Hardware Upgrading Video Card & RAM - Suggestions?

[DarkFlare69]

It's not near recommended but you technically have the absolute bare minimum requirements and I know GTA V can run on your APU

That's somewhat comforting. I thought mine would be nowhere near minimum.

Power supply is critical for graphics card, if you're not giving enough power to graphics you'll suffer instability, crashes and even damage to the entire system.

Is this an issue with all graphics cards? If I get an older one, is it more likely to work?

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It has a 400 Watt power supply.

 

[goober]

That's somewhat comforting. I thought mine would be nowhere near minimum.

Is this an issue with all graphics cards? If I get an older one, is it more likely to work?

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It has a 400 Watt power supply.

Older graphics cards aren't always more power efficient. But you have a stronger power supply than I expected however it won't be enough to safely run a 260x card and again it would be majorly bottlenecked anyway. Can you tell me the case or brand of your computer or at least know if you can have a full slot card to begin with? Is your installed OS 64bit?

I still can't stress enough that any upgrade is wasted money at this point but having this argument with so many people I know it just doesn't matter so I'll try to help you best I can anyway since you may see a 25% increase at least.

 

[DarkFlare69]

Older graphics cards aren't always more power efficient. But you have a stronger power supply than I expected however it won't be enough to safely run a 260x card and again it would be majorly bottlenecked anyway. Can you tell me the case or brand of your computer or at least know if you can have a full slot card to begin with? Is your installed OS 64bit?

I still can't stress enough that any upgrade is wasted money at this point but having this argument with so many people I know it just doesn't matter so I'll try to help you best I can anyway since you may see a 25% increase at least.

Then I'll take the 25% increase.

Its MATX Chassis 400W PSU Black Chassis

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And yes, Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

 

[goober]

Then I'll take the 25% increase.

Its MATX Chassis 400W PSU Black Chassis

And what I mean is if you buy used or spend maybe as little as 50% more you'll get so much more incredible return but it's your choices. Since your case is micro atx, buying a used motherboard and cpu on ebay is even easier and cheaper if you have the patience.

If you absolutely insist on this route I'd suggest getting a 750 Ti card instead but you need to make sure your powersupply has an extra 6 pin power connecter. It uses a lot less power than the R7 260x and it performs about as well.

 

[Xenon Hacks]

And what I mean is if you buy used or spend maybe as little as 50% more you'll get so much more incredible return but it's your choices. Since your case is micro atx, buying a used motherboard and cpu on ebay is even easier and cheaper if you have the patience.

If you absolutely insist on this route I'd suggest getting a 750 Ti card instead but you need to make sure your powersupply has an extra 6 pin power connecter. It uses a lot less power than the R7 260x and it performs about as well.

That what I recommended him at first but he had an AMD processor

 

[goober]

That what I recommended him at first but he had an AMD processor

AMD processor doesn't matter there's no real synergy to be had by going AMD outside of any hybrid options but they're not worth it and nvidia cards have great power management as it stands. You can mix and match processor brands and graphics cards.

 

[DarkFlare69]

And what I mean is if you buy used or spend maybe as little as 50% more you'll get so much more incredible return but it's your choices. Since your case is micro atx, buying a used motherboard and cpu on ebay is even easier and cheaper if you have the patience.

If you absolutely insist on this route I'd suggest getting a 750 Ti card instead but you need to make sure your powersupply has an extra 6 pin power connecter. It uses a lot less power than the R7 260x and it performs about as well.

I decided I'm gonna upgrade the RAM first, and then see what to do from here about the graphics card.

 

[Xenon Hacks]

honestly you should save up your money increasing the ram will give your PC more breathing room but you won't see an increase in speed for the stuff you use since they are not not intensive.

 

[goober]

I decided I'm gonna upgrade the RAM first, and then see what to do from here about the graphics card.

A prudent choice. Since you game at such a low resolution your APU alone might be enough to power GTA V at bare minimum. The extra memory will also help you ensure that since APUs share system memory. Make sure your shared memory is probably at least 1GB after you upgrade.

That said, should you get the 750 Ti you could get around 30-40 FPS in GTA V on medium at 720p.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127784

That card requires slightly more power but the recommended PSU spec uses a processor that consumes 4 times as much as yours so you should be safe with it.

 

[DarkFlare69]

A prudent choice. Since you game at such a low resolution your APU alone might be enough to power GTA V. The extra memory will also help you ensure that since APUs share system memory. Make sure your shared memory is probably at least 1GB after you upgrade.

I'm a noob, what does "shared" memory mean

 

[goober]

I'm a noob, what does "shared" memory mean

With onboard graphics (APUs are AMD's version of it to not get too technical) it uses system memory instead of dedicated vram memory. So to change that setting you need to go into your bios and change it. I don't have fresh recollection on AMD drivers for APUs so I am not sure if you can do it in windows through the AMD control panel.

 

[DarkFlare69]

With onboard graphics (APUs are AMD's version of it to not get too technical) it uses system memory instead of dedicated vram memory. So to change that setting you need to go into your bios and change it. I don't have fresh recollection on AMD drivers for APUs so I am not sure if you can do it in windows through the AMD control panel.

Okay, I can do that.

Thanks for everyone's help. I'll let u know how it turns out.

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honestly you should save up your money increasing the ram will give your PC more breathing room but you won't see an increase in speed for the stuff you use since they are not not intensive.

Most of the stuff I do, my PC can do fine, but in this situation were talking about GTA V. GTA V recommends 8GB of RAM

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I found a videk by a random guy on how to do it. Very easy. Im gonna set 1GB to the graphics. Then if it runs ok I'll try 2GB and 480p.

 

[DarkFlare69]

Just wanted to let you guys know, I tested GTA V on my PC today for the first time without any upgrades. Still 4GB of RAM. It runs at around 97% speed at 800x600 resolution and default settings. The FPS isn't good though, around 20. So I'm going to get an extra 4GB of RAM and then give 2GB instead of 512MB to the video.

 

[Xenon Hacks]

Just wanted to let you guys know, I tested GTA V on my PC today for the first time without any upgrades. Still 4GB of RAM. It runs at around 97% speed at 800x600 resolution and default settings. The FPS isn't good though, around 20. So I'm going to get an extra 4GB of RAM and then give 2GB instead of 512MB to the video.

Guy if you want to play games don't do it on a pc you either spend 400-600 on a solid build that puts "next gen" consoles to shame or you upgrad a decent PC (which you don't have). just buy a used 360 or something.

 

[DarkFlare69]

Guy if you want to play games don't do it on a pc you either spend 400-600 on a solid build that puts "next gen" consoles to shame or you upgrad a decent PC (which you don't have). just buy a used 360 or something.

Why isn't it a decent PC if it can do what I want to fine?

 

[Xenon Hacks]

Why isn't it a decent PC if it can do what I want to fine?

Its not worth it even if you get the ram and card as suggested it won't run that much better than a 7th gen console. Your remind me of a friend I have he's a really stubborn person and whenever he asks me stuff like this I tell him do whatever you want but days later I always tell him "told you so".

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Buy a used benq 360 flash ixtreme firmware to it and burn discs or buy an xkey.