Need an upgrade from my fx-6300 for 60fps gaming

Firstly yes in GTA you are CPU limited... secondly if you want to upgrade there are two options worth looking at right now:

1: Look into the new Pentium G4560- it's powerful enough to max out an RX480 in most games and costs almost nothing for a performance processor (£70 ish), is on Intel's latest platform (note you'll need a new motherboard and DDR4 ram, still given how cheap the processor is that would be within budget) and you can always upgrade later to an i7 if needed. I think that is currently a better buy than an older i5- the G4560 is a really good part and is easily faster than the FX in games (link to vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jky_MNlJ__E getting 75 fps ish with GTX 1050ti, which is slower than your 480).

2: Hold fire a few weeks- AMD is releasing the new AM4 platform and Ryzen cpu line- the current performance and pricing leaks look *very* good (i5 performance for i3 price, and a single platform that goes from 4 core / 4 thread all the way up to 8 core / 16 threads without needing a different motherboard). That would give you a good option to upgrade to and also I think it's going to force Intel to drop pricing on the i5 / i7 processors to compete.

Just a side note- make sure it is one of the new Kaby Lake *4 thread* Pentiums (e.g. the G4560 or higher)- there are some older Pentium parts still about but they are all 2 thread which means they are no use for modern games (some games won't run and other run fast but stutter alot etc). The latest models added hyper threading (same as i3) and that has turned them into great little gaming chips.

If you go to Kaby Lake CPU you will need to replace motherboard and RAM. If you just change your CPU to an FX 8350 then it will be a cheaper upgrade and you should get better performance than a Pentium.

I wouldn't entertain swapping a 6300 for the new pentium personally , its an unproven element & while it 'should' perform close to an i3 6100 all the time there are some instances where it loses by a good 20%.

Apart from about 4 or 5 games the fx 6300 can maintain above 50fps in just about any title out there.
Overclock the 6300 , the pro 3 isn't a great board but itll manage 4ghz & that's a fair bit better than stock.

12gb ram ?? Likely an odd config & running single channel??

Texture pop in & loading are nothing to do with the CPU at all BTW.

I'm running gta v & watchdogs 2 at 50fps here locked with a gtx 970.

It depends on the game (and I say this as an FX8320 owner), but in GTA 5 the Pentium is *a lot faster*. The issue is GTA 5 (and quite a lot of other games) rely heavily on single thread performance- and unfortunately for FX owners it doesn't matter if you have an FX 4, 6 or 8 core- the single thread is pretty much the same. Heck that new Pentium outruns the FX 9590 which is clocked at 5ghz.

That isn't true for all games of course- games like AOTS which is very well threaded flies on an FX 8 series as it can use the cores. DX12 / Vulkan titles also work well on FX, however DX11 games like GTA struggle. Thankfully the AMD game performance issues look set to be fixed when Ryzen launches in March....

Edit: Comparison of FX8350 vs Pentium G4560:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrKFPTgs32I

The main point is you can likely pick up the Pentium, a motherboard and ram for not much more than the FX 8350, get a bit more performance *and* have a great upgrade path to Kaby Lake i5 / i7 in the future. If you go with the FX 8350 there really isn't any further options to upgrade.

Edit 2: This is interesting from latest Toms review of thei3 7350k:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i3-7350k,4932-2.html

Note the Pentium listed there is pretty much the same as the 4560 (clocked slightly higher). Looking at the performance there- I don't think an i3 is worth considering (the Pentium is too close)- so it's either that or stump up for an i5... the problem is the i5 + mobo + ram is going to cost a lot more.

Well running 3 ram sticks means you are in single channel mode- if you run matched pairs of ram you can run in dual channel mode which effectively doubles the bandwidth which would help with texture loading- so you'd be better with either 8 or 16gb (2 x 4 / 2 x 8 or 4 x 4- though the latter can be tricky to get working nicely in dual chanel mode, less modules is easier).

You could try removing the 3rd module and dropping back to 8gb (sufficient for gaming) and see if that improves the texture pop in.

The other thing might be if you are running on an older mechanical hdd- you could be waiting on the disk to read the textures- upgrading to an SSD might help that.

What cdrkf suggested , removing a 4gb stick & making sure its running dual channel with cpu-z for starters.
Drop in bios , disable turbocore for one - it causes clock drops on heavily multi-threaded titles on odd cores when turbo kicks in (& GTA v is well multi-threaded)
While you're there set your multiplier to 19 for 3800mhz straight on all cores - its doable with no voltage or temp increase unless you have a dog of a chip.
No one should ever run an fx chip at stock with turbo enabled for any kind of gaming use , it worked in 2012 when stuff was single/double threaded - it doesn't work nowadays with newer titles

& yes a 5400rpm drive just kills data spooling on GTA v & creates all kind of pop in while driving especially.

& you have to lower settings to an extent that keeps your vram below that 480s 4gb limit - once the GPU starts paging to system ram you will get stutter aplenty.
At very high settings GTA v can hit 6ghz easily.
You need a way better card than a 480 4gb for that.

& I'm not dismissing the fact the hyper threaded pentium is a great buy for a new system on a fight budget , its just not a good $220-230 spend when you already have something half decent.

You were typing while I was so I'll carry on - your drive config is right , windows on ssd, game on secondary - the WD blue drive is fast enough so its not the issue here.
Dual channel - leave ram in alternate slots , one farthest from the CPU , miss one , next stick in the 3rd slot - cpu-z will tell you if it's in dual channel or not.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

http://www.techspot.com/review/991-gta-5-pc-benchmarks/page6.html

Just be aware, a Kaby Lake 2C/4T Pentium is going to perform like a 2C/4T core i3...& apparently those are just slightly worse than a 6-core (let alone 8-core) FX chip in GTA V.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970%20Pro3%20R2.0/index.it.asp?cat=CPU

CPU-wise, your cheapest alternative would be to just buy an aftermarket cooler & overclock your CPU. GTA V seems to respond better to overclocking on the FX chips. And even a halfway-decent air cooler will maybe only run you $30-50USD.

Next best alternative would be to pop in an octa-core FX chip. It looks like your board can handle the 125W chips, so I would recommend at least an FX-8320 for that (same clocks as your 6300, but has the extra cores), although an 8350 or 8370 would also be nice for the extra speed. Plus, AMD is apparently running a promotion right now where you get a redemption code for Ashes of the Singularity with purchases of 8-core FX chips. Not as cheap as just getting the cooler, but even the 8370 is running under $200USD, so it's still going to be cheaper than getting a new build (unless you really, really want a Pentium-based build that I highly doubt will perform any better).

If your heart's set on building a brand-new system...I would really, really, really wait another 3 weeks or so until Ryzen gets released & everyone's had a chance to benchmark it & compare it to Intel's stuff. That, plus what your budget can afford, will determine whether the new build will be Intel or AMD.

@spdragoo... the g4560 is 3 gens newer than that review. Look on you tube, plenty of vids and reviews showing g4560 out performing fx 6300 and fx 8350. Heck kaby lake i3 is faster than an entry haswell i5 at stock, probably due to faster ddr4 ram and updated architecture.

What you are saying was accurate during haswell generation, however kaby lake greatly improved the lower end options in Intel's line up.

Gta 5 is faster on the g4560 than on an fx 8350 by around 10fps. That's a fact supported by many benchmarks and vids. I'm not trying to be anti AMD here, I have an fx8320 rig that has served me well for several years. It's just a bad investment in 2017.

If op would like to stick with AMD, wait for ryzen and am4 in March.

1. I don't trust Youtube videos. I've seen too many of those videos where the guy supposedly pulls a piece of fruit straight out of a computer screen to be able to take any "benchmarking" videos seriously. That's why I stick to benchmarks from reputable sites like Techspot, Tom's Hardware, wccftech, etc.

2. The testing of Intel's Skylake & Kaby Lake chips has shown little, if any, improvement over Haswell chips, on the order of maybe 5-10% tops. Note, for example, that the original benchmark link I provided showed the Haswell i7 even with the Broadwell i7 in performance. When Techspot tested the Skylake & Kaby Lake i7 CPUs (http://www.techspot.com/review/1299-intel-core-kaby-lake-desktop/page9.html), they both showed some improvement over the Broadwell/Haswell, but you're talking about maybe 15%...and both chips are clocked much higher than the i7-5960X (5960X base clock is 3GHz, 6700K was 4GHz, 7700K was 3.6GHz).

And in this case, you're talking about two 2C/4T chips that are nearly identical in performance (3.4GHz for the i3-4130, 3.5GHz for the G4560). Considering that GTA V showed a marked difference in performance between 2C/4T CPUs (i.e. these CPUs) & 4C/4T CPUs (like an i5), I seriously doubt that Pentium is really going to perform that much better in GTA V. Oh, maybe it'll get a couple of extra FPS...but that'll still put it right at the same level as an FX-8350 or even FX-6350, both of which were also slightly ahead of the Haswell i3. Spending hundreds of dollars just to get similar-to-identical performance isn't a sound financial decision.



Slightly better, yes. But you're still talking about a "brand-new" build. At least you can reuse your DDR3 RAM, but unless you can also get the motherboard cheap it'll still probably be more expensive than getting the FX chip. Plus there's the hassle of backing up all of your data & reinstalling Windows. And the Ivy Bridge platform, just like the Haswell platform, is as "dead" for future upgrades as the FX/Socket AM3+ platform. So, again, if you really want a brand-new build, I would wait a few weeks & see how the Ryzen/Kaby Lake comparisons work out. But if you're on a really limited budget, either OC your current CPU or get an FX-8350/8370 for your system.

To be clear the only reason I was suggesting that is I think it would be a better purchase than another 'last gen' system using DDR3 ram- the main advantages to the pentium are: 1: a bit more performance and 2: modern platform with a strong upgrade path. That said I agree with OP and waiting a while for Zen (might force i5's down to a more affordable level!).

As for reliable benchmarks, I refer back to my earlier post with a link from Toms:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i3-7350k,4932-2.html?_ga=1.122594828.640602357.1443652042

We have a slightly higher clocked version of the same pentium in the charts covering GTA V at 1080p ultra. Average frame rate is 76fps with minimums of 52 fps (also framrate over time graph doesn't show any major hitches / micro stutter). That is better than an FX imo, although it does highlight just how much more performance can be gained from the i5. In GTA V Skylake / Kaby trounce Haswell- I'm figuring it must be down to the faster DDR4 memory as Haswell is generally pretty close clock for clock otherwise (F1 shows large gains again due to memory scaling- I'm guessing heavily overclocked DDR3 would close the gap back up mind).