hi,

i think its time to upgrade my budget PC build its approaching a year since i built my 1st ever PC and i think its time to extract more performance.

Current specs are: Athlon II x2 270 - 8GB 1333 ram - HD 7790 oc edition - 500GB HDD - Msi 760gm-p21 AM3 mobo x2 dimms & standard 500w ATX PSU that came on Envisage K2 gaming case

i dont need anything earth shattering but im leaning towards adding another 500GB HDD 7200 rpm to keep files on and keepng ram as it is, for the processor i want a FX 6300 and a MSI HD 7870 for the visuals and will buy an aftermarket 600w PSU & possible a new 2.1 sound system

 &  OR 

ive also spotted a cheap Radeon R9:270x is that the same card as the HD 7870? is there any benifit ive always fancied a card from VTX

to put it in perspective i dont game on a 1080p monitor ive a humble 1440 X 900 black samsung syncmaster 19" wide its a brillaint display and im happy with it. Will i be able to play games at much higher settings? im kinda trying to move certain games onto my PC once i get this upgrade done

• open world games
• F2P games
• Multiplayer BF4 etc

also, i see on Ebay Radeon HD 7950 the specs seem good but will all this draw a lot more power? im not to keen on much higher bills lol

thanks

Personally, I'd keep that 7790 ticking over until the next gen of GPUs are released. You should see some improvements from the CPU update as your old Athlon was probably bottlenecking your performance on some games.

Either that or splurge on a better GPU like a 280 or 290.

7950 > R9 270X > 7870

But the difference between 270x and 7870 isn't that much to care unless the 270x and 7870 are equally priced

Also if you game on a 1440 x 900 monitor, these cards will be a beast!

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1043?vs=1034

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1043?vs=1033

If I were you I would go for an Intel processor instead. It's well worth the money, trust me. Go for the 4670K or the 4770K. Oh, and don't forget to grab that 7950. 

Next generation GPU's aren't gonna be released until 2015 I think. Building identical processors on a 20nm wafer is slightly more expensive than doing it on a 28nm wafer so there's no incentive to release new products when there isn't going to an improvement on the performance per price front. 

I thought AMD were revamping the architecture for the next batch of chips?

The way I see it, the 7870 isn't much of a jump over the 7790, at least not for the extra cash he'll need to put down. Personally, I'd go for a better GPU to make the upgrade worthwhile.

AMD are revamping the architecture for early next year but that's quite a bit of ways. 

I don't think OP will need all that much power at 900 x 1440 ... 

Hm, you won't get much of a jump - you can expect something like 50%, not sure if that's worth the upgrade. If you can, go with 280X or GTX 770 to double your performance.

If you dont need that extra juice to have completely everything at ULTRA get the cheaper GTX 750 Ti GPU. If there is almost no price difference def go with the AMD 270x since its faster but usually the 270x is 35-45 pounds more expensive

I can just speak for myself (build a PC for a friend) but
the GTX750 handles BF4 at constant 60FPS (Vsynced) when played at 1600x900 with completely everything set to HIGH (only cutscenes drop to 40).

And since 1440x*900 is 10% less pixels than 1600x900 you can easily set some if not most settings to Ultra.

Since you can keep your memory and your mainboard for the FX6300 you just need to buy the CPU and a GPU.

Total price for both on Amazon.uk = ~ £ 193

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GIGABYTE-NVIDIA-750Ti-PCI-E-Graphics/dp/B00IGQ4UX8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400290119&sr=8-1&keywords=gtx+750
£114.99

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-FX6300-Edition-4-1GHz-Socket/dp/B009O7YORK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400290106&sr=8-1&keywords=6300
£77.99

Im pretty sure there is cheaper shops in the UK but I have no idea which ones.

ive just found a cheap powercolor 7870 myst edition that has tahiti(7950) like performance, i have read about you need bios from 2012 onwards

my mobo is MSI 760GM-P21 fx and am unsure if i can use this card

will i be able to play with this grafix card?

the 7950 is now called r9 280.  and the difference to the 270x isnt so big.  i buyed a 280 a week ago. fine card.

and it was cheap. i dont know why, but saphire has a realy cheap 280, 40-50€ less than all other 280.

but he needs a new CPU, not a new GPU