Am I making the right decision?

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NuclearMuffin

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Dec 2, 2013
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Okay, so I am a avid PC gamer who plays daily, up until recently I have never had a problem with running a game, but with Arma 3, and Battlefield 4, my build is starting to stumble. Here are my current specs

Intel Core i3-2120 @ 3.30 GHz Dual Core
Gateway DX4870 Motherboard
8 GB DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 550 Ti
PSU 300w

I am looking to upgrade my CPU to the Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo).

SO my question is, is this a wise choice? And will my computer be able to handle it?
 
Solution
inzone
That would be a good choice and give you some added performance , however in gaming the single most important component is the video card. With the components that you currently have a video card upgrade would also require a power supply upgrade so the next best thing is the CPU upgrade which will help with the two CPU bound games that you play.
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inzone

inzone

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That would be a good choice and give you some added performance , however in gaming the single most important component is the video card. With the components that you currently have a video card upgrade would also require a power supply upgrade so the next best thing is the CPU upgrade which will help with the two CPU bound games that you play.
 
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rishiswaz

rishiswaz

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You should be upgrading your motherboard as well, OEM motherboards are not really the best quality. Also what settings are you looking to play at and at what resolution? It would also help to know what your budget is.
 
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qbsinfo

qbsinfo

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Jul 26, 2012
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according to the specs:
http://www.findlaptopdriver.com/specs-dx4870-ub20p-gateway/

that motherboard is a B75 chipset; can't adjust the multi on a 'K' version CPU. unless you plan on upgrading that in the future, i'd suggest considering an i5-3330 or 3450 and putting the few dollars in savings towards a PSU for a future graphics card upgrade.
 
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NuclearMuffin

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I have about 220 dollars. What would you recommend, and remember, this is for gaming.
 
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NuclearMuffin

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Medium Settings with steady frames at 1600/900 Resolution. 220 dollar budget.

 
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qbsinfo

qbsinfo

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something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3330 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Microcenter)
Base Total: $219.98
Mail-in Rebates: -$20.00
Shipping: $4.99
Total: $204.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-09 14:32 EST-0500)

[strike]*though the CX 430 has only one 6 pin pci-e power connection, you *could* get away with using an adapter and look at saving for something along the lines of a $250 GTX 760 . . .
[/strike]

nevermind that, just saw your resolution. an R9 270X would fit the bill for later. ;)
 
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NuclearMuffin

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Okay, so final question, if I bought the i5-3330 and the PSU, would I have a noticeable increase in performance when playing games?
 
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Adroid

Adroid

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You would probably notice a performance increase in battlefield multiplayer, crisis, or other CPU heavy games, I the form of higher minimum frame rates... But, your GPU will still bottleneck you from running at high/ultra resolutions.

It's quite possible in a lot of games you won't notice any difference at all.
 
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NuclearMuffin

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Okay. So, say I can run Arma 3 at medium settings and get around 30 frames, what will they look like after the CPU upgrade. Note Arma is a very CPU Heavy game. ps. I am planning to upgrade my GFX soon too.


 
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Adroid

Adroid

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Honest answer = I have no idea. Games that can actually utilize the multi threaded multi core CPU will benefit. It's hard to gauge with the old GPU what kind of frames you will get.

I expect you will get more increase from a new GPU than the CPU with your current setup, but I'm not going to pretend I can tell you how many fps because there are too many variables
 
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inzone

inzone

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Of the components that you listed the only thing that you could keep is the Ram because 8GB of Ram is sufficient to use in games , the rest needs to be upgraded. Your options are to save more money to do a complete upgrade or to do it piece by piece but keeping in mind what is needed.

CPU ----- i5-3570k or i5-4670k
video card ---------GTX 660Ti , GTX 760 or HD 270x
motherboard ------ Z87 chipset , Z77 chipset
PSU ------- 500w or higher

Naturally this all depends on your ability to save money and at what rate.
 
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NuclearMuffin

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Dec 2, 2013
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okay. So if you were me, what would you upgrade first, the Video Card? Because if so I was thinking about this one, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127775

 
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qbsinfo

qbsinfo

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Jul 26, 2012
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the thing is economics is playing a role. you will need to upgrade your PSU to get a graphics card that will eat up money of your $220 budget. well, you could get a R7 260x for ~$140ish and that uses a little less power than the 550ti and that would be a pretty decent upgrade. the next step up in gpu performance ( R9 270x or 660) would cost $200+ and would definitely need a better PSU.

let me see:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($179.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Microcenter)
Base Total: $239.98
Mail-in Rebates: -$40.00
Total: $199.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-09 17:45 EST-0500)


if you can afford the extra ~$20 upfront costs, then i highly suggest you consider something like that. if not than you may need to upgrade the PSU and CPU now and get a gpu later.

BUT if you do get the psu/gpu first - please understand that you may face instances where the i3 could be limiting the performance. (notice i didn't say bottle neck?)

(EDIT boy did i get ninja'd! too much time looking and thinking . . :p )
 
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