Yeah, was planning on running games on it - main one that's prompted the upgrade is the likes of Shadow of Mordor, Elite and so on all laughing at my current setup. From what I've seen, it's close between the fx8350 and the I5 equivalent, but with lots of arguing.
Mind you, this is one of those things where for the sake of 20 quid I end up with the "not quite" version, isn't it? Like when I had a Creative Zen instead of an iPod, or the wrong sodding trainers, or voting Lib Dem.*
Haha. I decided to spend the extra few quid this time, I feel too time-poor to be messing about with awkward drivers and compatibility stuff. So far things Just Work.
If you consider that you're likely to keep whatever you choose for a long time then the push to spend a bit more is even stronger!
What's the current setup, 'cos if we know what you're upgrading from, it might be easier to tell what performance gain you'll get.
I've got a 4 year old nVidia card, a GTX560TI and it's still blasting it's way through things. Mind you, the newest game I've got is Lego Marvel Super Heroes. :/
CPU - the i5-4690k would be a sweet spot, if you want to spend less then the i5-4460 is also pretty good.
Motherboard - muh... say the Gigabyte Z97P-D3?
So: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/F7K3vK
Yes it's a bit more, but it should be quite a bit better overall. An SSD would be a good idea, and a different CPU cooler if you want to overclock.
The Intel bit isn't relevant really for the graphics choice. I would still recommend an Nvidia Geforce aye, just for the better driver support. Even though there's a bit of fuss about their current 970 offering having a slightly dodgy memory thing going on.
I see Serg is saying go AMD for graphics, and for pure bang per buck they are better. I just don't wanna go back there after having so much hassle with drivers in the past. Still hear people complaining about them and associated performance issues!
My motherboard is an MSI (K9-MMV), and I can't say I'm really pleased with it. I've had a lot of hdd problems over the past 5 years I've had it, and discovered a few months ago they may be down to a wobbly SATA connector on the motherboard (I'm still using it though). An Asus mb we got at work a couple of years ago (M5A 78L-M LX) is comparatively solid. Also, what someone said about the memory.
The near-enough nVidia alternative would be the GTX960, although it's around £170. It'd be a bit of a shame to go for one of the older nVidia cards now that this one is out.
Have to agree with with Sergeuiuiuiu about the Radeon R9. My experience has been completely seamless. Games play fine across Little Blue's 3 screens with Eyefinity and in the absence of Hydravision updates, Displayfusion Pro sorts out per-screen window snapping & wallpapers. I'm sure Geforce is a sound offer too, maybe even better; but I wouldn't write off Radeon out of hand.
"We all have flaws, and mine is being wicked." James Thurber, The Thirteen Clocks 1951
Intel Core2 Quad Q9400
4Gb DDR2 RAM TBH
Radeon HD 4850 1Gb (Doesn't do DirectX 11, which is what prompted the upgrade)
1.5 Tbs worth of SATA HDDs (a 1Tb and a 500Gb) - tempted to go SSD at some point, but that'll be a later addition
I've just replaced an old first generation i5 cpu plus motherboard and memory with this because the power supply failed. I checked the power supply with a multimeter and it was perfectly obvious straight away that the 5V rail had gone trotters-up (it was only delivering about 2V) but fortunately I managed to persuade myself that there must also be a motherboard problem, in spite of the lack of evidence. This meant that I had to replace PSU, processor, motherboard and memory (might as well go for faster memory, eh?).
I don't do much gaming and get by with an incredibly cheap Nvidia G200 graphics card, so I have nothing to say on that front, but some things were a revelation. Being encouraged to overclock the cpu up to 4.7 GHz by a program supplied by the motherboard manufacturer (Gigabyte) with the click of a button in Windows, and still having it run at 25C under load, updating the BIOS from Windows as though it's a trivial change (yes, I know that's been around for years but not on anything I've owned).
All very fast and very stable - especially with an SSD (from on-button to useable desktop in under 30 seconds - that's better than my blu ray player).
Best of all, I discovered that the incredibly irritating hum from my case that's annoyed me for the last couple of years or more isn't a fan as I had suspected, it's an old hard drive. So obviously I have to buy one of those too.
never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you're dead
I currently have a Radeon 7870 and haven't had any driver issues at all with it. Actually, I've been put off Nvidia somewhat since the bad-bumps scandal of the GeForce 8 range (and my own GeForce 8 which popped a few months after the warranty had expired). Not one of their better moments that, even though the issue is probably long-since fixed.
Seems at the moment as though Nvidia versus AMD for graphics is fairly even-stevens overall, but AMD have somewhat dropped off the boil when it comes to CPUs. My system is still chugging along with a 5 year old Core i5 750 in it. Still runs modern games smoothly with the details cranked up, so I've not felt the need to replace it.
Of course, by the time I read that, I'd already ordered the Radeon R9 that Serg suggested. It's currently sitting under my desk in a ridiculously huge box. I'm thinking about bunging it into my current PC to see whether it can cope, before I attempt the full motherboard-processor-memory-ectomy.
bastard by name