Upgrade Or Nah?

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HenryyRoberts

HenryyRoberts

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Jun 15, 2014
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basically my specs at the moment are:

AMD FX-4130 3.8GHz (water cooled with a Cooler master Seidon 120v)
KFA2 Nvidia GeForce GTX-670 2GB 256-bit
8GB of ram clocked at 1866Mhz (can't remember what the brand is right now)
WD Caviar Blue 7200rpm 1TB HDD
Corsair 630M PSU
ASUS M5A97 R2.0

Okay so my problem is that i'm not really satisfied with the performance i get in games, i dunno whether its bottle necking or just bad compatibility between hardware.

i see benchmarks of the same gpu and similar cpu getting way better results than i've seen myself with my build, they weren't overclocked either, its kind of frustrating.

i'm not especially technical because i'm not as experienced as someone who's respectively been building pc's for a while but i like to hope there is a solution.

i am thinking of upgrading my GPU and going for a XFX DD edition Radeon R9 280 (or maybe the 280x) but i'm not sure if this will be much of an improvement, 280x is considered a 770 equivalent and 270 a 760 equivalent but the r9 280's are pretty cheap compared to what my graphics card is supposed to be worth.
GTX-670 I have: http://amzn.to/1pDckUQ
R9 280 I want: http://amzn.to/VM7b0D //// http://amzn.to/1p7cRcm


hope you can help me out
 
Solution
sincreator


Now you see why we all said to replace the CPU and not the video card ;) I'm glad we were able to help. Enjoy the upgrade :)

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Vic 40

Vic 40

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Oct 22, 2013
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Try to update the bios of the motherboard for the cpu falling back to other similar builds.Then try to overclock it.See if this gives the speed you want/need.
If you really wanted to upgrade would i look at a FX 8350.You could also go for an i5 with a good motherboard,that would be a good choice too.

I would just keep that gpu,but that's me.I'm easily pleased.It's still at gtx 760 level and maybe even a bit faster.

Don't know which psu you have because that one doesn't exist.It will probably be fine seeing it's a corsair.

You could add a ssd,for an overall system performance enhancement.This is not going to bring more fps,but it could give better load times for games.
 
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sincreator

sincreator

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You are being held back by your CPU with your current video card. Grab a FX 8120 and overclock it, or if your not comfortable with doing so, grab the FX 8350. If you only run a 1080p screen your GTX 670 is plenty for now. You can always upgrade that when you need to, but first things first, get rid of your CPU bottleneck. It would be totally pointless to upgrade your video card while using the FX 4130. You will not see any increase because of your bottleneck.
 
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MeteorsRaining

MeteorsRaining

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Jul 27, 2014
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OP, this is the right time to upgrade CPU, a year after will be the right time to upgrade GPU.

Get nothing less than R9 280X or GTX 770 and FX 8 respectively.
Your current GPU is good enough high-ultra gaming on latest titles.

Your CPU and older MoBo is possibly the bottleneck. Just get a FX 8 and you'll experience a considerable enhance in performance.
Then, after a year or so, when you feel like, get a better GPU, like GTX 770 or maybe 860/870 if they're feasable enough or maybe R9 280X.
 
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Snookslayer

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May 10, 2012
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We're sorta in the same boat (I have FX 4100) except your GTX 670 blows my Radeon 6870 out of the water.

I doubt overclocking would help me as much as you. I'm waiting to make the i5 and mobo upgrade in a few years. Hard to justify $300+ just see my fps increase from a very playable 50ish (high settings no AA) to 70+ on ultra. Especially as little as I play.

By the time I'm ready to upgrade I expect i7's will be in the $200 range like i5's are now.
 
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HenryyRoberts

HenryyRoberts

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Hey guys, i am actually really pleased with the replies!!! i will stop dribbling over graphics cards and look into buying a new cpu, it'll be a bit of labour disconnecting the water cooling and stuff but i'm happy if it is better for my pc. the real reason why i bought my cpu cooler is because i thought it would be the temperature that was causing a bottleneck, it kind of increased my performance slightly but not that much. my monitor is 1440 x 900 so its not even running 1080p at the moment and on a lot of games i hardly see above 30/40fps on high/ultra without AA on my highest resolution. my bad about the PSU, its actually a Corsair CX600M i just couldn't remember off the top of my head. Thanks for the suggestions and i'll probably try and get me a FX-8350 (i'm not amazing at overclocking so i would prefer to save up a little longer to get a little better performance)

i'll probably post an update when install the new processor and give you guys an update for anyone who is interested

Thanks :)
 
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Snookslayer

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May 10, 2012
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Are you staying with AMD just so you don't have to spend another $100 on an Intel mobo?

That's partly the reason I'm slow to upgrade my FX-4100... kinda wish I had just started with Intel, but slightly cheaper AMD's got me. Eventually I would like to get on the Intel side of things, but that means new mobo too. I can wait... prices fall and technology increases. In a couple years I'll need a new mobo anyway... current cheapo board only has SATA 3.0 instead of 6.0, and no USB 3.0.
 
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EasyLover

EasyLover

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Is this build only for gaming? If yes then I would suggest shifting to Intel's i5. If no then grab Fx 8350 and you'll be better off.
 
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Vic 40

Vic 40

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Oct 22, 2013
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For gaming will the i5 be better,but the FX 8350 will not bottleneck and should be able to get overclockt as well.
If you are getting a new motherboard too do you also need to reinstall windows.Depending on which i5 shouldn't you have to gp up to $100 for a motherboard,there are cheaper good options.
An amd FX overclockt should be about on par with an i5.You can't expect 5ghz on that board,but 4/4.5ghz should be possible from what i read.
 
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HenryyRoberts

HenryyRoberts

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Jun 15, 2014
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okay i'm not sure yet to stay with amd now...my rig is set up for gaming so then i guess i should go for the i5, but i just don't have the money to buy an i5 and a new mobo atm.
 
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HenryyRoberts

HenryyRoberts

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Jun 15, 2014
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yes but money is a bit of a problem at the moment
 
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HenryyRoberts

HenryyRoberts

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Jun 15, 2014
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yeah man, pretty much. the m5a97 r.20 is actually a really good mobo, it has sata 6.0 and usb 3.0, i will say though on my pc it was hard to get the IO shield to play ball but that could have just been my case.
 
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EasyLover

EasyLover

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In this case, you can safely stick with Fx-8350 without any loss in performance. Good Luck.
 
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Conor17777

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Aug 23, 2014
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The only bottleneck you have there is your CPU, either upgrade to an FX 8320/FX 8350 or make the move to an Intel system.

I know its not the news you wanted to hear but i guess at some point we have to root out the bottlenecks :)
ALSO just before i go here, i see your running a KFA2 GTX 670, i myself run two KFA2 560ti's in SLI, i was wondering if your 670 gets a little hot?

 
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HenryyRoberts

HenryyRoberts

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Jun 15, 2014
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if I'm honest i don't really keep a close enough eye on it with temperatures, i haven't received fps drop for it running too hot...yet, but then again i have't over clocked my gpu as of yet so it still runs at factory clock speeds which i think are at quite decent temperatures
 
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