Upgrade

[BFOOT1]

Hey guys I'm thinking about upgrading my graphics card my price range is $200-$600 area, so just give advice:
Current specs:
Windows 7 professional 64 bit
Intel Core i5 Quad 3.20GHz
16gb RAM (can go to 32)
Western Digital 1 TB Black Hard Drive
DVD-RV
Nvidia GeForce GT 730 4gb Video Card

Also how does my setup sound to begin with? I'm not very tech savvy with PC specs.

I also play other games as well/looking to play other games, but AHIII is still #1.

 

[cav58d]

Personally I would go with a GE Force GTX 1060 6GB GPU and use the leftover money to add a SSD.

[BFOOT1]

Dumb question what's an SSD?

[save]

You must ask yourself what games you will be playing, and at what resolution the next few years.

For AH3 at 1920*1080, Nvidia's 1060 series is a good choice.

My Nvidia 780 suffer only when I play other games, like Cliffs of Dover, but for AH3 its good enough without the eye candy on at 1920*1080.

My next upgrade will probably be a 1070 or equivalent, but not until the prices come down more.

[TequilaChaser]

SSD = Solid State Drive

No moving parts...
It consists of a bunch of memory chips and helps your OS and other software and/or games etc...load extremely fast... let's your PC start up very quickly, etc...

I would say if you are allowing yourself around $600 , to go ahead and get yourself a GE Force 1080 GTX  8 GB or 6 GB video card

The rest of your current PC specs are just fine

Edit: getting yourself a SSD, example: Crucial m4 series 256 GB or Crucial MX200 250 GB or MX300 256(250?) GB SSD would be like Icing on your cake! The reason I gave "Crucial" brand SSD's as an example is that I have found this brand to have the best reliability over other brands... I, myself, have been swapping out my system memory from Corsair Vengeance to Crucial system memory with great results...no more Corsair, G-Skill, and some other brands of system memory for me anymore...

Hope this helps

TC

[BFOOT1]

What interface bit?

[TequilaChaser]

What interface bit?

Not knowing your current computer specs, completely...

A SSD with Sata III / 6G interface will work just fine and be the cheapest way to go.. m2 or pci-e versions are more costly

[DaddyAce]

You must ask yourself what games you will be playing, and at what resolution the next few years.

........

I think this is the key starting point if you want to be efficient with your $.  I'm quite happy with a 3 GB 1060 with a 1440 p monitor.  If you want to go to a 4 K monitor or VR, then look harder at a GTX 1070 or 1080.

[cav58d]

I think this is the key starting point if you want to be efficient with your $.  I'm quite happy with a 3 GB 1060 with a 1440 p monitor.  If you want to go to a 4 K monitor or VR, then look harder at a GTX 1070 or 1080.

Same here...Running 1060 3GB on 1080 monitor and I have no issues with AH.  I don't play any other games, so for me it's not worth it to spend $500+ on a video card (GPU).

[Bizman]

As has been said, upgrading the video card is crucial. 1060 for a single 1920x1080 monitor @ 60Hz, 1070 or 1080 if you plan to change to a higher resolution and/or higher refresh rate.

As for the SSD, it doesn't give you any frames per second. What it can do, it will make your system start faster. You'll save a couple of minutes a day, but you can't store them for future use.

A very important thing that hasn't been mentioned is, that your current GT 730 most likely takes its power through the motherboard pci-e slot whereas a GTX 1060 needs a dedicated 6-pin power cord from an at least 400 W power supply, the higher end cards needing even more. On my list a good power supply is more important than an SSD, it can save your entire system from being fried.

[BFOOT1]

I'm currently looking at this:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1
Powered by NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Integrated with 8GB GDDR5 Memory 256-bit Memory interface
Core Clock: OC mode boost Clock 1822 MHz, gaming mode boost Clock 1784 MHz
Max digital resolution - 7680x4320@60hz
Display connectors – DP1.4 x 3, HDMI 2.0b, dl-dvi-d


I also play IL2 Cliffs of Dover Team Fusion Mod, the Red Orchestra Series, some Rise of Flight, and I'm looking at Arma as well.

Edit: Here is the monitor I use as well, does it need upgrading as well? I told you guys I was kinda clueless to this stuff 

Acer AL2016W Bb Black 20" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 800:1
Screen size: 20"
Widescreen: Yes
Maximum Resolution:1680 x 1050
Recommended Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Viewing Angle: 160° (H) / 160° (V)
Pixel Pitch: 0.258mm
Display Colors: 16.2 Million
Brightness: 300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio: 800:1
Response Time: 5ms
Display Type: WSXGA+

Connectivity
Input Video Compatibility
Analog RGB
Connectors
D-Sub
D-Sub
1
DVI
No
HDMI
No


Power Supply
100V-240V
Power Consumption
OFF: <1W
Stand By: <2W
ON: 50W

[Electroman]

I have the NVidia GeForce 1060 with 6 GB ran, connected to a Matorx Triple Head2Go unit with 3 19" monitors giving me a 3840 x 1080 resolution with pretty much the same PC specs as you have now and works very well (See attached pic)

If you have the extra money the 1070 or better is not always a good choice as well.

[DaddyAce]

 BFOOT your monitor looks about about like the one I just replaced. 

Which monitor to get is a personal choice, nicer monitors sure improve the eye candy, but come at an increase in cost, and require more GPU power to run.  The 1070 is much more GPU than you need for that monitor, but if you go with the 1070 you can later upgrade to a much better monitor.  As Bizman pointed out the 2 critical aspects in terms of a monitors load on the GPU are resolution and refresh rate.  The the higher the resolution, you get more fine detail.  The higher the refresh rate, the higher FPS the monitor will cleanly produce, so a refresh rate of 60 can produce about 60 fps max, 144 mhz about 144 fps max.  Your current monitor looks like it'll max out about 50 or 60 with VSync enabled (which I think effectively matches refresh rate to FPS to maintain image quality).

Here is a bit on resolution:  http://www.logicalincrements.com/articles/resolution  (scroll down and click on "criteria for choosing a monitor")

Web page that lists different GPUs vs the monitor it should support (in terms or refresh & resolution):  http://www.logicalincrements.com/articles/graphicscardcomparison

I hope this helps!   

[Bizman]

BFOOT, the power supply information you gave is about how much it takes from the mains when idle. What would be more helpful is the brand and exact model.

As DaddyAce said, the 1070 is overkill for your current monitor. But who knows, you might want to upgrade your monitor next, or even go get a VR system. Getting a bigger monitor with (about) the same resolution adds no load to your video card so a GTX1060 can run a 50" 1080P screen as easily as your 20". But if you fancy a 34" ultra wide screen @ 2560x1080, get a 1070, or a 1080 for a 56" 4K. Size doesn't matter, pixel count does as far as GPU load goes. However, there's no sense in buying pixels you can't see. I mean, if you're shopping for a monitor, get the largest monitor where you still can't actually see the single spots drawing a diagonal line. If that's not large enough, get one with a higher resolution i.e. more spots.

[BFOOT1]

Just bought the card and a new monitor... that hurt, but well worth it.