Gaming Rig Upgrade Help, Low FPS

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
F

frahar

Honorable
Sep 10, 2013
9
0
10,520
My gaming rig is a few years old, and I'm looking to upgrade parts of it. I only play WoW and LoL, and my FPS drops to ~10 or worse in raids, even on low settings. All my stuff is a few years old, and I want to know what may be the best place to start upgrading.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.1GHz
Video Card: Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
MB: ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W
Monitor: AOC 2330V 23" 30000:1 Dynamic, 60Hz, 300 cd/m2

I'm considering the following video cards:

Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 ($90 after rebate)
vs
Radeon HD 7870 Ghz Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 ($170 after rebate)

I'm leaning toward the 7870, but have read mixed reviews. I'm also wondering if the launch of the 8000 lineup will reduce prices on 7000 series, and if I should wait it out.

I'd love to get some advice before I start shopping, maybe I need to upgrade everything, but I'd think that for WoW my rig should be close to okay...

Thanks!
-Thom
 
Solution
S


If you are on a budget, go for a AMD FX-8320 or if you can afford, go for a Intel i5-4670(get the K version if you are planning to overclock).
As for motherboards go, i have no idea of what chipsets are good for AMD but for Intel, you should preferably buy a motherboard with a Z87 chipset.

For intel:
B85 chipsets(budget chipsets) are not suited for gaming...
Sort by date Sort by votes
S

SimonGranstrom

Honorable
Aug 20, 2013
319
0
10,860
I'd say you build a new rig, since that CPU will "bottleneck" any new GPU.
If you can't afford a completely new system, get the 7770 because the 7870 won't have that much of a performance increase than the 7770 with that CPU.

And mixing 2 different brands of ram is in most cases completely stable.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
F

frahar

Honorable
Sep 10, 2013
9
0
10,520
Interesting.

What if I went with a new CPU as well, and got the 7870. What CPU would you recommend that fits my rig? Will 6 or 8 cores really matter? I don't plan on doing any OC, so do I need an aftermarket cooler?

Edit: It looks like my MB only supports AM3 CPU's, which is kinda limiting. If I upgrade my CPU, i'd probably need to do the MB as well. Any suggestions?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

SimonGranstrom

Honorable
Aug 20, 2013
319
0
10,860


If you are on a budget, go for a AMD FX-8320 or if you can afford, go for a Intel i5-4670(get the K version if you are planning to overclock).
As for motherboards go, i have no idea of what chipsets are good for AMD but for Intel, you should preferably buy a motherboard with a Z87 chipset.

For intel:
B85 chipsets(budget chipsets) are not suited for gaming, mostly used in office computers or for less powerful CPU's.

H87 chipset(normal chipset) supports pretty much everything Z87 does except you can't overclock.

Z87 chipset(gaming chipset) allows overclocking.

So let's say you bought a i5-4670k and a H87 motherboard. You just wasted some money on the unlocked CPU since you can't overclock on that board.
If you bought a i5-4670 and a Z87 motherboard, you wasted money on the "overclocking" chipset since the CPU's multiplier is locked.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom