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Hoping to get some opinions/recommendations based on my current hardware setup. I've done some research, but I would like to get some feedback on my specific hardware components, and whether anything else should be upgraded.

As said in the title, I would like to know what a good GPU upgrade is based on my current hardware.

My current GPU is a Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition

As far as price goes, I wouldn't want to go over $500. That being said, I'd also like to take advantage of my current set up as much as I can. I'm also not a stickler for graphics (I don't need the best of the best), just want the latest games (i.e. Gears of War 4 or Doom) to run smoothly and look decent.

Here's the other pertinent hardware info (currently running Windows 7):

Motherboard: ASUS M5A99FX

CPU: AMD FX-6300

Memory: G. Skill 16GB (2x8GB)

Power Supply: APEX ATX12V 500W

Thanks in advance for constructive replies!

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  • Did you have a look at the latest Nvidia cards GTX 1080 and GTX 1070?
    – SEJPM
    Jul 29, 2016 at 14:36
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    What resolution is your screen?
    – Adam Wykes
    Jul 29, 2016 at 17:22
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    With those specs, I'd say spend 200 on an RX480, $200 on a Haswell (with Skylake you'd need to buy DDR4 RAM) i5, and 100 on a motherboard. Your processor is holding you back as much as the 7770. Also consider selling the 7770 and AMD processor and going Skylake anyway. 16gb of DDR4 dominator is $100
    – JaredT
    Jul 30, 2016 at 13:07
  • As someone who uses both AMD and Intel systems, I can honestly say that both are equally good at gaming when you set your system up correctly, as well as have the OS tweaked correctly.
    – NZKshatriya
    Nov 6, 2016 at 12:57

5 Answers 5

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There is very important question about buying new GPU to your setup:

  • Will you upgrade your PC (CPU,MOBO,RAM) in the nearest future ?

Answer is to your actual setup but if you will edit your question saying us that you will upgrade your PC in nearest future I will improve my answer.

GTX 1060 with 3GB VRAM

There is no other option for your CPU. AMD cards are more CPU hungry than nVidia cards so we choose nVidia. There is no sense in investing in other generation cards (GTX 9xx) so you should buy this card or wait for GTX 1050 which should be even better pair for your CPU. Any other (better cards like GTX 1070 or GTX 1080) will be bottlenecked by your CPU.

Recommended models:

Alternative solution:

Look for second hand GTX960 2GB VRAM it should cost ~$100-$120 it is card which for sure won't be bottlenecked by your CPU and will be cheaper than GTX 1060.

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I'm assuming your monitor is 1080p. This Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 6600 Gaming 8GB GDDR6 should hit the spot. $296 pre tax and shipping https://www.newegg.com/sapphire-radeon-rx-6600-11310-04-20g/p/N82E16814202415?quicklink=true One step up for $60 more would be the ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 6600 XT 8GB https://www.newegg.com/asrock-radeon-rx-6600-xt-rx6600xt-cld-8g/p/N82E16814930063

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Here's what I'd do:

(CPU price off Newegg, Other two off Amazon)

CPU: AMD FX-6300 replace with AMD FX-9590 8 core 4.7 GHz (+$189.99)

CPU Cooler Thermaltake NiC C5 120mm Untouchable CPU Cooler 230W TDP (+48.63) this cooler is a bit tall, so make sure it'll fit in your case

GPU: MSI GAMING GTX 960 4GB OC Twin Frozr-V HDCP Ready SLI Support (GTX 960 GAMING 4G) (+$238.57)

Total is: $477.19

Hope this helps :D

n.b. since you didn't list all your parts, you might want to double check that 500W is enough, it should be though...

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  • 5
    I cannot in the slightest recommend a $240 GTX 960 when you can get an RX480 for $200 once vendor stock replenishes. A GTX 1060 will be closer to this price and is closer to the 970 in benchmarks
    – JaredT
    Aug 1, 2016 at 23:50
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    Since OP's motherboard is listed here as supporting up to 140W TDP, upgrading to a 220W CPU may not be the best of ideas. Also, as the others have mentioned, Pascal and Polaris have been released, so a Maxwell GPU is a dubious upgrade.
    – timuzhti
    Sep 4, 2016 at 4:56
  • That 6300 can be OC'd quite well though, even on air. I have mine boosted from stock 3.5Ghz to 4.7Ghz stable w/ throttling off on all 6 cores. Haven't run into any issues gaming, aside from needing an upgrade from my silly ENGTS450, but am currently gaming on an MSI-GL62 laptop while the desktop is doing other things.
    – NZKshatriya
    Nov 6, 2016 at 13:04
  • While the FX-9590 may be a bit extreme (I'd have recommended a FX-8370) the Asus website has the 9590 in the M5A99FX supported CPU list. I too had to verify the CPU would work when I saw the recommendation. Asus only states that upgraded cooling would be in order, as 0-60FPS suggested. It is true though that the GTX1060 is a very strong upgrade over the GTX960 for roughly the same price.
    – Raj Huff
    Feb 6, 2017 at 15:33
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For your CPU a 4GB GTX 970 would be a good matchup. It would also be a huge upgrade from your current card. It is also way under your budget at around $300, but nothing better than that would really be worth the price for you due to a CPU bottlenck.

GTX 970 4GB OC Edition - https://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16814125840

Your mobo's PCIe 2.0 might be a little bit of a problem but you really dont haveto worry about it, since AM3+ doesn't supprt 3.0 anyways...

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First of all, I'm assuming you're only interested in upgrading your GPU and not other hardware components. If you are interested in upgrading, please leave a comment and I can update my answer.

All percentages are taken from userbenchmark.com

Now, for ~$500 you can get a couple of things:

nVidia

$600: GTX 1080 - 6x better than your current GPU

$400: GTX 1070 - 4.5x better than your current GPU

$200: GTX 1060 - 3x better than your current GPU

AMD

$220: RX 480 - 3x better

My recommendation is the GTX 1070 if you're not interested in upgrading other parts of your computer. Otherwise, you should probably purchase a new motherboard and CPU and simply get a GTX 1060, which is still a major upgrade.

I especially recommend this as I suspect that in some games your limited CPU will severely bottleneck the ridiculously powerful GTX 1070.

Also, the GTX 1060 will max out most games at ultra at 1920x1080p anyway, so unless you have a 144hz monitor or one of a resolution of 2560x1440p or higher there's not much point in purchasing a powerful GPU before you get all your other hardware up to date.

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