Upgrade help?

[chipstter]

Hi Hope someone could give me some advice on upgrade.

I am currently running an fx 6100 with an hd6950, I am looking to upgrade, however i am unsure if to upgrade both cpu and gpu or 1 or the other.
I am currently looking at possibly an fx 6300 with either an r9 280x or r9 290, now all i do is game on single player only at 1080p (if that makes any difference to my choices).

1.Would the 6100 be sufficient enough to play single player only or would i benefit from the upgrade to the 6300?
2.If i only upgraded my gpu to and r9280x/290 would my 6100 bottleneck it too much for me too not notice any difference in performance?
3.Would it be wise to keep with the 6100 and 6950 for a year and go with something bigger again?

Thanks.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

What's your upgrade budget?

 

[Janus67]

If you have to pick one I would keep the 6100 and upgrade to a 290. The performance difference from a 6100->6300 won't give you the FPS increase that a 6950->290 would.

 

[rayraysfunhouse]

I agree with Janus. Your CPU should be strong enough to run a newer GPU without bottlenecking it. A new card would also do way more than just moving to the 6300.

Also what are the rest of your specs? If you have a good board and some decent cooling (in other words, better than stock) you could always overclock your CPU to go along with a new GPU for more performance out of your processor if it isn't already OC'd.

 

[chipstter]

I agree with Janus. Your CPU should be strong enough to run a newer GPU without bottlenecking it. A new card would also do way more than just moving to the 6300.

Also what are the rest of your specs? If you have a good board and some decent cooling (in other words, better than stock) you could always overclock your CPU to go along with a new GPU for more performance out of your processor if it isn't already OC'd.

My budget at this time is probably around 200, the rest of my pc aint that great my mobo an asus M5A78L-M-USB3 and im running 8gb of generic 1333mhz ram also my psu is 550 80+ bronze.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

If I was in your shoes, I'd get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4487091&cm_re=evga_960-_-14-487-091-_-Product

 

[chipstter]

If I was in your shoes, I'd get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4487091&cm_re=evga_960-_-14-487-091-_-Product

How does this compare to the 290? performance wise as its even cheaper than a 280x

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Some results vs a 280X in here:
http://www.overclockers.com/evga-gtx-960-supersc-acx-2-0-graphics-card-review/

It'll be a bit slower than a 290, but it'll also use less than half the power the 290 does.

 

[chipstter]

Some results vs a 280X in here:
http://www.overclockers.com/evga-gtx-960-supersc-acx-2-0-graphics-card-review/

It'll be a bit slower than a 290, but it'll also use less than half the power the 290 does.

Cheers quys looks like ive just found my upgrade

 

[ATMINSIDE]

You'll enjoy it!

 

[Theocnoob]

If I may play devil's advocate- 960 is lower performance than 290 and has HALF the VRAM. Yes, 960 has lower TDP, yes, 960 has DX12. But so what? You're giving up a few FPS and 2GB of RAM. You save like $12 vs the 290. Worth it? Not to me.

The 960 is stuck way out in nonsense land in my opinion. A 2GB card in an age when 2GB cards are starting to be insufficient for decent performance in a lot of games (For example, Shadow of Mordor, a popular AAA game, has significantly worse textures for 2GB cards vs 3GB cards) is just ridiculous. Nvidia gimped these cards by only giving them 2GB of RAM.

The 290 is categorically the better buy in my opinion. IMO, the 960 should only be considered for tropical climates where your room is like 90 degrees ferenheit and you just can't stand to pump any more heat into it.

I certainly wouldn't accept being gimped a few FPS and being gimped on my RAM by 50% to save $12.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I'll take the 960 over blackscreen issues any day.

 

[Theocnoob]