General Discussions

[almightykid88]

Guys, need your expertise on this. I am not having so much budget and not gonna demand ultra settings. I just wanna play smooth of at least high quality on 2019 games. I am offline player like to play games that is not online and streaming. More to adventures like GTA-V and games like that. I enjoy story line and graphics.

Current PC:
- MBD: Gigabyte GA-F2A58M-DS2

- SSD: Samsung EVO 850 256 GB
- RAM: I will change soon to at least 16 GB (Can recommend me that fits that Motherboard)
- CPU: AMD A10-6800K (APU 2013)
- GPU: ATI ASUS EAH6570
- PSU: Powerlogic Magnum Pro 225x >> 225W (Max/Peak Power 450W)

What do I need to change? My current knowledge is not much. Can I just change to GTX 1060? Will it change everything? Or I heard that I will need to change PSU as well due to GTX power supply will required it. What else that will not cost me too much but will change drastically the capability of the PC to keep up with 2019.

Thank you.

[black_zion]

Honestly...that computer is not worth upgrading, as aside from the SSD it all needs to be replaced.

The CPU is exceedingly weak, especially for heavy CPU usage games, such as GTA-V. Your GPU is far too weak for any kind of upper end settings, and between your CPU and the below mention extremely dangerous problem, there's no way to just upgrade that. The socket of your motherboard has long since been made obsolete, so there is no way to upgrade your CPU without getting a used unit, which will still be very slow.

Your largest problem by a parsec is the PSU , which is EXTREMELY dangerous to be using in the ATX world. 95%, or more, of your power requirements are at 12v, which is what the CPU, motherboard resources, and GPU run off of, with 3.3v and 5v running RAM, USB, and other minor, auxiliary supplies, and your PSU is only rated for 10A at 12v, that's only 120w. Do not under any circumstances change any hardware without changing your PSU first, as you will cause damage, likely destructive, and that damage is not covered by warranty. There's also the possibility it can explode and/or catch fire.

I would suggest you give us a budget figure so we can suggest options, but around the $500 mark is what you can expect for a Ryzen 3400g system, which is a capable 1080p60 APU in itself, as you can see by the review below.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1878-amd-ryzen-3400g/

[almightykid88]

Thank you very much for your detailed and helpful reply sir. Currently I am looking for PSU as it is kinda affordable and after that maybe GPU.

[black_zion]

Corsair uses reputable OEMs for their PSUs, and are quite affordable.

[almightykid88]

I have come up with this Idea of saving money and aim for this Mini CPU,

What do you think? Will this playable and good to consider? I love the fact it is Mini CPU since my family move area a lot due to parent work condition.

Processor : AMD Ryzen 5 3400G, 4 core, 8 thread, 3.7Ghz,
VGA : Integrated Radeon™ RX Vega 11 Graphics
Mainboard : Chipset AMD A300
Memory : RAM 16GB (8GBx2) DDR4 2666Mhz
Storage: SSD 256GB NVMe
Adaptor : 120W/19V Adapter

Estimation fee of this package: USD 442

[black_zion]

The 3400G is a decent APU, but it's not really suited for gaming outside so called "e-sports", with it, not even at the lowest quality settings, generally able to hit 60FPS outside them. If you want higher quality settings at 1920x1080 in most games, you will need a discrete video card, which means you won't be using a small form factor PC.

[colesdav]

This web site might help you:
Can You RUN It | Can I Run It | Can My PC Run It 

[colesdav]

I still use an i7-4770K for gaming - using discrete GPU.
Here is a comparison of your processor to i7-4770K: Intel Core i7 4770K vs AMD A10 6800K 
You might get away with keeping the processor for the moment and just upgrading your PSU and GPU.
You need to upgrade the PSU for sure.
A modern low cost GPU may help alot.
One thing to watch out for though.
That APU has old non GCN integrated graphics so you may find that you cannot even install latest AMD drivers on any modern AMD GCN or RDNA based GPU.
It is likely that an Nvidia GPU upgrade would be the best solution to minimise the upgrade cost of the PSU anyhow.
It should not have any GPU driver install issues caused by the AMD APU.
Good luck.

[almightykid88]

I am planning to find any used GTX 1050 or 1060 for the GPU and for the PSU will find all the recommendation in this discussion such as cooler master or corsair PSU. However I wonder:
1. Will buying any PSU match with the needs of my motherboard and will it be fit in?
2. Will upgrading PSU cost my electric bill way much higher?
3. That NVIDIA GTX 1050 or 1060 still be able to fit in to this motherboard of mine right?
4. Any chance for me to upgrade the APU to the best possibility that this motherboard can handle? If not mistaken this mobo using FM2+ socket.

[hardcoregames_]

EVGA has a pint size GTX 1060, I own one, but that is because I have some microATX rigs. My RX 480 is too big for those rigs.

I would avoid the GTX 1050 as it is not not nearly as powerful as the GTX 1060

I would suggest abandoning FM2+ and move to AM4 which will boost performance big time

[colesdav]

You will have to check the motherboard specifications here: GA-F2A58M-DS2 (rev. 3.x) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global 
RE: 1. Will buying any PSU match with the needs of my motherboard and will it be fit in?
I would not think that a Corsair SF600 or 750 would have a problem at al driving that motherboard.

You can see the PSU Dimensions here:
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Power-Supply-Units/SF-Series%E2%84%A2-80-PLUS-Gold... 
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Power-Supply-Units/Power-Supply-Units-Advanced/SF-... 
Check the connectors will work with your motherboard.

RE: 2. Will upgrading PSU cost my electric bill way much higher?
You would need to work that out, but I think you would have to play games 24/7 to notice any serious impact.

RE: 3. That NVIDIA GTX 1050 or 1060 still be able to fit in to this motherboard of mine right?

You have the follwoing expansion slots so yes the cards should fit on the motherboard.

1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16
   (The PCI Express x16 slot conforms to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)

* To support PCI Express 3.0, you must install an FM2+ APU.RE: 4. Any chance for me to upgrade the APU to the best possibility that this motherboard can handle? If not mistaken this mobo using FM2+ socket.
If I were you I would just upgrade the PSU and the GPU first and see if that is enough.
sUPPORTED cpuS ARE HERE: GA-F2A58M-DS2 (rev. 3.x) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global 

[black_zion]

Be aware that with any Socket FM2 processor and a GTX 1050/60, you're not going to play 2019 games smoothly with any kind of details, and doesn't even meet the minimum requirements of many AAA games like The Division 2 and Metro Exodus, and will -barely- meet the minimum requirement of Minecraft, so you seriously need to consider buying or building a brand new system.

[hardcoregames_]

I would start with a better PSU. I like 650W and bigger mainly as I have lots of other components that need power.

USB demands are growing and now type-c wants even more power

I use Corsair the HX1000i which is overkill but it is very efficient. NB; that games can push hardware above nominal TDP and some can reach 110% or even 115%

Fans and RAM do not use a lot of power, I always budget 250W for a bare motherboard to cover all components,

Looking at Corsair Link my HX1000i is set for single rail and a custom fan profile. The monitor shows the machine draws 3-4A of 12V current with office applications which leaves close to 80A in reserve. No disputing that the HX1000i is serious overkill when working on the website etc. Where it does matter is when there is a demanding game playing and then the 12V load jumps slightly. The GTX 1060 needs about 9A max itself.

[colesdav]

Try Corsair SF600 or Corsair SF750

I already own an SF600 - really great little PSU and it is used as an eGPU Power Supply for cards up to and including overclocked RX Vega 64 Liquid pulling about 400 Watts. The PC has it's own additional separate power supply when I run the RX Vega 64 Liquid as an eGPU with the SF600 providing power to the RX Vega 64 Liquid. However the fact that it runs with no problem indicates the PSU quality is good.

It can be more flexible and cheaper to purchase a pair of high quality lower power PSUs than purchasing one large PSU.
There are some Black Friday Deals still running with 30% reduction on the Corsair SF750's - I have just purchased a couple of those.
Good Luck.

[hardcoregames_]

I recall discussing SFF v Big Box and each has their own merits. I use an old Cooler Master HAF 932 which is huge but its so cool in operation no matter how many video cards are installed.

Back in the day when the GTX 260 was not enough for a 1920x1080 panel. I was forced to run GTX 260 SLI to do that. Now the GTX 1060 beats that and it can even do 3840x2160.

A lot of uppity video cards dump a lot of heat back into the chassis which my Cooler Master is very adept and removing.

[almightykid88]

Hi sir hardcoregames™‌ colesdav‌ If I have to choose between:
1. [USED] [$133] MSI NVIDIA® Geforce® GTX1060 6GB OC GDDR5 192bits Graphic Card
2. [NEW] [$145] GALAX GeForce® GTX 1650 EX (1-Click OC) 4GB GDDR5 128-bit DP/HDMI/DVI-D

With my current conditions of old PC and I would reconsider Item that I can re-use if any case I got the opportunity to rebuild my own PC. Would that 1650 good for long term? 

[hardcoregames_]

My RX 480 8GB beats both of those cards and I got one for $99 Canadian late last year.

[almightykid88]

But what about this sir?
"That APU has old non GCN integrated graphics so you may find that you cannot even install latest AMD drivers on any modern AMD GCN or RDNA based GPU.
It is likely that an Nvidia GPU upgrade would be the best solution to minimise the upgrade cost of the PSU anyhow.
It should not have any GPU driver install issues caused by the AMD APU.
Good luck."

Should that be fine without updating drivers? If I take RX?

[hardcoregames_]

I have an R5 2400G which has Vega 11 graphics. For 1080p graphics this APU can play a surprising number of games. It runs at about 1.7 TFLOPS with DDR4-2933 so it can be fairly good.

My RX 480 has 36 CU which comes in at 6 TFLOPS so its substantially more powerful.