Need to upgrade PC to play modern games

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greatmrlizard

Commendable
Jun 21, 2016
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0
1,510
Hey everyone! I thought that it was finally time to ask the forums for some help after experiencing frustrating lag and poor performance while playing some of today's top games. Right now, my build (detailed below) is chugging out < 20 FPS on the lowest graphics settings on Star Wars Battlefront. Other games of this caliber have also had some problems producing smooth frame rates. I would like to upgrade my build, so I don't have to worry about achieving great performance with any game being released today.

Approximate Purchase Date: Next couple of weeks

Budget Range: Up to $500 Before Rebates; Before Shipping

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, media streaming, light content creation

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: I think my bottleneck is my CPU and/or GPU (EVGA 600B 600W PSU)

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, amazon.com

Location: Indiana, USA

Parts Preferences: Intel/Nvidia

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 (I hope to upgrade to a 4K monitor in the next 3-4 years)

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: I am having difficulty running any high performance game being released today

Current build:
Intel i5-4460 3.2 GHz
EVGA Z87 FTW ATX LGA 1150 MOBO
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4 GB) DDR3-2133
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200 RPM HDD
Asus GeForce GTX 760 4GB ROG Video Card
 
Solution
Barty1884
I don't see much need in upgrading anything beyond the GPU (and ideally, PSU too).

The 4460 is still totally viable for gaming in 2016 and beyond.

I'd suggest you pick up a GTX 1070 and an EVGA SuperNOVA B2 750W for $479 after rebates:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($429.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $478.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-21 11:29 EDT-0400

The 1070 will allow you to game in 4K (in the 'medium' settings range, depending on the game of...
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Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
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I don't see much need in upgrading anything beyond the GPU (and ideally, PSU too).

The 4460 is still totally viable for gaming in 2016 and beyond.

I'd suggest you pick up a GTX 1070 and an EVGA SuperNOVA B2 750W for $479 after rebates:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($429.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $478.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-21 11:29 EDT-0400

The 1070 will allow you to game in 4K (in the 'medium' settings range, depending on the game of course) when the time comes.


If you attempted to upgrade everything, between a CPU+Mobo+DDR4 (+OS, most likely), you'd have less than $150 left for a PSU and GPU, so a 'total' upgrade is fairly pointless.


Realistically though, your current hardware should be capable of a lot better than "<20FPS on low". You likely don't 'need' to upgrade necessarily. Likely results you can improve upon without spending a whole bunch of $. I'd actually suggest you fully remove all display drivers & reinstall, along with monitoring temps to ensure you're not throttling (either CPU or GPU) that's impacting your performance.

You could even go with a clean OS install if it's been a couple of years (and just install all drivers from scratch).
If you were looking at going this route though, pick up an SSD (Samsung 850 EVO 250GB would be the recommended) and install on that. Nice little speed 'boost' for minimal investment.

The GTX760, even though a 4GB version, is in the 'low to medium' end of gaming hardware. That should still be capable of decent FPS on 'medium' settings (most games) at 1080p, and I'd think 50+FPS (generally) on low.
 
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Solution
delaro

delaro

Judicious
Ambassador
Aug 23, 2011
4,428
250
33,740
I5 4690K $234
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=I5-4690KBX&c=CJ

FX 480 4gb $199+ 8 gb $225+.. release date June 29

A Overclocked 4690K 4ghz+ mine is at 4.5ghz and a FX 480 Overclocked would be excellent for anything today. A FX 480 @ 1500mhz is biting at the heals of a 1070 GTX $400+ but it doesn't pass it up. A I5 K series overclocked is going to add around 10fps easy enough.

You have to also consider the Resell of your current CPU and GPU.. I5 4460 resells for around $115+ and the 760 GTX averages $75+ and up. This would easily allow you to add a SSD as well.
 
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