What are my options?

[Gould-Digger]

So I built my PC in late 2012/early 2013 and it's never been upgraded. It consists of the following;

• CPU
  Intel® Core™ i5-3330 Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.20 GHz)
• RAM
  Crucial 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3
• GPU
  Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC 2GB
• Storage
  Western Digital 1TB Green
• PSU
  Corsair CX500
•  

 

What are my upgrade options here in 2016? I'm not a hardcore gamer as you can expect from my 'rig'  But I would like to start playing some upcoming titles such as mafia III and Planet coaster. I'm worried my machine won't keep up with new titles. I know GTA 5 is very un-optimised for PC and I do get 60fps on real low settings, but I'd like a little more than just low.

 

Also my screen is only 1080p 

 

 

[iLoiter]

RX 460, RX 470, or GTX 1060 3gb. Choose your poison gold digger.

Edited August 21, 2016 by iLoiter

[Kuri]

Depends on your budget - on how much you are willing to spend.

 

If you only want a slight upgrade the quickest way is to get a 1060 for 250$.

[Gould-Digger]

33 minutes ago, Kuri said:

Depends on your budget - on how much you are willing to spend.

Around £200 ($250) - £250 ($325)

[antisleep]

PCPartPicker part list

Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£54.65 @ CCL Computers) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB AMP! Omega Core Edition Video Card  (£188.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Total: £243.64

or

PCPartPicker part list

Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£54.65 @ CCL Computers) 
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 470 4GB NITRO+ Video Card  (£188.16 @ Scan.co.uk) 
Total: £242.81

 

970 vs RX 470 comparison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGqVFSH2hMo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNNRGH3gMvg

 

I'd personally go with the 970.

[Captain_WD]

9 hours ago, Gould-Digger said:

~snip~

Hey there

 

A couple of notes from me:

- there are websites that check the performance of your system and compare it to a specific game's demands and can easily tell you which parts need upgrading and which are good for now. Since you are going for gaming purposes I would suggest to focus on the GPU first and then check if the CPU bottlenecks your performance and if you could use more memory. 

 

- another great upgrade would be adding a SSD to your system for the OS as this would make a huge impact on the responsiveness, boot/loading times and the overall performance of your system. Though gaming generally doesn't rely on the storage's performance for anything else but the loading times (FPS and graphics are not affected) you would get much shorter loading times on the games installed on the SSD. Some games that are MMOs or Open World may have their surrounding textures load faster or smoother but again that won't affect your FPS nor the textures' quality. 

 

Since that WD Green has some years behind it I would check its health just to be on the safe side that it is performing properly and your data on it is still safe. Running WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic and checking if the drive passes both the quick and the extended tests should do the trick.  

 

Captain_WD.