Best upgrade path for i3-4170

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Verecious

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Nov 11, 2016
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Hi people!

My son wants to upgrade his i3-4170
Mobo- Asrock H81M-HDS rev2.0
Strix R7-370
8g of hyperx fury 1600 ram
500g seagate SATA hdd.
He’s a 1st apprentice landscaper so he doesn’t have a huge budget.
He plays pubg, Dayz, paragon, wow, shadows of war,

What would you recommend as his best upgrade path for better gaming?
I’ve told him to wait for the new Nvidia cards launching next year before updating his gpu, but he’s getting impatient haha
Cheers and thanks in advance
 
Solution
bjornl
The best upgrade path depends on his budget. I would suggest he begin with a new video card (something like the 1050ti or 1060 6gb) which exact one would depend on his budget and his powersupply (most 1050ti's do not need external power (only power needed is supplied by the PCI Express slot), while all 1060 cards need an additional power connector from the PSU).

Once he had a better graphics card, I would perhaps suggest a used processor such as a i7-4790 or i7-4790k or maybe the 4690k/4690 depending on budget, etc.
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bjornl

bjornl

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The best upgrade path depends on his budget. I would suggest he begin with a new video card (something like the 1050ti or 1060 6gb) which exact one would depend on his budget and his powersupply (most 1050ti's do not need external power (only power needed is supplied by the PCI Express slot), while all 1060 cards need an additional power connector from the PSU).

Once he had a better graphics card, I would perhaps suggest a used processor such as a i7-4790 or i7-4790k or maybe the 4690k/4690 depending on budget, etc.
 
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TechyInAZ

TechyInAZ

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As said above ^^, upgrading the graphics card is the best idea for now. A GTX 1060 or RX 570/580 will work great.

Then as for the CPU, you can get a i5 or i7, but if possible, go for a new platform. The latest coffee lake CPUs, performance per dollar wise, are far greater than haswell. You could get a core i3 8100 and a cheap B360 motherboard probably cheaper than a used 4690K right now (intel CPUs tend to have a habit of not depreciating).

Keep in mind, that B360 motherboards won't be out until next year.

 
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Goofygiggles

Goofygiggles

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I've got almost an identacle system to yours:
i3-4170
Msi h81m-e34
8 Gigs of ram
Gtx 750ti

I found for the games I play the gpu I have is good enough for the games I play so I plan to find a decent 4790 or 4790k down the road.. I would say though that you don't list a gpu and the i3 4170 isn't terrible for games so I would go with a gpu first.
 
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Verecious

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Hi goofygiggles,
Thanks for your answer, the video card is the strix Radeon R7 370 as I’ve listed above. I know it’s not great/not terrible, I’ve been trying to encourage him to save his penny’s and wait for the new Volta Nvidia cards to launch next year but not sure if he’ll wait that long
 
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Goofygiggles

Goofygiggles

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Oh, you did list the gpu oops! Yeah I agree with trying to encourage him to wait but to be honest pascal cards are probably fine anyway. If you wait until Volta though maybe GPU Price inflation will go down that's been caused by all the Bitcoin Miners lately. Honestly as long as the cpu usage is under 80% when running his games the i3 is not causing bottlenecks.

I do agree with the person you picked as best answer, he basically nailed it
 
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Goofygiggles

Goofygiggles

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Thats very good to know, thanks.
But won't games suffer a little from the Xeon's lower clock speeds?
 
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bjornl

bjornl

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It depends on the generation and clock speed of the xenon and what you are comparing it to. In general the best gaming performance will come from the consumer processors. The Xenon label by itself tells very little except who they hope will buy the chip. It is as useless as i7, because like the i7 there are many dozens of versions some more efficient, some older, and so on and on. Just like with a i7, you have to do your homework with a Xenon to find out what generation it is, what socket it is and so on.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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An E3 1231v3 is basically an i7 4770 without integrated graphics. You could look for some of the higher clocked models, as well, from the same generation.
 
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