Refund Season; Looking to upgrade my PC

[Paragon Fury]

So I rebuilt my gaming PC a few years back and while it's stood up well, I'm looking at maybe taking some of my refund money this year to upgrade it a little. Right now it can run stuff like Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3 alright, but I have to keep certain settings down and it struggles a little with some mods and in a couple of parts. And a game like ArmA 3, while it runs decently, has to be kept lower as well. My current setup is;

Windows 10 x64
Intel i7 4790 @ 3.60ghz
MSI H97 Gaming 3 MB
16GB DDR3 RAM
AMD Raedeon R9 290 4GB

I'm currently looking at maybe trying to get a stronger GPU and looking at getting a better case with better airflow (as my current case is a little small for a GPU of my size) to keep everything more effectively (since as stated it is a little tight in there right now).

I don't want to blow ALL my refund though (since I do have other things I need to get too), so I'm wondering if a reasonable upgrade is possible within in a reasonable price, or I'm at the point where the only meaningful upgrade will basically cost the whole damned refund?

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

Well, don't try to upgrade for Arma 3. Literally nothing can keep that games framerate up, whether top of the line CPU, GPU, or both.

Anyway, if you don't mind a rather large and oddly shaped case design, go for the Corsair Carbide Air series. They offer two different compartments (one for the motherboard side, and the other for power supply, hard drive, SSDs) and comes with decent fans for fantastic airflow. They're also easy to clean and work in since there is so much room and is easily cable managed since the bulky PSU cables come through the back of the motherboard.

I personally use the Air 540 and have for a few years now, and I can't imagine ever needing to replace the case anytime soon.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Looks to me like making a GPU upgrade to this current set-up would be pretty easy. Any of the current GPUs will work with your motherboard, and that CPU isn't going to bottleneck anything, so it's all about what your budget is.

Personally I'd go with a 1070 if you can stand to drop $400.

As far as cases go, what size are you looking for?

I have a NZXT Phantom 530 and I absolutely love it, great airflow, but it's a full tower case, and a bit big for most people.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Looks to me like making a GPU upgrade to this current set-up would be pretty easy.

Pretty much this. Your processor is still great and is really on a couple percentage point of performance off from a brand new 7700k. Maybe 1-3 fps of difference. 16GB of DDR3 is plenty. There's very littler difference between DDR3 and DDR4 right now. All of that means you don't need to change out your mobo which means no serious surgery. Get a 1070 or 1080, pop it in, and enjoy your new frames. Of course, an SSD is always a great addition and having your OS and favorite games on it is a huge improvement.

Only other thing I would ask is what is your monitor situation like? If you move to a 1070 I'd recommend a high refresh rate monitor to take advantage of the GPU's power. In my opinion a 1070 is perfect for a 1080p 144hz monitor. If you want a GTX 1080 then you're in 1440p territory.

If you scored a 1070 and a nice monitor I think you'd be really happy with your rig. Of course, if you tell us what your budget is that would really help.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Looks to me like making a GPU upgrade to this current set-up would be pretty easy.

Pretty much this. Your processor is still great and is really on a couple percentage point of performance off from a brand new 7700k. Maybe 1-3 fps of difference. 16GB of DDR3 is plenty. There's very littler difference between DDR3 and DDR4 right now. All of that means you don't need to change out your mobo which means no serious surgery. Get a 1070 or 1080, pop it in, and enjoy your new frames. Of course, an SSD is always a great addition and having your OS and favorite games on it is a huge improvement.

Only other thing I would ask is what is your monitor situation like? If you move to a 1070 I'd recommend a high refresh rate monitor to take advantage of the GPU's power. In my opinion a 1070 is perfect for a 1080p 144hz monitor. If you want a GTX 1080 then you're in 1440p territory.

If you scored a 1070 and a nice monitor I think you'd be really happy with your rig. Of course, if you tell us what your budget is that would really help.

I'm thinking I'll have about $600 left after I get the other things I need to get.

My current main display is 1920x1080 (but it's almost a decade old now) and my secondary monitor is a 1360x768 older TV.

 

[CritialGaming]

Looks to me like making a GPU upgrade to this current set-up would be pretty easy.

Pretty much this. Your processor is still great and is really on a couple percentage point of performance off from a brand new 7700k. Maybe 1-3 fps of difference. 16GB of DDR3 is plenty. There's very littler difference between DDR3 and DDR4 right now. All of that means you don't need to change out your mobo which means no serious surgery. Get a 1070 or 1080, pop it in, and enjoy your new frames. Of course, an SSD is always a great addition and having your OS and favorite games on it is a huge improvement.

Only other thing I would ask is what is your monitor situation like? If you move to a 1070 I'd recommend a high refresh rate monitor to take advantage of the GPU's power. In my opinion a 1070 is perfect for a 1080p 144hz monitor. If you want a GTX 1080 then you're in 1440p territory.

If you scored a 1070 and a nice monitor I think you'd be really happy with your rig. Of course, if you tell us what your budget is that would really help.

I'm thinking I'll have about $600 left after I get the other things I need to get.

My current main display is 1920x1080 (but it's almost a decade old now) and my secondary monitor is a 1360x768 older TV.

I would definitely go with the GTX 1070. I have one in my laptop and frankly it is powerful enough to run pretty much everything on ultra or very high at worse. PLus it is a very affordable GPU, which might leave you with some extra cash for a monitor. Though with 600 bucks you probably aren't going to be able to get both. I'd do the GPU first, though as it seems to be the biggest upgrade for your rig.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

My current main display is 1920x1080 (but it's almost a decade old now) and my secondary monitor is a 1360x768 older TV.

Get a 1070 and a nice monitor like the Asus VG248QE and call it a day. Make your current primary monitor your secondary and enjoy.

 

[mad825]

My current main display is 1920x1080 (but it's almost a decade old now) and my secondary monitor is a 1360x768 older TV.

Get a 1070 and a nice monitor like the Asus VG248QE and call it a day. Make your current primary monitor your secondary and enjoy.

If you're going for a 1070 you might as well get a 1440p monitor at the very least. You could even go 4K if you don't mind not getting 100+ FPS.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

My current main display is 1920x1080 (but it's almost a decade old now) and my secondary monitor is a 1360x768 older TV.

Get a 1070 and a nice monitor like the Asus VG248QE and call it a day. Make your current primary monitor your secondary and enjoy.

If you're going for a 1070 you might as well get a 1440p monitor at the very least. You could even go 4K if you don't mind not getting 100+ FPS.

He could, but I personally wouldn't advise it. I've had both a 1070 and now a 1080 and I wouldn't use the 1070 at 1440- just not enough grunt. At 1440p you're looking at 60fps or below from a 1070 in pretty much everything which means you're going to be making settings compromises relatively soon to maintain that framerate. a 1070 with a high refresh rate monitor is, in my opinion, the sweet spot for the 1070. You get to enjoy a powerful card at high frame rates and high graphics settings for longer instead of being disappointed in its performance in a year.

I am also very sensitive to framerates though so if OP doesn't care as much then maybe he could give it a shot.