Upgrade options

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   Hey,
I purchased the following board:

1 x ASRock A55M-HVS FM1 AMD 55 (Hudson D2) HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard. 

I would like to upgrade my CPU and graphics card. Here are the minimum requirements for fall out and I wanted to bump this up a bit so I can get another 2-3 years performance wise. Can I upgrade my graphics card first? What cards give out great performance and have the least issues with this board? Thanks!

GC - AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent.
CPU - AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz

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patrickr Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 15 Dec 2015 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote patrickr Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Upgrade options Posted: 15 Dec 2015 at 5:28am
	Hey, I purchased the following board: 1 x ASRock A55M-HVS FM1 AMD 55 (Hudson D2) HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard. I would like to upgrade my CPU and graphics card. Here are the minimum requirements for fall out and I wanted to bump this up a bit so I can get another 2-3 years performance wise. Can I upgrade my graphics card first? What cards give out great performance and have the least issues with this board? Thanks! GC - AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent. CPU - AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz

ASRock Expert Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04 Oct 2015 Location: Croatia Status: Offline Points: 220	Post Options Post Reply Quote ASRock Expert Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 15 Dec 2015 at 6:49am
	You cant install an AM3+ CPU on an FM1 MBO. You should look on eBay or under used stuff for those CPU's: Athlon II X4 AD638XOJZ43GX Athlon II X4 AD651XWNZ43GX Athlon II X4 AD641XWNZ43GX Athlon II X4 AD631XOJZ43GX Athlon II X4 AD631XWNZ43GX You can find the X4 631 under 30$, so a great deal for the last upgrade. What is Your current CPU/APU?
	990FX Extreme 9 MOD P1.70 AMD FX 8120 4GHz 1.25V Thermalright HR-02 Patriot Viper 2x4GB 2133MHz Samsung 850 EVO 250GB MSI R7970 TFIII 3GB CORSAIR VX550W LanCool K62 Dragonlord ASUS Xonar D2X

PetrolHead Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 07 Oct 2015 Status: Offline Points: 403	Post Options Post Reply Quote PetrolHead Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 15 Dec 2015 at 8:16pm
	Those are not the minimum requirements for Fallout 4, they're the recommended requirements. The minimum is: -Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent -8 GB (RAM, same as recommended) -NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent -30 GB (disk space, same as recommended) Also, I would advice against getting an FX-9590 as running it even at stock speeds can be challenging on even some of the better motherboards that claim to support it. An FX-8350 should be powerful enough for gaming and have less issues with motherboards, although you still need to know what you're getting. Furthermore, if you want to play Fallout 4, you might want to know that Fallout 4 features NVIDIA's GameWorks and that because of this it may run better on an NVIDIA GPU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15wOp7_dD8E While NVIDIA has been accused of foul play, not all sources see huge differences: http://wccftech.com/fallout-4-pc-performance-analyzed-gameready-drivers-nvidia-amd-gpus-runs-geforce/2/
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wardog Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 15 Jul 2015 Status: Offline Points: 6447	Post Options Post Reply Quote wardog Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 15 Dec 2015 at 9:23pm
	When I building for a customer I, we, tend to consider the recommendations at the below link. This allows them to get a feel for where and how much they're willing to invest. http://www.game-debate.com/can-I-run/ < id="kpm_plugin" ="application/x-KPMPlugin">

Xaltar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 16 May 2015 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 25028	Post Options Post Reply Quote Xaltar Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 15 Dec 2015 at 10:22pm
	For 2-3 years of being able to play the latest AAA titles at respectable settings and framerates, barring any drastic technological leap, you will want to look at at least a GTX 970 or R9 390 in the GPU department. As for CPU you are not off to a good start if you are looking at using the FM1 board you listed. But, if it is no longer something you can change then Wardog has already covered your CPU choices on that board. You will want to get the 3ghz Athlon from the list he provided as it will be better binned and is a quad core part. Now the Athlon II X4 651 will still likely prove a bottleneck for either of the 2 GPUs I suggested above so you see why I say it is not an ideal upgrade path. The FM1 platform is now very dated. In fact if it is longevity you are looking for then I would avoid AMD CPUs all together until Zen hits or at the very least go with an 8 core FX 83XX AM3+ CPU. As many have said, both on these forums and elsewhere, you will want to avoid the FX 9000 series entirely given their extremely high power requirements and heat not to mention higher price tag for little to no real world benefit. Ideally if you are on a budget you should probably look at something like a new Skylake i3 or i5, perhaps the i5 6400 and pair it with a board like the ASRock H110 Combo-G and either of the GPUs I suggested above. The advantage of the combo boards is that it will allow you to use DDR3 RAM for now while it is so much cheaper than DDR4 and later when the need arises you can upgrade to faster, larger capacity DDR4. This CPU/motherboard combo will allow you to spend a little more on the GPU which will be the deciding factor in being able to play AAA titles for a good long while. An i5 will perform a little better than an FX 83XX CPU in most titles due to it's superior single core performance and very close behind in others. The i5 setup will cost a little less overall when you account for the cost of a decent AM3+ motherboard and a solid aftermarket cooler that would be needed to keep the FX CPU and surrounding components cool. All this info is pretty much useless though without some idea of the kind of budget you are looking to spend. We could recommend a system that will last you 5 years but at huge cost or a far cheaper one that would only last a year at best. Let us know how much you want to outlay for a new system and we can then recommend accordingly.

patrickr Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 15 Dec 2015 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote patrickr Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 Dec 2015 at 10:58pm
	Thank you for this. AMD A4-330 Lano Dual Core 2.5GHZ this may have been a mobo cpu combo. I will take a look at the different models suggested.

patrickr Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 15 Dec 2015 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote patrickr Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 Dec 2015 at 11:01pm
	Yes this was a budget desktop but I am glad you mentioned that model CPU could have issues running on the current board.

patrickr Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 15 Dec 2015 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote patrickr Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 Dec 2015 at 11:09pm
	Budget would be around 500 total. I would prefer just to spend 200-300 on a graphics card first and run with that for a period of time. If I need to spend more to upgrade both CPU and graphics cards at the same time to not make my utilization 100% on the slower component when I purchase a new game that is understandable. This desktop was a gift and I just want to make sure when I buy components for it my sister will get more life out of the resources available versus just rebuilding it from scratch. I'd rather just rebuild it a year or two from now and upgrade what I can which CPU and GPU are usually the culprit. Thanks again for all the help, I don't really build gaming desktops anymore. Cheers!

Xaltar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 16 May 2015 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 25028	Post Options Post Reply Quote Xaltar Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 17 Dec 2015 at 12:58am
	Great with that we can help you out much more easily. So, as you want to stick with that motherboard lets break this down. CPU: Athlon II X4 651 (about +/- $60 used) GPU: Geforce GTX 950 2gb or R7 370 (+/- $150 new) SSD: 256gb any brand SATA 3 (+/- $80) RAM?: 8gb 2x4gb kit ($30 - $50) You could go for a GTX 960 or R7 380 which would add about $80 or so to that but both will likely be somewhat bottlenecked by the CPU. The GTX 950/ R7 370 are about the best value GPU you could get for that CPU. Now the reason neither Wardog or myself listed any A series APUs is because in your scenario with a dedicated GPU they would be a total waste of money. You should be looking at a total cost easily under $500 for all of the above and the resulting system should be nice and snappy and handle all current AAA titles @1080p on medium/high settings with that needing to be lowered further over the next few years.

patrickr Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 15 Dec 2015 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote patrickr Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 18 Dec 2015 at 2:50am
	This makes sense. I really appreciate this community and the responses. It's not everyday you post get and good answers from genuine people. Cheers!