Possible Upgrades?

subway

• Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H, Socket-AM3 AMD 785G+SB710, DDR3, Firewire, GbLAN, ATX, HDMI, DVI, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16
• AMD Phenom II X4 945 Quad Core, 3.0Ghz, AM3, 8MB, 95W, Boxed
• Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 1600MHz 4GB DIMM CL9
• AXP Powersupply ATX 630W
• Radeon Hd6450 1gb Gddr3

this is my current setup, posting here wondering are there any worthwhile upgrades to play some more modern games?
im thinking maybe to update the graphics card so any suggestions on a suitable card for this system?
are there other upgrades i should consider, im running 32bit windows 7

TerrorFirmer

Depends on the budget, and what resolution you're playing at, but at the very least if its tight, the 945 is an OK budget processor and worthwhile overclocking, and just adding a decent video card like a 7790 for around the 120 mark would make it a respectable gaming PC overall.

Monotype

Graphics card.

How much have you got to spend?


That's interesting... Superflower make the bulk of AXP's PSUs.
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page13098.htm
I'm guess it's the AXP-630P12P that you have. Missing some information there, but going by the other in the series and the ratio of the actual power provided by the 12V rail, I wouldn't have much faith in it being of very high quality.
You might be okay for now, but it's something to upgrade down the line and don't be buying cheap PSUs again.

subway

Well it was a sub 250 htpc in a former life so something had to give

Say maybe another 250 for an upgrade?
Or sell these parts and build something new?
I've a 19 inch monitor at 1440x900 so not too taxing

BloodBath

A 7790 1gb would be a good card upgrade for now. Next upgrades after that should be a new processor, possibly an fx 8320 or 8350 if the board supports it and another 4gb of ram which will need 64 bit windows.

subway

how about this card?
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/AMD+Radeon/Radeon+HD+7790/PowerColor+Radeon+HD+7790+OC+1GB+GDDR5+Graphics+Card+%5BAX7790+1GBD5-DH%2FOC%5D+%2B+3+FREE+GAMES%21+?productId=55100

this cpu
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Processors/AMD+CPUs/FX+%28Piledriver%29+-+Socket+AM3%2B/AMD+%28Piledriver%29+FX-8320+3.50GHz+%284.00GHz+Turbo%29+Socket+AM3%2B+8-Core+Processor+-+Retail+?productId=52723

another one of these
http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb_01com/20090361/kingston_hyperx_blu_4gb__pc3_12800__dimm/details.aspx

upgrade to x64 over the weekend and then try get 50eu for my cpu and 15eu for each of the games on adverts.ie?

upgrade PSU at some point too i suppose (any suggestions there, its not something ive ever really given much consideration to)

BloodBath

That card is a steal.

Does the board definitely support the fx range? It should do but looking at it's specs on the gigabyte site it makes no mention of fx support.

Assuming it does then it should be fine. The psu is a worry. The phenom 2 x4 is also a power hungry processor though as is the 8320. If it could deal with the phenom it should be ok for the fx.

subway

im going by the data on this link
http://www.game-debate.com/motherboard/index.php?mot_id=139&cpuList=Gigabyte%20GA-MA785GT-UD3H

cant find much else about it

BloodBath

Well it's an am3 board so it should. It might need a BIOS update though.

subway

cool, i've bought the card but will hold off on the processor for the moment.
i have a 2gb dimm to spare so can bring the machine up to 6gb and install x64 using my x86 key

will see how i get on with those upgrades as a start

BloodBath

It should make a huge difference. The 7790 is light years ahead of your current card.

marco_polo

Most AM3 boards don't support FX chips (And by all accounts the few do that don't do it very well).

subway

marco_polo wrote: »

Most AM3 boards don't support FX chips (And by all accounts the few do that don't do it very well).

thanks for that info.
is there any cpu that might give a worthwhile boost, or should i save my money for a combined mobo/cpu upgrade in a couple of months?

BloodBath

If it won't take an fx or does so poorly then no. You might as well save for an 8320 + board combo. It would be about €200 for a basic combo or €250 for a good overclocking board + cpu cooler.

marco_polo

subway wrote: »

thanks for that info.
is there any cpu that might give a worthwhile boost, or should i save my money for a combined mobo/cpu upgrade in a couple of months?

I'd say save it myself, I don't think the phenom 6-cores are worth it and slightly better quad cores aren't that much of an upgrade IMO.

Its still a reasonably decent CPU for the most part.

subway

great stuff, thanks for the help.

ill see what my budget is up to in a few months and have a look at what the best proc / mobo combo would be. would it be time to move to intel or are amd still a good bet?

marco_polo

subway wrote: »

great stuff, thanks for the help.

ill see what my budget is up to in a few months and have a look at what the best proc / mobo combo would be. would it be time to move to intel or are amd still a good bet?

Had to say definately check back in a few months, Intels new Haswell will be out imminently, and towards the end of the year AMD will be releasing their steamroller based Kaveri APUs as well which will give a good indication as to it expected performance

By then we should also know for certain what AMD plans are for the AM3+ socket, it seems likely it will be getting an Steamroller update, but there has yet to be 100% confirmation.

But since they will have just launched Kaveri on FM2, I wouldn't expect a socket change for the FX series until one more steamroller release on AM3+. After this it is likely the FM2/AM3+ introduced a few years ago will likely be closed with a new common socket type for APUs and FX CPUs.

BloodBath

AMD offer the best price/performance as usual.

subway

so far so good
upgraded to the 7790, win7 x64 and 6gb ram last night.

testing on alan wake (latest game i have) and am able to run at very high settings.

thanks for all the input given