Whats best discreet gpu for an old rig.

[Mangoman2000]

Hi,

 

I got hold of an old AMD FM2 rig running AMD-A4-4000 with 16GB 1866 DDR3 paired with a 120GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. I have a RX550 and a GTX970, Which one should I pair it with? I personally think the 970 will be overkill for the system. I would like to use the system for web browsing and some cs:go or fortnite once in a while. The monitor is a crappy 21" sansui so I am not really looking for 1080p ultra here 720p will work just fine.

 

Would appreciate thoughts on the subject.

[3 Lions]

I would personally not bother with either since they would be both heavily bottlenecked, I would just use the iGPU to be honest. Yes, this would mean you'd have to scrap your plans of gaming on it and just use it purely just for web browsing. 

[Bitter]

HD 7570's are like $20 on eBay and would maybe do 720P gaming, certainly plenty for internet and Youtube in HD.

[Ertman]

The A4-4000 is a very weak chip for the games mentioned. The 550 would be the best match for you system. However to play games like CSgo you would have to upgrade the CPU to something more powerful. If your board supports it an Athlon II x4 750k (or similar) would be your best bet if you want to get that particular system up and running to play some of those games. It will still likely be bottlenecked by the CPU. CSgo performance would still be pretty low, but probably playable in a non-competitive sense, and I don't know how well/poorly fortnite will run.

 

I don't really see it being worth it as the cost of 750k is higher than the performance it yields, and it depends on how much more you want to invest into the system.

 

10 minutes ago, Bitter said:

HD 7570's are like $20 on eBay and would maybe do 720P gaming, certainly plenty for internet and Youtube in HD.

The OP already has 2 video cards that can do the work, buying a third will not help him play those games and the igpu in APU is enough for browsing and video playback.

 

 

[Bitter]

My reasoning was that he may want to better utilize those cards in another PC without disassembling a working one.

[Mangoman2000]

14 hours ago, Ertman said:

The A4-4000 is a very weak chip for the games mentioned. The 550 would be the best match for you system. However to play games like CSgo you would have to upgrade the CPU to something more powerful. If your board supports it an Athlon II x4 750k (or similar) would be your best bet if you want to get that particular system up and running to play some of those games. It will still likely be bottlenecked by the CPU. CSgo performance would still be pretty low, but probably playable in a non-competitive sense, and I don't know how well/poorly fortnite will run.

 

I don't really see it being worth it as the cost of 750k is higher than the performance it yields, and it depends on how much more you want to invest into the system.

 

The OP already has 2 video cards that can do the work, buying a third will not help him play those games and the igpu in APU is enough for browsing and video playback.

 

 

What if I upgraded the cpu to a A10-5800? That should bring in two more cores and I see quite a few of them in Aliexpress for like 50-55 $.

[Bitter]

I don't know about AE and CPU's. I'm currently waiting on an order that I wasn't told was delayed until I messaged to ask why the tracking number wasn't working. I've had 50/50 luck with eBay as well, seems no one knows how to properly package a CPU for mailing these days. That being said, FM2 or FM2+ or better yet what motherboard? There's Athlon X4 860K's going for $40-$60 from China on eBay as well, if you're using a graphics card then why bother with an APU?

[K1ng]

tbh at that rate and finding the hardware reliable i would just go out and spend money on a ryzen 2200g and board and call it a day. Yes you can game on that a4 but you will have constant issues and anything coming out in the future will just be worse.

[K1ng]

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-Processor-Radeon-Graphics/dp/B079D3DBNM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1548651611&sr=8-1&keywords=2200g

https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GA-A320M-S2H-Motherboard-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B07GDW1KR6/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1548651662&sr=1-1&keywords=b350&refinements=p_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A10656895011
https://www.amazon.com/Timetec-2400MHz-PC4-19200-Unbuffered-Non-ECC/dp/B07B4NVTD6/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1548651708&sr=1-4&keywords=8GB+DDR4&refinements=p_n_feature_four_browse-bin%3A10656894011%2Cp_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A677427011

If you are dead set on gaming on that board it wont matter what gpu between those two but the 970 will be more heavily bottlenecked. Problem with that cpu in the long run is it wont get the 60 frames even at 720 when either GFX card could get 120 in some games just with the right cpu. All the 970 gets you is possibly better 1% lows so you could theoretically play a game with that 970 at 1440p and get the same FPS as someone with a better rig due to the more frames you draw is what causes most cpu strain unless the game is just cpu dependent like many sims or RTS games or games that use the cpu for physics effects.  But you will also get the same frames at 1080p because again your cpu is limiting those frames that it is willing to process.

[Ertman]

7 hours ago, Mangoman2000 said:

What if I upgraded the cpu to a A10-5800? That should bring in two more cores and I see quite a few of them in Aliexpress for like 50-55 $.

Well it would definitely help. CSGO maps vary quite a bit,  and I think you would be landing closer to 60fps, but I can say with certainty. But how much $ do you want to spend on this platform.

 

Personally I think you might be better off using the $50-55 towards a different used system. You could even reuse the ram, if compatible.