Some advice? Looking to upgrade

[claste]

Hi guys - can I pick the collective brain? Looking to upgrade this build, budget is only 200ukp max, not sure if there's actually anything that can be done at that price point - would it be better to wait until we have a bigger budget? PC is used mostly to play heavily-modded (64bit special edition) Skyrim!

Case CORSAIR 230T COMPACT GAMING CASE - orange
Processor (CPU) AMD FX-6300 Six Core CPU (3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard ASUS® M5A97 LE R2.0 (DDR3, USB3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card 2GB AMD RADEON™ R9 270X - DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply: CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable 1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe AMD CPU Cooler
Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
3G/4G Module NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence

Thanks in advance!

 

[Oussebon]

You could get a new GPU. SSE especially with reshade/ENB can be very demanding on the GPU with the settings turned up - my GTX 970 gets maxed out quite easily. A GTX 1060 6gb (emphasis on 6gb, especially if you are going wild with texture mods) is worth looking into though may be a bit over £200.

The engine SSE and FO4 use is relatively prone to being CPU bound. You may find that to be an issue with your FX 6300. I wouldn't bother upgrading on that budget though. Anything in the AM3+ socket isn't worth buying. For a meaningful upgrade you'd want AM4 (Ryzen) or something from Intel, and that means a new mobo and new RAM (DDR4), all of which will cost a lot more than £200 and leave you no room for the new GPU anyway. The engine does apparently scale well with faster RAM so when the time does come around to get a new CPU, new mobo, and RAM, do look into getting fast DDR4, not just the 2133MHz stuff.

SSE isn't as CPU bound as FO4 though, as far as I can tell. Probably due to not having the complex ruined urban areas. Also compared to Skyrim (old version, which was DX9) I think things like shadows rendering have been moved to the GPU which helps a lot with performance.

You may want to get an SSD (e.g. Samsung 850 Evo) for your installation to live on as it will help a lot with loading times (perhaps especially if you use Mod Organiser). Not to mention loading times for Windows and any programs you reinstall onto the SSD.

 

[claste]

You could get a new GPU. SSE especially with reshade/ENB can be very demanding on the GPU with the settings turned up - my GTX 970 gets maxed out quite easily. A GTX 1060 6gb (emphasis on 6gb, especially if you are going wild with texture mods) is worth looking into though may be a bit over £200.

We can stretch to that. Alternatively, is it worth looking at the 8Gb RX 580? I've looked at comparisons and it seems to hold up well against the GTX 1060. Then again, there's almost nothing in the price, and I feel happier with Nvidia driver stability... I assume the GTX 1060 will be good for a few years, even after upgrading CPU/Mobo/RAM?

 

[Oussebon]

If you're gaming at 1080p then I would say not.

FO4 and I think SSE are gameworks titles. Game websites / magazines that do reviews of new GPUs tend not to include benchmarks for SSE, but a few still do FO4 and that seems to perform a smidge better on the 1060. I think FO4 might have more gameworks features than SSE, though SSE does have Nvidia's godrays I believe.
https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Radeon-RX-580-8GB-Review-Polaris-Populism/Fallout-4
https://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2017/04/18/asus-radeon-rx-580-strix-gaming-top-oc/7

That's nit-picking but if the main point is SSE and you need something to base a decision on, that's probably as good a reason as any/

Plus you can probably get the 1060 a bit cheaper, and it may use up to 100W less power (which with 1h's gaming load per day might equate to ~£5 per year). Not sure what the current promos are for the RX 580, but the GTX 1060 I think comes with a For Honor / Ghost Recon Wildlands free game, and some of the Asus ones have a free Dawn of War 3 (from participating retailers ofc).

Either the 1060 or the 580 should be capable of playing many modern AAA games somewhere from high-ultra so I'd imagine they'd be fine for a few years.