Upgrading from an HD6850

Solidarity

New member
Hey I know I should just get a new rig, but for now that's something I can't quite do. This is my current rig:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£56.90 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI 870A-G54 ATX AM3 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£37.28 @ Dabs)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.78 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card
Case: Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£74.95 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £207.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-28 20:37 GMT+0000


I was thinking about upgrading to an R9 380 4Gb,either the Sapphire Nitro Dual X or the MSI Gaming 4G Twin Frozr V.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£56.90 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI 870A-G54 ATX AM3 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£37.28 @ Dabs)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.78 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card (£178.96 @ More Computers)
Case: Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£74.95 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £386.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-28 20:39 GMT+0000

I know my motherboard only has PCI Express 2.0 I was wondering if you guys think it would be a worthwhile upgrade to extend the life of my PC? And to get some more modern games running at playable FPS that I currently can't run.
 
PCI-E 2.0 x16 still has boatloads of bandwidth for an AMD R9 380. She'll be a sizeable upgrade for you. :)

I dunno if you overclocked your CPU or not, but even if you could bump that up to at least 4.0GHz that would definitely help since it'll become the weakest part of your PC once you upgrade that GPU. the RAM, HDD and the rest is plenty fine.
 
PCI-E 2.0 x16 still has boatloads of bandwidth for an AMD R9 380. She'll be a sizeable upgrade for you. :)

I dunno if you overclocked your CPU or not, but even if you could bump that up to at least 4.0GHz that would definitely help since it'll become the weakest part of your PC once you upgrade that GPU. the RAM, HDD and the rest is plenty fine.

I did some reading earlier and everything seemed to suggest it would be fine, I would just figure I'd ask to see what others thought of it as an upgrade, and partly to see if anyone else is running an R9 380 in a PCI-E 2.0 board.

I do have a mild OC on my CPU to 3.5Ghz. It can do more as I've had it OC'd to 4.0Ghz before. I went with a more mild overclock as for a brief period there was a problem with the electrics in my house and didn't want to trip the circuit. The problem has since been fixed though.
 
I would go with whichever is cheaper for the 380's. Also depends on warranty and if the retailer you buy from accepts returns/refunds just in case something wrong happens.
 
pcie 2.0 is not an issue, id be more concerned with the cpu personally. but i guess it is just about there in terms of performance for the card you want to use.
 
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