I want to upgrade my AMD FX 4300 Quad core processor, but not sure what to get- Intel or AMD?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
E

Elliot Savage

Commendable
Oct 16, 2016
10
0
1,510
Basically I want to get a better processor for my PC for video gaming. I have read, and personally experienced an unpleasant time when gaming due to very poor frames per second.

I want to know why my games are not performing as they should and whether I should consider upgrading my PC to a better AMD cpu or switch to Intel and grab an i5 with a new motherboard or something... I'm not very experienced (only 17) and I don't know much about hardware.


CPU: AMD FX(tm)-4300 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.8GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960-
Display Memory: 6112 MB
Dedicated Memory: 2016 MB
Shared Memory: 4095 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz) ( Acer P226HQ)
RAM: 8GB
Hard drive: 1TB
PSU: 500W

My PC is a prebuilt gaming computer from Currys -

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/cyberpower-gaming-empire-elite-ii-gaming-pc-10140548-pdt.html


Games such as Skyrim, Paladins: Champions of the realm, Rust, Borderlands 2, Dirty Bomb- just a handful of the game I play, I have to use minimum settings and custom config files and run games in lower resolutions in windowed mode just to get 40, 50 or 60 frames.
Running in fullscreen is playable (30frames) but it's not what I want.
I can run Formula 1 2014 at max settings though with constant 60 frames... I'm so confused.

I know my graphics driver is good (to an extent) and is supposed to handle newer (2015+) games to medium graphics at 60 frames... But i'm too scared to buy more games just to find out I have to use terrible graphics settings just to play them- It's inevitable

From the information given to me at Currys (where I bought the PC) it says it can handle games.

"The Empire Elite II is a great choice for anyone new to PC gaming as it has more than enough power to run the latest and greatest games with impressive graphics and high frame rates. Older games can be turned right up to max, so if you want to experience any of the vast collection of must-play PC classics, you can enjoy them at their best"


This is really really not the case^ Apart from turning up the older games to max that is true. I can play Mount and Blade, Star Wars Battle Front 2, XCOM enemy unknown all at max graphics with 60 frames.


I am wondering whether:
-My PCU is not good enough?
-I Need more RAM?
-The CPU is bottlenecking my GPU? (website says "Performance comes courtesy of an AMD FX processor. With a high clock speed and four cores it won't hold the graphics card back")


Before anyone replies...
-I am correctly using the DVI port on the graphics card, not the motherboard
-MSI afterburner has confirmed my graphics card is working when I run benchmarks (Valley Benchmark)
-I've tried overclocking both CPU (withe AMD overdrive) and GPU (with MSI afterburner) A 5-10 frame boost isn't really worth it for the effort

Budget is £150-200 looking to buy either a new AMD CPU or upgrading to an Intel CPU and getting a new motherboard (for compatibility)

Any comments, thoughts, suggestions and recommendations are highly appreciated! Thank you in advance

PS: Sorry for the long post
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Ecky

Ecky

Illustrious
Feb 3, 2013
7,592
2
38,960
Food for thought: Graphical settings and resolution do not affect CPU load. If you're having troubles at higher graphical settings and reslution, your video card is inadequate, not your CPU. You can verify this by downloading GPU-Z and monitoring your GPU load % in the background. If it's frequently dropping below 80-90%, your CPU is the culprit, but from what you describe I'm betting it's not.

If you do find your CPU is the limitation:

Chances are pretty good your motherboard is cheap and will not support 125w 8-core CPUs, so you'd have to use the lower-clocked low-power variants, such as the FX-8320e. Many games will perform better with more cores, but quite a few will not. In those that do, an FX-8320e or FX-8300 would help and be the cheapest upgrade for you. Otherwise, you're looking at a new motherboard (Intel socket 1151), CPU (likely Core i5), RAM (Intel CPUs need DDR4), and possibly a new copy of Windows, though I've heard lately of people being able to transfer the previously non-transferable OEM Windows licenses to new hardware.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ecky

Ecky

Illustrious
Feb 3, 2013
7,592
2
38,960
A bit of contextual information for you: AMD's FX CPUs are all around 4 years old and this point, and were not great gaming CPUs when they were new. Builders such as Cyberpower PC often use them because they're cheap, and they have high clockspeeds and core counts, which look good on paper and sell more machines. Intel's cores are close to twice as fast as AMD's, and many games will not effectively utilize more than 2-4 hardware threads, so it's often the case that you'll see a dual-core Intel i3 outperforming a higher clocked AMD FX 8-core.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CTurbo

CTurbo

Pizza Monster
Moderator
Aug 27, 2013
22,424
14
84,965
You would benefit most from a video card upgrade, but you'd need to upgrade your psu too and your budget is not enough to make a difference here.


Upgrading to an i5 will help and would put you in a better position moving forward to add an even more powerful video card when you get more money.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£37.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £199.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-16 16:49 BST+0100
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
gussrtk

gussrtk

Honorable
Dec 14, 2012
1,530
0
12,460
I3 would be a viable upgrade, you could even reuse your current ram and other parts, as the Skylake cpu does support ddr3 ram. But this is a bit over/upper end of your budget. You could also get an ssd hard drive which will make your system much faster, but not in fps sense so much. But yes, the OS is an issue because you'll likely have to purchase a copy if you buy a cpu
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ecky

Ecky

Illustrious
Feb 3, 2013
7,592
2
38,960


By pairing 1.5v DDR3 with Skylake you risk damaging the memory controller, Skylake only supports DDR3L, not DDR3. Do so at your own risk.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
gussrtk

gussrtk

Honorable
Dec 14, 2012
1,530
0
12,460


thanks I didnt know that :)

[no sarcasm]

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
E

Elliot Savage

Commendable
Oct 16, 2016
10
0
1,510
Thank you so much for you response.

A couple of things, I just used GPU-Z and tested a couple of games... My GPU averaged 25-35% load when playing games- I alt tabbed out and checked every minute or so...

Does this mean I need to upgrade my CPU or GPU??
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ecky

Ecky

Illustrious
Feb 3, 2013
7,592
2
38,960
If your GPU is at 25% utilization, your CPU isn't feeding it quickly enough, and you'd see a large improvement with a faster CPU.

One will always limit the other, or your framerates would be infinitely high, but the idea is to get a CPU that's fast enough to hit the framerates you want, and a GPU that can hit those framerates at the graphical settings you want. Both need to be capable.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
gussrtk

gussrtk

Honorable
Dec 14, 2012
1,530
0
12,460


not sure if that's such a good way to test your CPU load. Since some games will not put full load of CPU if minimized
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
E

Elliot Savage

Commendable
Oct 16, 2016
10
0
1,510


So how should I test my GPU?

And also, is my GPU definitely the problem or is it my CPU? I'm just a little confused

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
E

Elliot Savage

Commendable
Oct 16, 2016
10
0
1,510


Yeh I have it set as an Average amount so the alt tabbing actually doesn't do anything wrong in terms of measuring incorrect percentages

The average says 31%
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
E

Elliot Savage

Commendable
Oct 16, 2016
10
0
1,510



So a faster CPU is the solution? In which case, back to my original question (I know you addressed it before), so Intel or AMD? at a £200 budget (if possible)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
E

Elliot Savage

Commendable
Oct 16, 2016
10
0
1,510
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom