GPU upgrade suggestions?

Spec:
 

Mobo: M4A88TD-V EVO-USB3

PCI: 2x PCIe 2.0 x16 (there's 2 PCI slots between the two x16s)

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 @ 3.4GHz

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 8GB 

PSU: BFG 250w
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT

Monitor- 2x22" Sonic View (2 VGA's ports on GPU)

OS: Win 10 pro

Storage: 1x 256GB SSD and 1x 500GB HDD

Case:  Inwin Griffin Midi Tower Mesh Computer Gaming Case with 22cm Fan (Not sure if I can post a link)

Hey folks,

After upgrading my storage to an SSD with a fresh install of Win 10, I wanted to check if my driver issues were fixed (kept getting NVIDIA driver errors after loading from sleep mode. BSOD would appear and then the computer would restart back to normal...only happens whenever I boot it from sleep mode) 

I now want to look into upgrading the GPU (NVIDIA or AMD?) and did a bit of a look around, however, I would really appreciate if you guys could suggest what type of graphics card would be suitable based on my spec or what other upgrades should I do prior to getting a suitable graphics card. Ideally looking for a medium ranged budget GPU but there's so many out there.

I think I may need to upgrade the PSU too, to compensate for the storage upgrade that's already been done and for a GPU upgrade. 500W?

Edited by hamluis, 30 January 2017 - 11:20 AM.
Moved from Internal Hardware to System Bldg/Upgrading - Hamluis.

8600gt is weak and old, seen the things go used for like $20, hell iv seen better for $20 at times, how much cash do you have to burn on the upgrade topic, as well i don't know what to say about a 250watt psu only that im surprised the system even runs off it with out popping.

Hey Shadow,

tbh, I'm shocked myself that the machine hasn't died out too! It has been really noisy for a while but after air cleaning it and all it hasn't been too bad. I haven't really tried any other games besides the ones that are quite old (CS:S, GTA game made before 3)..It did struggle when I attempted to play Arma II too.

Budget wise I'm looking around £250-270 ($320-350). I was considering getting this.
 

1. EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC Gaming Graphics Card - 149.00 ( or get the 1060 for 60 bucks more)

2. EVGA BQ 500 Watt Hybrid Modular PSU/Power Supply - 54.98

3. Seagate Barracuda 1TB Internal SATA 3 Hard Drive - 44.99
 

I used a power supply calculator and was getting results around 280-296W (whilst adjusting the graphics card that I was considering to buy)...Tried finding 300w-400w modular PSUs but they are damn too expensive! lol Should I just stick with a 500w?

I also looked into the CPU socket, turns out that I can upgrade to the latest phenom CPU that was available (AMD Phenom II X6 1100T), is it worth looking into that too? I can't really find it anywhere online and pretty skeptical with the ones that are selling on eBay...apparently the seller is selling Chinese replica processors...

1. EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC Gaming Graphics Card - 149.00 ( or get the 1060 for 60 bucks more)

2. EVGA BQ 500 Watt Hybrid Modular PSU/Power Supply - 54.98

3. Seagate Barracuda 1TB Internal SATA 3 Hard Drive - 44.99

 

looks fine but the other guy is right and a RX460 is cheaper too so you could save a little at the same time, as for psu get the most you can watts wise for what you can afford as long as its from a good brand, you might need it down the road when you change parts some time in the future.

I don't see the point of a 6 core cpu my self, most games use 4 cores or less in any case so having 6 isn't going to change much, at that point your better off changing the mobo + cpu if your going to start spending cash.

The hdd i would get a western digital or something, seems theirs some problems of late with some of seagate drives when it comes to reliability, might not affect all drives but i know when it comes to their 3TB drives their a class action lawsuit going on vs seagate, seems the 3TB drives die all over the place.

400W PSU is more than enough.

CPU upgrade path is pretty much blocked unless you want more cores (Phenom II X6).

For GPU I suggest AMD RX460 or RX470. Mostly because CPU is quite weak but have 4 cores and so will benefit more from DX12 software.

 

1. EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC Gaming Graphics Card - 149.00 ( or get the 1060 for 60 bucks more)

2. EVGA BQ 500 Watt Hybrid Modular PSU/Power Supply - 54.98

3. Seagate Barracuda 1TB Internal SATA 3 Hard Drive - 44.99

 

looks fine but the other guy is right and a RX460 is cheaper too so you could save a little at the same time, as for psu get the most you can watts wise for what you can afford as long as its from a good brand, you might need it down the road when you change parts some time in the future.

I don't see the point of a 6 core cpu my self, most games use 4 cores or less in any case so having 6 isn't going to change much, at that point your better off changing the mobo + cpu if your going to start spending cash.

 

The hdd i would get a western digital or something, seems theirs some problems of late with some of seagate drives when it comes to reliability, might not affect all drives but i know when it comes to their 3TB drives their a class action lawsuit going on vs seagate, seems the 3TB drives die all over the place.

 

Thanks for the suggestion guys, I checked out the RXs. Having looked at some stress tests on youtube who use the same or similar processors, the 1050ti tended to output 40-55 fps to the RX which outputted around 30-45fps. I didn't see much difference whilst watching them but I did notice a slight delay response in one of the games for the 460 (Assassin's Creed Syndicate). 

Both the RX and GTX support DirectX 12, but would there be a big difference in performance? I couldn't really find much on this..

Thanks for the heads up about the HDD Shadow, i'll look around for some WD.

Should I consider a single or a dual fan?

Should I get a 2gb or a 4gb version?

Edited by side21, 30 January 2017 - 12:04 PM.

GTX 1050 Ti is faster than RX 460, not surprising as GTX is much more expensive. RX 470 is faster than GTX 1050 Ti, again not surprising as RX is much more expensive.

RX is much better for DirectX 12 because it's architecture is optimized for DX12. For performance difference, it mainly depends on how much DX12 is used on games.

That Seagate 3TB lawsuit is pure BS because it's mostly based on Backblazes statistics. As you can see here, Backblaze's statistics have no statistical use because conditions are not same for all drives http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6028/dispelling-backblaze-s-hdd-reliability-myth-the-real-story-covered/index.html

As for HDD, both WD and Seagate have had problematic models. So you may as well pick Seagate. Currently there is absolutely no way telling if (randomly selected) Seagate or WD HDD is better.

For dual fan or single fan or 2/4GB we need to know budget. And what was that monitor model btw?

Budget wise overall, looking around 250-280 gbp. eBay sellers have got the 4gb 460's, brand new, going for around 100-150gbp.

Was thinking about just getting the single fans, any particular manufacturer that you wouldn't recommend?

Would want to use the extra $$'s for a new HDD, PSU and possibly a new CPU fan...thermal paste is epically dried out, need to get that sorted out too 

monitor: 2 X 22" ViewSonic VA2213w (second monitor is found as generic in device manager, had to adjust resolution manually via Nvidia control panel)

Edited by hamluis, 02 February 2017 - 08:00 PM.

You have quite slow monitor and 60 Hz refresh rate. For RX 460, I'd go with 2GB model because they are generally much cheaper.

Hard to recommend as some manufacturers may have cards for reduced price and those models are recommended over others. Usually or a short period of course.

You have many things to buy so I recommend RX 460 2GB for GPU. And next "upgrade" should be new machine.

Well all i know is buddy's have a hdd data farm and when it comes to seagate drives they die all over the place, if you want to call them twits or lairs like your link did guess you can based on picking at technical details like a scab on how they run their data farm, but whatever, i know my self ill pass on seagate.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

That link is for 2014. How about 2016 https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-q1-2016/

Suddenly Western Digital is miles behind Seagate

Edited by hamluis, 02 February 2017 - 08:01 PM.

interesting, but not by much as well small hard drive pool for the drives used, guess they all pump out trash at times, guess it pays to do research before buying something, lets all buy HGST drives then :D

Edited by shadow_647, 30 January 2017 - 03:25 PM.

Ordered, cheers guys