What should I upgrade to avoid bottleneck?

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coldcell

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Jun 11, 2012
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18,510
I'm looking to upgrade parts of my PC. I mainly play games, so I don't think I need i7 stuff. I think my CPU and GPU are what needs to be upgraded the most. I'm just not sure what to upgrade to to avoid bottlenecking the whole setup. Currently I have:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory: Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card (Not exactly this since mine just says HD 7800 and by MSI)
Total: $0.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-09 18:32 EST-0500

I'd prefer not to OC anything as my room can get warm sometimes. I'm not looking to play the latest games at the highest possible setting.. Just may be upgrades to my existing builds that cost $700 or less total.

Also if my RAM is lacking, can I just simply buy 2x 4gb DDR3-1600 and plug it? So I'll have 16gb ram in total?

Thanks!
 
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CTurbo
You don't know what brand psu you have? It's important to know.

I recommend upgrading to a GTX970 and leaving everything else alone. Your cpu and motherboard does not need to be upgraded.
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CTurbo

CTurbo

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Aug 27, 2013
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Your cpu and motherboard are your two best parts. If you want new RAM, just buy a new 2x8GB kit at 1600mhz or 1866mhz. You would probably not notice any difference though.

Upgrading your video card would by far make the biggest impact. Maybe add a ssd.

What is your psu?
 
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Ryan_78

Ryan_78

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Jan 17, 2016
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Wait what is your GPU? And 1333 ram is okay considering it is a 3570k. The CPU is fine and the ram is a tad slow, but it's fine also. It's not lacking or anything. You do not want to go different speeds. All I need to know is the GPU. The i5 is good CPU.
 
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C

coldcell

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Jun 11, 2012
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My PSU is 650 or 550 (I kinda forgot and not at home to check).

Do you mind recommending which GPU and CPU to upgrade to? Since I'm not tech-expert, I'm afraid of overupgrading the CPU/GPU and then got held back by the other.




I just updated my original post with the GPU link. What I have is similar to:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-fx785acnfc

Mine is by MSI and just says HD 7800.
 
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G

gondo

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Apr 20, 2004
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Upgrade the GPU. Radeon 380 and 380x are great for 1080p. 390 and 390x will do good with 1440p. Make sur eyou have the power supply to handle a new video card. You need the connectors and power. NVidia also make some nice video cards but they are more expensive. radeon is the better value now.

If all you have is some el cheapo maybe consider a new power supply.

I would hold off on your CPU and motherboard. What you have isn't bad. Wait for the new AMD Zen stuff to release and maybe you can get some good deals on performance. In the meantime an SSD if you don't have one will speed your system up a lot.
 
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weberdarren97

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Aug 10, 2015
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I completely agree. I have two R9 280X's in my system and it games beautifully. One of the factory overclocked R9 380X's from Asus or another company should get you the performance of about 1.25 R9 280X's. However, Zen is first going to release for server motherboards and such, it'll be some time before we see the gaming CPU and APU versions. Definitely upgrade your GPU and RAM. I would go with a 16GB kit of 1866MHz DDR3.
 
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