nba 2k18 system requirements

So if I get the 1050 Ti and upgrade the processor to an FX-8370E (within my motherboard's 95w limit), I should be good to go then?

I wouldn't waste more money on that route unless you can get one for really, really cheap.

The AM3+ is dead. New CPUs are incompatible. DDR4 is incompatible. The performance of the old CPUs is terrible for today's standards.
The FX-8370E itself is 3 years old and gets beaten by 7 years old CPUs.

My advice as someone who builds PCs for a long time for myself and recommends builds for friends: Do not waste money on dead tech. If you can get that FX-8370E for a few dollars (or your local equivalent), then it might be worth consideration. Otherwise it's just putting off the upgrade that PC needs.

A solid choice would be something like this:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen CPUs now hold best value and very solid performance. The Ryzen 5 1500X would be an excellent choice - 4 cores, 8 threads, 180 USD. The 1600X would be even better with 6 cores and 12 threads for 230 USD.
• Motherboard: Generally speaking, the boards that are worth considering start at $80.
• RAM: You'd need DDR4 module(s). Roughly 70 USD for 8 GB, 130 USD for 16 GB.

Let's say we go with the cheaper route (1500X, 8 GB RAM)... that's roughly 330 USD.

Now I don't know how much do you know about CPUs, because this might seem counter-intuitive. Why would I recommend 4 core CPU (with 3.5 GHz base clock) instead of 8 core CPU (with 3.3 GHz base clock)?
It's simple, the 1500X can do much more work done at same frequency than the FX-8370E. They're using different architectures.
The core count doesn't always save it (especially in gaming), not to mention that the FX-8370E has only 4 cores for certain types of calculations (though largely irrelevant for gaming).

Of course the PC would probably benefit from other stuff, although at that point PSU is most important (unless you have a high quality one already), GPU was already mentioned and you can get an SSD any time.

Thank you for the clarification. Looked at performance tests of the Ryzen 5, and it does seem like a very solid choice for a processor. I might have to take your advice, since I'm not gonna really get far with my current motherboard lol. The main reason I looked at the 8370E was because that was literally the only other AMD processor that I found at the 95w limit compared the 4300. Now I know what I should aim for when upgrading this PC.

With AM3+ the rule of the thumb is that if you have to worry about motherboards thermal limits, it's a bad idea to put FX-8xxx in it anyway.

As far as GPU goes I wouldn't expect anything new on the market, nVidia essentially said "AMD's high-end cards are not a threat to us, we aren't going to rush Volta because of it".
That said, with the recent mining craze and everything, you might be able to get your hands on something like AMD RX 480/580 for cheap. AMD's cards seems to play nicer with NBA 2K anyway.