1080p gaming PC

[vmFiro]

Hi, I need help for upgrading my PC it's kinda bad. My harware is not that good and it can't pull even older game titles on 1080p(max settings) and its a shame couse I have very nice monitor and games look bad in lower resolutions. I dont need high end PC made for 4K and stuff like that.

My pc specs:

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2H

CPU: Intel® Core™ i3-3240

GPU: Nvidia GTX 650 1GB GDDR5

RAM: Kingston 8GB one stick(do not know model name)

Mass storage: Seagate 1TB

SSD: Kingston 60GB(for system)

PSU: 550W (unknown)

For GPU i'm planning MSI GTX 960(when come to stores with 4GB) or MSI GTX 970. But other stuff will not be that expensive. I was trying to stay with same CPU(I don't need better than i3-3240) but new/better motherboards don't have LGA1155 sockets.

[Skeletonfish]

i would go with the 960 that you were thinking of, then upgrade the CPU and eventually ram

[gilm0re3]

first i would upgrade the GPU, whats ur budget?

I second this. You definitely want to upgrade that GPU

[vmFiro]

It's not defined. I would buy GPU now but i think it wouldn't perform as good as it should with current hardware. And im looking for sweet spot hardware

[Skeletonfish]

It's not defined. I would buy GPU now but i think it wouldn't perform as good as it should with current hardware. And im looking for sweet spot hardware

a 960 would definitely be bottleneck by the i3 some where around a 760 i think would be ok

[bob345]

i would go with the 970 if you can. it will likely be bottlenecked by the i3, but because you have a 1155 socket motherboard you could upgrade to something like a 3570 or 3770 in the future which would be a great upgrade.

[vmFiro]

i would go with the 970 if you can. it will likely be bottlenecked by the i3, but because you have a 1155 socket motherboard you could upgrade to something like a 3570 or 3770 in the future which would be a great upgrade.

So you would stay with same Motherboard, it wont bottleneck 970?

[bob345]

So you would stay with same Motherboard, it wont bottleneck 970?

no, the motherboard will not bottleneck the card. The only downside to that board is that you cant really do any overclocking with it, that's why i recommended the non k cpu's. Other than that, with an ivy bidge cpu and a 970 performance wont be that far off compared to using a haswell or newer cpu.

[Ertman]

If you want 1080p max settings in modern games you will need more than your i3. An i5 and an appropriate GPU can get you there.

If you just want to play at 1080p with better framerates and lower settings upgrade the GPU and see how far that takes you. You could always look at upgrading the processor for that motherboard if you see some bottleneck.

[Andrewf]

Forget upgrading the CPU. Just get a GTX 960, it won't be a bottle neck for anything except in Battlefield. Only slightly too. The biggest difference will come from the GPU. If your i3 is overclocked well, then it should be fine until a decent Broadwell desktop CPU is released.

[crispfact]

If you want 1080p max settings in modern games you will need more than your i3. An i5 and an appropriate GPU can get you there.

If you just want to play at 1080p with better framerates and lower settings upgrade the GPU and see how far that takes you. You could always look at upgrading the processor for that motherboard if you see some bottleneck.

does the cpu really matter here..? i have an i3-4150 and a r9 280 and i caqn still pretty much max out every game on 1080p..

[Ertman]

does the cpu really matter here..? i have an i3-4150 and a r9 280 and i caqn still pretty much max out every game on 1080p..

The number of cores might just matter, its honestly game dependant (CPU bound games), and good to know.

 

I still suggested that they upgrade the video card first and see how far it takes them.