Shilofax

One can never have too much SSD space in their system. I've been wanting to delve into some more I/O intensive tasks, having a dedicated SSD in order to do so would be great.

"More RAM makes my computer faster!"

In my experience Yosemite and El Capitan perform "not so great" on 4gb of RAM.

I recently upgraded an aging Mac Pro (2008) from 4GB to 16GB, and that alone increased performance quite a bit. Of course, we also installed an SSD after the RAM Upgrade to replace the 5400 RPM stock drive that it came with. 

No microsd support and 16GB are nothing.

Ah, I missed the microsd requirement. Sorry about that, Moto X play is a solid choice, that's what I would go with.

I would recommend the Nexus 5X. 

The previous Nexus 5 built by LG was amazing, and people who have the 5X early are saying mostly positive things about it.

I've never actually done that myself. If I had to guess, Windows would probably verify it's activation status, see that it's still installed with a valid product key, and then continue to work just fine.

On windows 10, this works just fine. I cloned an old drive with Acronis True Image, and restored it to a new SSD. Worked like a charm, the first time I opened settings on Windows 10 on the newly imaged drive, I simply had to click activate now. 

Worth noting that it is a retail key of Windows 10.

Great performance now and good long term performance aren't happening now for $200 when buying new, this generation's midrange GPUs suck for the money and the cheap R9 290s are sadly gone forever. Your best bet is a B-Stock refurbished EVGA GTX 970 for $250, but you're going to have watch this page below for them to show up:

 

http://www.evga.com/Products/ProductList.aspx?type=8

 

Every few weeks it seems they release some GTX 970s through B-Stock.

Thanks for the link, I'll keep an eye on that. 

That's 10 fps

As long as I'm above ~40FPS, I generally can't tell the difference, I'm not too terribly picky with staying at solid 60.

You're speaking like NVidia GPU drivers are perfect..

I have a 7970. Second GPU ever. My AMD drivers have never crashed EVER, my 570 (updated) drivers crashed regularly.

AMD's drivers are top-notch now in my opinion, you won't have any problems. If you want $200 GPUs, get the 380. My friend regrets his 960, since even though it was $250 at launch it kind of lags in today's games at 1080p. 380, WAY better performance for your dollar.

Don't buy a 960.

Not saying they're without flaws, but I've never had major issues.

Why does it have to be nvidia? An r9 380 would be the best choice for your budget. Otherwise the best nvidia has to offer in that range would be a 960, unless you are willing to purchase a second hand card in which case prices can vary wildly.

Driver problems in the past is why it has to be nvidia. I was stuck with the nightmare that was the 5850 for years, and I'm still having issues with my FirePro GPU in a Mac Pro 2013. 

I don't want to get stuck with driver issues, and I've never had a driver issue with an Nvidia GPU.

Those are horror stories from 2008-2009. Have long since been fixed. AMD's drivers have been stable for the past 3 years without issue.

I had these issues recently on my Mac Pro 2013 with Windows 8.1 pro 64 bit, and Windows 10 64 bit. So apparently that GPU is still having driver issues.

Woah, thanks for all the replies so far guys -- 

The reason I was originally going to look at an Nvidia card is the drivers. I've always had issues with AMD software. 

My history with AMD/ATI cards are as follows:

* An ancient Radeon 5850
* Mac Pro (2013) FirePro GPUs

On both of these cards, I have had issues with my desktop wallpapers turning black, explorer windows looking incorrect, and mouse cursor corruption with dual monitor setups. This persisted across multiple windows installs, and countless driver versions.

Has AMD fixes these issues with newer cards/driver releases?

I'm not too concerned with DX12, as I think by the time it's really needed I'll be looking for another upgrade anyways.

Simple question, and I apologize if this has been answered anywhere else. I've been lurking for a while, and couldn't quite find what I'm looking for exactly.

I'm looking for a budget-ish GPU. I'm thinking about $200 USD. What's the best GPU to purchase for great performance now, and good long term performance?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Willing to mention, I'm willing to spend a bit more if it's in my best interest.