Help me upgrade my PC

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sugbukz

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Apr 15, 2013
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Hello all,

I recently got back into PC gaming. At the time I wanted to buy something used because it would be cheaper and allow me to upgrade with parts I wanted. I found a good deal on a used Cyberpower from a friend equipped with AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz and AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB running DDR3.

Link to current PC: Click


A year later I am still gaming hard and am ready to start to upgrade my build. Initially I want to put another $400-500 in the rig. My question is where do I start? CPU or GPU?

My budget should be enough for a decent GPU or a nice CPU,MB,RAM combo.

Suggestions most welcome!
 
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logainofhades
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AiramNairb

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May 21, 2016
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Do you mean a full upgrade or a one-by-one upgrade? If you want to upgrade your CPU only you'll also need a new motherboard, and RAM, since newer motherboards only take DDR4 for a RAM. If you want to upgrade your GPU you might face some bottleneck issues with your CPU depending on what GPU you wanna buy.
 
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Chicano

Chicano

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Aug 29, 2011
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The FX-4350 bottlenecks the GPU and a better card will bottleneck worse.. so, you need to upgrade the CPU to a FX-8350 to perfectly match the GPU in performance. That's if you want to keep the Motherboard. If you want to upgrade motherboard, the AMD Ryzen 5 1400 or a AMD Ryzen 5 2500U with Radeon RX 470 will produce only 2% bottleneck or almost nothing. You'll also need a AM4 Motherboard and DDR4 RAM

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+RX+470
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-8350+Eight-Core&id=1780
 
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sugbukz

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One-by-one. I am aware that the CPU would require MB and RAM in conjunction. With my budget, that should not be a problem. My question is which should be upgraded first: CPU (plus MB,RAM) or GPU?

Recommendations are also most welcome!
 
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caqde

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Currently your system is CPU bottle-necked and your current GPU (Which is also Current generation hardware still....) is very good for 1080P in most games at max settings so unless you want to push higher resolutions I would wait for the next generation before upgrading the GPU. But for ~500 I would recommend something like ->

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($209.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - X470 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $494.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-06-19 08:31 EDT-0400

This would be a huge upgrade from what you have and should provide better FPS in every game you play along with better overall system performance for everyday usage.
 
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sugbukz

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Perfect! Ok this confirms what I was thinking. Now would you recommend a Ryzen refresh over last year's model?

For example, the Ryzen 7 1700 is on sale for $199 right now.
vs
Ryzen 5 2600x for $209

 
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caqde

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If your primary use is gaming the 2600X would be the better choice due to the higher clockspeeds the 2600X runs at over the Ryzen 1700 while the 1700 would be a better choice for rendering or streaming uses. So if you plan on using your computer to stream games or something the 2 extra cores of the 1700 would be a huge help otherwise stick to the 2600X.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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Apr 27, 2009
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Agree, but ram should be faster. Ryzen loves faster ram.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($209.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - X470 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($158.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $498.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-06-19 10:11 EDT-0400
 
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Chicano

Chicano

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Aug 29, 2011
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The CPU suggestion I gave you was considering perfect compatibility with your Radeon RX 470 GPU, and either the Ryzen 7 1700 or 5 2600X will be heavily bottlenecked by that GPU, and you will have to eventually upgrade it too... in the meantime you may want to run games at framerates the RX 470 can handle.
.

 
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