Upgrading and need help please.

H

Hellmore

New Member
Hello everyone. I'm sorry for my bad English. I bought a PC about 4 years ago and I am now looking to upgrade my graphic card. I have a $300 budget and i'm looking to get a good bang for my buck and compatible with my current set up. My system Specs :
CPS - Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600 CPU @ 3.30GHz
Ram - 8151 MB
Sound card - Speakers (USB Audio Device) | SANYO LCD (NVIDIA High Definiti
Current graphic card - NVIDIA GeForce 960
Storage is Hard Drive - 930. Gb
Running Windows 10 64 bit
Motherboard - MSI B150M PRO-D (MS-7996)
Btw, Im looking to play games with this PC. I play games like squad, Mordhau and other games but I play on low settings. I'm looking to be able to play these games at high frame rate and graphic clarity. I am not the most knowledgeable in the computer world and any help would be appreciated. Would you please make some recommendations for different price points? Thank you for your time and responses.
 
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johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Would also need to know what exact power supply you have. Mordhau recommended amount of ram is 16gb and a gtx 1060. With your budget you would have to look at used or increase your budget or go AMD 5600xt which are right around $300. The GTX1660TI may be an option. However, do you know what game you play that is the most demanding?
 
H

Hellmore

New Member
johnb35 said:
Would also need to know what exact power supply you have. Mordhau recommended amount of ram is 16gb and a gtx 1060. With your budget you would have to look at used or increase your budget or go AMD 5600xt which are right around $300. The GTX1660TI may be an option. However, do you know what game you play that is the most demanding?
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Thank you. Sorry for the late reply as I was at work. My power supply is an Allied Model: SL - 8500BTX
MAX 500W.
Please let me know if I need to provide any more information. Thank you for your help.

Edit: The most demand games I play is Mordhau and Insurgency Sanstorm. Even though my computer runs the games one low setting , they are quite fun. However in would like to be able to play them with better setting and smoother frame rate. Also play other games that may be coming in the future at good or low settings with good frame rate. Please note that I'm not someone who is looking to get the best graphics possible. I'm looking to be able to play these games with decent setting at a good frame rate.
 
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johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
First of all, you need to replace that power supply with a decent unit as the one you have is garbage. It only provides 370 watts on the 2 - 12 volt rails. Your Gtx 960 requires a good 450 watt psu. You really need a quality single rail power supply around 500-550 watts. Look for Corsair, EVGA, Thermaltake, Seasonic brands. The 2000 series Nvidia video cards are more pricey and out of your budet unless you find them used. Hopefully other members will give you their input as well.
 
H

Hellmore

New Member
johnb35 said:
First of all, you need to replace that power supply with a decent unit as the one you have is garbage. It only provides 370 watts on the 2 - 12 volt rails. Your Gtx 960 requires a good 450 watt psu. You really need a quality single rail power supply around 500-550 watts. Look for Corsair, EVGA, Thermaltake, Seasonic brands. The 2000 series Nvidia video cards are more pricey and out of your budet unless you find them used. Hopefully other members will give you their input as well.
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Lol thank you. So if I replace my power, would I get better graphical performance? The compute was a pre built kit so I didn't pick the peices unfortunately.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Hellmore said:
So if I replace my power, would I get better graphical performance?
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It's possible, if the power supply isn't supplying the video card with enough power then it will hinder performance. But you do need to change out the power supply for a better one before upgrading your video card. Not sure where you are from so if you can give us a website where you get parts from we can recommend you a few units.
 
H

Hellmore

New Member
johnb35 said:
It's possible, if the power supply isn't supplying the video card with enough power then it will hinder performance. But you do need to change out the power supply for a better one before upgrading your video card. Not sure where you are from so if you can give us a website where you get parts from we can recommend you a few units.
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Oh wow, I had no idea. I live in Texas so anything in n the states will help. I live very close to a Frys store. Thank you very much for your replies and your help.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Unfortunately, it seems the power supply availability is still poor and price is higher than normal. Looking on Newegg, they have a Corsair cx 550m for $79.99 on sale or a evga 550 b5 for the same price. Normally these would be around $60 or so.

www.newegg.com

EVGA 550 B5, 80 Plus BRONZE 550W, Fully Modular, EVGA ECO Mode, 5 Year Warranty, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply - 220-B5-0550-V1 - Newegg.com

Buy EVGA 550 B5, 80 Plus BRONZE 550W, Fully Modular, EVGA ECO Mode, 5 Year Warranty, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply - 220-B5-0550-V1 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com
www.newegg.com

CORSAIR CX-M Series CX550M 550W Modular Power Supply - Newegg.com

Buy CORSAIR CX-M Series CX550M 550W 80 PLUS BRONZE Haswell Ready ATX12V & EPS12V Semi-Modular Power Supply, CP-9020102-NA with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com
 
H

Hellmore

New Member
johnb35 said:
Unfortunately, it seems the power supply availability is still poor and price is higher than normal. Looking on Newegg, they have a Corsair cx 550m for $79.99 on sale or a evga 550 b5 for the same price. Normally these would be around $60 or so.

www.newegg.com

EVGA 550 B5, 80 Plus BRONZE 550W, Fully Modular, EVGA ECO Mode, 5 Year Warranty, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply - 220-B5-0550-V1 - Newegg.com

Buy EVGA 550 B5, 80 Plus BRONZE 550W, Fully Modular, EVGA ECO Mode, 5 Year Warranty, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply - 220-B5-0550-V1 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com
www.newegg.com

CORSAIR CX-M Series CX550M 550W Modular Power Supply - Newegg.com

Buy CORSAIR CX-M Series CX550M 550W 80 PLUS BRONZE Haswell Ready ATX12V & EPS12V Semi-Modular Power Supply, CP-9020102-NA with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com
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Ahhhhhh yes they are on back order. I was able to find https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014W3EMAO/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_9386EbFN64NN4. Would that be something I could use? Like would there be any issue with the compatibility with my other hardware?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
H

Hellmore

New Member
johnb35 said:
That one has low wattage on the 12v rail, rated at 600 but only has around 500. This evga unit has more wattage but only a 2 year warranty where the thermaltake one has a 5 year warranty. Perhaps do some researching to see if you find anything else?

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Thank you so much for all of your help. I cant express enough how grateful I am. I just also find out that my graphics card is actually a https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Graphics-Card/GV-N960WF2CN-2GD-rev-10#ov

But when I check through my system it says it's a Nvidia GeForce 960. Strange.
 
H

Hellmore

New Member
johnb35 said:
That one has low wattage on the 12v rail, rated at 600 but only has around 500. This evga unit has more wattage but only a 2 year warranty where the thermaltake one has a 5 year warranty. Perhaps do some researching to see if you find anything else?

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Thank you very much. I will be ordering one rite away. I will also be upgrading my ram from 8gs 2400mgz to 16gs at 3000mhz and hopefully these two will give noticable upgrade. Thank you for your time and expertise.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Hellmore said:
Thank you so much for all of your help. I cant express enough how grateful I am. I just also find out that my graphics card is actually a https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Graphics-Card/GV-N960WF2CN-2GD-rev-10#ov

But when I check through my system it says it's a Nvidia GeForce 960. Strange.
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What you have is a gtx 960 2gb video card. The 2gb could also be limiting your performance. The 5600xt and the 1660ti are 6gb cards so basically 3 times the video ram of your current card and much faster.
 
H

Hellmore

New Member
johnb35 said:
What you have is a gtx 960 2gb video card. The 2gb could also be limiting your performance. The 5600xt and the 1660ti are 6gb cards so basically 3 times the video ram of your current card and much faster.
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Ahhhhhh I see what you are talking about. So I'm going to upgrade my power supply to the one you recommended and will see how my performance increases. Then I'll upgrade my ram from 8gs to 16gs. Then I'll finally do my graphics card. Will I need to upgrade my mother board before any of that?
 
H

Hellmore

New Member
Hellmore said:
Ahhhhhh I see what you are talking about. So I'm going to upgrade my power supply to the one you recommended and will see how my performance increases. Then I'll upgrade my ram from 8gs to 16gs. Then I'll finally do my graphics card. Will I need to upgrade my mother board before any of that?
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Ahhhhhh okay, so I wont be doing that lol. I'll just start with the power supply.
 
H

Hellmore

New Member
johnb35 said:
First of all, you need to replace that power supply with a decent unit as the one you have is garbage. It only provides 370 watts on the 2 - 12 volt rails. Your Gtx 960 requires a good 450 watt psu.
Click to expand...
What do you mean only getting 2 - 12 volt rails? My power supply has 3 connections going into the side of my graphics card but only 2 to my other board.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
The 960 should only need 1 6pin power connector from the power supply. You need a 24pin main connector and a 4/8 pin cpu power connector going to the motherboard. Your current power supply has 2-12 volt rails dividing up the power. For entry level systems that don't game, its ok to have but for people that want to game, you should have a single rail power supply that delivers power on a single rail.
 
H

Hellmore

New Member
johnb35 said:
The 960 should only need 1 6pin power connector from the power supply. You need a 24pin main connector and a 4/8 pin cpu power connector going to the motherboard. Your current power supply has 2-12 volt rails dividing up the power. For entry level systems that don't game, its ok to have but for people that want to game, you should have a single rail power supply that delivers power on a single rail.
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But my power supply does have a 24 pin connector to the MB and a 6 pin going to my Graphics card but only another 4 pin to my motherboard. This picture may help. So if I'm understanding you correctly. You are saying that my system is putting out 500w but I need 480 alone going to my GC. However, since I have only 2 rails instead of 1, the power going to my entire system is cut in half since I'm only supposed to be using a 1 rail set up? Direct power going through 1 railJPEG_20200618_194124_compress87.jpg
 
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