AMD APU Help

[Louis Ong]

Hello! I'm relatively a new member of the forum and I have a really tough decision. I currently have an AMD A10-5800k APU system. I bought it a year ago since I didn't have the money to get a really great graphics card and a better CPU. Now though, I have had a huge raise and would want to upgrade my system. I was planning on getting the GTX 780ti or the R9 280x, but my only problem is that I've read in a few forums(including here) that APU's don't really do well with high end graphics card like so. So I was planning on getting an FX 6300 and a MSI Z97 gaming mobo. 

 

Current System

 

CPU : AMD A10-5800k
MOBO : ASUS F2A85M LE
RAM : Kingston 8gb 1866 RED
HDD : WD Caviar BLUE 500gb
PSU : 700w Generic


OPTION 1 :

CPU : AMD FX - 6300 4.1 ghz 
MOBO : MSI 970 Gaming AM3+ (EDITED)
RAM : Kingston 8gb 1866 RED*
HDD : WD Caviar BLUE 500gb*
GPU : R9 280x
PSU : Corsair 450w PSU 

OPTION 2 :

CPU : AMD A10-5800k*
MOBO : ASUS F2A85M LE*
RAM : Kingston 8gb 1866 RED*
HDD : WD Caviar BLUE 500gb*
GPU : ASUS R7 260x 2gb OC 
PSU : Corsair 450w PSU 

 

*Retain

 

 

Should I retain my old APU build and put a massive GPU on it OR should I buy a new cpu and mobo THEN put a massive card in it?

[Interfectorem]

Certainly buy a new CPU and motherboard the A10-5800K will heavily limit the full power of a 780Ti since it's not a very powerful CPU. Also, the FX-6300 is not compatible with any Z97 motherboard, AMD CPUs are not compatible with Intel motherboards. The FX-6300 uses socket AM3+ (Which is AMD specific), and the MSI Z97 Gaming uses the LGA1150 socket (Which is specific to 4th and 5th Generation Intel CPUs). With that out of the way, I would recommend an Intel CPU, as they are superior to AMD CPUs in a lot of ways, the AMD CPUs are simply old nowadays and are outperformed by Intel counterparts. Something like an i5-4690K would be a powerful CPU and good choice. Also, the GTX 780Ti is significantly faster than the R9 280X. Hope I was able to help and clear things up.

[techguru]

whats the budget?

[Vek1313]

Can you give a budget and currency? We can help to get a great CPU + MOBO and GPU combo.

[Louis Ong]

Certainly buy a new CPU and motherboard the A10-5800K will heavily limit the full power of a 780Ti since it's not a very powerful CPU. Also, the FX-6300 is not compatible with any Z97 motherboard, AMD CPUs are not compatible with Intel motherboards. The FX-6300 uses socket AM3+ (Which is AMD specific), and the MSI Z97 Gaming uses the LGA1150 socket (Which is specific to 4th and 5th Generation Intel CPUs). With that out of the way, I would recommend an Intel CPU, as they are superior to AMD CPUs in a lot of ways, the AMD CPUs are simply old nowadays and are outperformed by Intel counterparts. Something like an i5-4690K would be a powerful CPU and good choice. Also, the GTX 780Ti is significantly faster than the R9 280X. Hope I was able to help and clear things up.

 

It was a MSI 970 Gaming AM3+ MoBo. Sorry bout that. Anyways, what if I retained my APU system and put a mid spec GPU in it? A R7 265 or a GTX 750Ti perhaps. Would the APU bottleneck the GPU?

[Louis Ong]

whats the budget?

 

Can you give a budget and currency? We can help to get a great CPU + MOBO and GPU combo.

 

About $200 US for the cpu and mobo and anything for the GPU

[Interfectorem]

It was a MSI 970 Gaming AM3+ MoBo. Sorry bout that. Anyways, what if I retained my APU system and put a mid spec GPU in it? A R7 265 or a GTX 750Ti perhaps. Would the APU bottleneck the GPU?

Ohhhh! Haha. The MSI 970 board is about $100 correct, so that leaves you $200 for the GPU. Something like an R9 280 or R9 270 would be a good choice. Not sure how much it will bottleneck if at all though. What kind of CPU cooling do you have, because you could overclock a bit.

[ryan123321]

option 1 is practialy my system now and it runs all the games i need it to rather well and looks good in the process

[Vek1313]

Well for $200 this is about as much as you will get to start off. The Intel side just outperforms AMD of similar quality and it will offer better upgradibility in the future.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jY6BWZ

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jY6BWZ/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($64.99 @ Amazon)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($55.98 @ Newegg)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GT 730 4GB Video Card ($76.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $197.96

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-11 09:08 EDT-0400

That to start you off and when you have about $450 you can upgrade that immensely

[Vek1313]

But if you decide to stick with AMD I would go with Option 1.

[Louis Ong]

Ohhhh! Haha. The MSI 970 board is about $100 correct, so that leaves you $200 for the GPU. Something like an R9 280 or R9 270 would be a good choice. Not sure how much it will bottleneck if at all though. What kind of CPU cooling do you have, because you could overclock a bit.

 

I have the generic HSF for now. I haven't invested on a good cooling solution because I'm still deciding if I should get the FX 6300 + MSI 970 gaming.

[Louis Ong]

UPDATE : I have decided to retain my current APU system, because I've read in an APU forum that a GTX 760Ti and a R9270x would run flawlessly with my CPU. Now my question is, which one is better? The GTX 760Ti or R9 270x? and what brand is cheap yet effective?

[blackadder]

UPDATE : I have decided to retain my current APU system, because I've read in an APU forum that a GTX 760Ti and a R9270x would run flawlessly with my CPU. Now my question is, which one is better? The GTX 760Ti or R9 270x? and what brand is cheap yet effective?

get what ever is cheaper. As far as brands go, if you nvidia evga is a very good company to deal with. with amd, Sapphire is a top brand too a vapor x model is overkill for this gpu but, it looks so cool. Pick what you like the best. Get 2gb model as well the 4gb are a waste at this price point most the time. I think the 270x is cheaper atm.