ambitious:). But it's not urgent and I can wait a bit, too.

The R9 270 is the best I can do looking at current prices. I'm in the UK and can get that for around £110. It seems to review well. The 6300 retails at around £80 but once you add a cooler (I'm looking at the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO) for another £20 or so there's not much in it, so both will eat up my budget.

I'm very appreciative of the help shown on here but must say I'm a little confused now with the conflicting advice. You all seem to know what you're talking about but it seems both options have their pros! Is it just a matter of taste?
 
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You really should not mix and match ram. That can cause instability. Honestly, when the 2x4GB lands, only use it, and sell/ditch the 2x2GB sticks.

As far as what is right and what is wrong... the CPU will be holding you back a bit, particularly at such a low, CPU bound, resolution. That said, if you upgrade to a 270, you will get a bigger boost in games than just buying a CPU itself. The CPU isn't great, but again you will still get more FPS gain out of a GPU upgrade. What I would do with that budget is upgrade a better GPU than the 270, 270x 280, something like that. WIth the money left over, save it until you can afford the 6300.
 
OK, thanks. I'll swap out the memory when it finally gets here and see.

With regard to the Graphics, the 270x and 280 are significantly more expensive than the 270. Is there a big difference between them to warrant the extra outlay?
 
I didn't want to spend more than £100, tbh. The 270 looked quite solid so even though it is above my budget @ £120 I thought I might stretch a bit, but the 270x and 280 would basically mean increasing my budget to a minimum of £130 to £150, which is really starting to push the boat out. If they are really that much better then I don't mind waiting a month or two to see if a) the price will fall and b) I can save a bit more.

Thanks for the link, although it doesn't show the 270. In the real world, what difference am I likely to see by getting a 270x over a 270 do you think?
 
Yes, you had to read between the lines there a bit. THe 270is between the 260x and the 270x... closer to the 270x.

If your budget was 120, how were you going to get both a 270 AND a 6300???
I'm in the UK and can get that for around £110. It seems to review well. The 6300 retails at around £80 but once you add a cooler (I'm looking at the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO) for another £20 or so there's not much in it, so both will eat up my budget.

I googled '270x vs 270 review' and came up with this: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7503/the-amd-radeon-r9-270x-270-review-feat-asus-his/5

It is a few percent faster overall. Just depends on the title and settings.


Again, not entirely sure what exactly you have to spend in total, but assuming its more than that 110 you listed (again because you said you were getting both PCU and GPU)...
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-...-5600mhz-gddr5-985mhz-gpu-1792-streams-dp-hdm
 
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Ah, I think that may be a misunderstanding, there. I should have put "either" instead of "both." Sorry for the confusion! I meant to say that money-wise either upgrade path would cost pretty much the same.

£100 is my entire budget, although I thought I might conceivably stretch it a bit if it made sense. As per the OP I wasn't sure whether to spend the money on a new CPU or Graphics card, but from the advice on here my understanding is that it would be better to upgrade the GPU first and upgrade the CPU further down the line, especially since the majority of use will be gaming. Whichever upgrade I do will have to last a while, so the advice on here has been great.

From my interpretation of that review, spending significantly more on a 270x over a 270 won't translate into a particularly noticeable difference, whereas moving to a 280x is a definite improvement. But I think sadly that would just be too expensive. A 280 would cost at least £155, while a 280x would be knocking on the door of £175 or more. Much more than I want to spend.
 
If that is all you can do, that is all you can do. But I would hate to buy a card like that expecting it to last for 'a while' (couple years is what I am thinking here). It is what it is though.

I also just noticed something, that your CPU is a dual core. That can be an issue in some titles... a rare couple wont run (requires 4 threads), and there are some performance hits in other titles.

You are kind of in a pickle, but I would still side with the best GPU you can afford.
 
Yes, unfortunately having to buy the new motherboard has eaten into my funds, so I think the 270 / 270x is about as high as I can go.
 
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