300 Euros to spare, what should i get?

Hey forum,

Long time lurker, just registered now to ask a question.

I'm planning on spending 300 Euros to upgrade my PC for upcoming games, GTA V to be precise (will spend a lot on that).

 

This is my current rig :

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 


CPU AMD FX-8350 @ 4,5GHz (Corsair H100i) 

GPU AMD R9 280 STRIX @ 1050/1560 

RAM 16GB DDR3 G.Skill RIPJAWS 


PSU XFX 650w Pro Core Edition 

Case NZXT H440

 

That said, with 300 euros to spare - what should i get for the most performance? I know GTA V's specs have not been released yet - just a rough idea on what i should improve in my system.

 

Many thanks and greetings from Germany.

-Takeoff

Nothing really, your pc is fine.

Gaming performance is determined by the cpu and gpu:

you cant really change your cpu since amd has nothing better 

with 300 euro you could get a 290....which is only a 30% performance increase or so.

If GTA 5 supports crossfire you could put in another 7950/280 for 100 bucks from ebay,

that would push yor psu and be a little hot though.

 

OP would definitely need a PSU upgrade if another 280 was put in.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-strixgtx970dc2oc4gd5 I'd grab a Gtx 970 similar or this one. Should be a nice jump in fps and it should be able to play gta-v pretty well. 

give some to me

Cheers for the replys guys.

I was thinking of running Crossfire - at this point i won't do it because we simply do not know how GTA V will handle 2/3 cards at once. I think i'll save up, and get a 970 / 980.

 

Again, thanks for your opinions guys! Totally appreciated.

 

Greetings from Germany

You could sell your motherboard and the CPU and get an Intel rig instead. An i7 perhaps or a Xeon if you don't care about overclocking. If you really want to spend money and change something that's what you could do. Not that it's essential cause an FX-8350 is fine. But a Haswell i7 or Xeon will stay relevant longer than the FX-8350. And they tend to run cooler and require less power if you care about that. And my guess is you don't since you already have an FX-8350.

I could do that. Allthough i did purchase a FX-8350 because at the time it didn't make sense for me to go full on intel.

When my rig is outdated, i will hop on to intel because it's a lot cheaper power wise. I'm looking for another solution right now, but thanks for your input.

Thinking about getting another R9 280.

That said, my PSU is from XFX and it's the Pro650w non-modular PSU.

I've checked and it has 53a on the 12v rails (combined).

I don't want to fry my whole rig - do i need a PSU upgrade if i plan to add another one? I could get the R9 280 fairly cheap from a friend. Buying a new PSU would still not break the budget for the upgrade (about 100/150 ish euros spare after the GPU)

 

What PSU should i get, should i need a new one?

Cheers. 

I'd go for 750w.

EVGA's B2, G2, and P2 lineups are good.

Any of XFX's lineup is good as well.

Any Seasonic model.

SuperFlower's Leadex models are good, although a bit hard to find.

Cooler Master's V as well as VSM series are good choices.

You dont neeeeed a new psu, you would be pushing it though as I said.

To explain the situation a bit:

1. Your 650w psu is a very good one, it can deliver up to around 800w before it shuts down

2. Most people neglect that that, in reviews, power usage is usually measured with a voltage meter at the power socket -->the actual power needed is that value x efficiency

3. Your system power consumption on prime 95 load without the gpus should be around 250w

4. A highly overclocked 7950/280 might draw up to 200w or so

5. You would about max out the rating of your psu on a synthetic, however you should consider that:

1. The power consumption for components can peak over 20% of the average consumption for a fraction of a second, thus a bit of a margin should be added in general

2. The voltage regulation at extreme loads suffers, which could lead to crashes or overclocking problems in extreme cases

3. Your PSU has a peak/overload voltage of over 20% its rated wattage and superb voltage control

4. Your psu will age a tiny bit over the years, if its at high load all the time it will age more obviously

5. A gaming load isnt anything like a full synthetic load on all components. PLaying Crysis 3 your pc  would need maybe 450w.

Bottom line: I wouldnt say get a 650w psu if that was a new build but itll work.

 

That leaves the issue of crossfire support in GTA 5.....anybody got a crystal ball somewhere?