What Do I Need To Upgrade?

[Tmccray2]

Having a few issues with performance and frame rate. Looking to upgrade something..But what?

Mother - IC780M-A2
CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 965 3400Mhz, 4 Core
GPU - GeForce GTX 550 TI
Memory - DDR3 1995.6 MHz 4Gb
SSD - Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250Gb

 

[johan851]

Performance in... what? Games? What's your budget?

I would upgrade your graphics card first. Then, 8GB of memory would be a good investment. 4GB is a little light for gaming.

 

[Tmccray2]

Humm..Interesting. I would have thought that my MB would of needed to be upgraded first. Yeah Gaming mostly, No video or music editing or anything like that. I would say i am willing to spend around $200 at most 300$.

 

[Dlaw]

The problem with upgrading the motherboard first, is right now AMD isn't the best option for gaming. Your PhII is still solid for it's age, but upgrading to Bulldozer or Vishera would be pretty expensive with not a lot to gain gaming wise. So, if you were to upgrade the board, it would make sense to go Intel, and therefor you would also need a new processor. That would eat all of your budget (and then some), and you would still be super GPU limited (I had a 550Ti, and while it impressed me, it isn't that powerful), and probably just as bad off FPS wise.

For $315 (just a hair over budget), you can have this GTX 970, or for $289, you can get a GTX 960 4GB with a free game and 8GB of RAM

 

[johan851]

Well put Dlaw. I agree. I would be inclined to go with the GTX 960 option. It'll be a huge upgrade over your 550Ti, and the extra RAM will make a big difference also.

If your budget is really tight you could save a bit with this RAM kit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460

If you shop around I'm sure you could find an even better price on the GTX 960 too. Those two things will make a big difference.

 

[Dlaw]

That was the cheapest 4GB 960 I could find, but you're right, there very well could be a better deal.

 

[johan851]

Looks like the best deal on Newegg. But I bet if you set up an alert on Slickdeals or shopped a few other places you'd find something compelling. Looks like Fry's has some pretty good in-store deals right now. Same for the 970 too - I bet you could find one cheap enough to fit both it and the RAM (almost) in your $300 limit.

 

[Dlaw]

I checked TigerDirect and Amazon as well, but yea, very possible to find them for cheaper.

 

[Tmccray2]

I'm very surprised my ancient MB can handle all these newer components. Thanks for the great advice guys. I think i'll got with the GTX 960 and the G.SKILL Sniper 8GB, Seems like the best choice here. I wonder if my RAM now will be compatible with the G-Skill?
Is a HyperX DDR3..and yes...It's 9000 Years old. just wondering if I could get 12Gb of ram if i could combine them.

 

[EarthDog]

Dont bother...

Mixing and matching memory is never a good idea (causes instability). It is likely the speed, timings, and voltage are different.

 

[Dlaw]

Agreed, not worth it. 8GB will do fine for you, and you can always get a second kit if you start to max it out.

 

[trents]

Get RAM with as low a latency as you can find. AMD CPUs in that generation seemed to benefit more from low latency than from high frequency. Also, they often did not play well with Kingston brand RAM for some reason. And are you actually running your current RAM at 1995.6 mhz? If so I'm surprised at that. It can be a challenge sometimes to get the Phenom II chips to be truly stable even at 1600 mhz on the RAM. Weak IMC. You may find that when moving up to 8 gb from 4 gb you will have to lower the frequency in order to be stable. With your new RAM I would go for 1333 mhz and the lowest latency you can find. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...64631 600564625 600006050 600006069 600006156