[SOLVED] Significant upgrade from RX480?

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Naxis

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I'm just curious as to people's opinions on what a significant upgrade from a 4gig RX 480 would be.

I play in 1080p (but would like to go higher rez eventually)

I have a bit of an old CPU, an i5 3450, but from what I can gather there doesn't seem to be much benefit in upgrading it (interested in opinions on that too).

I'm looking for something up to £300-£400 that will be a worthwhile step up and futureproof me for a good few years.

As an example, I'm playing Assasin's Creed Odyssey and I get on average something like 30-35 fps, higher in less complex areas. It would be nice to get a solid 60fps in all games.

Thanks.

 
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M
I would look at the ryzen 2600X. It's great bang for your buck. The I5 7400 is only four cores and 4 threads. It's not something I would consider in 2018
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volkgren

volkgren

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Assassin's Creed Odyssey is one of the poorest games for hardware optimization and runs worse than just about any other game out. I wouldn't base your upgrades on that game alone. I got 35-45fps also when I first played it at 1440p with a GTX 1080 Ti. I had to tweak the settings to get 60fps and it still drops below it sometimes.
 
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Naxis

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8 gig at the moment, i have another bit of RAM to take it up to 10.

 
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Naxis

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Yeah I'm aware of that about AC:O, just using it as a current example.

I'd like to play Star Citizen when it ever comes out, I tried the demo and performance was very poor on that.
 
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Naxis

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All the cores hit 100%. I'm not focused on that game in particular though, I know it's not the best optimised game.

 
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King_V

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The biggest issue I see is that you should really know what monitor you're going to get BEFORE you upgrade your video card.

Knowing the new monitor's resolution, refresh rate, and whether it has FreeSync, GSync, or neither, is fairly important. For example, if your future monitor is 2560x1080 @ 60Hz, you'd need a far less powerful card than if your future monitor is 4K.
 
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Naxis

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More likely it would be 2560x1080 @ 60Hz, but I haven't thought that far ahead.

 
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TJ Hooker

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It sounds like you're mostly upgrading your GPU to try to accommodate things in the future, but you don't actually know what those future things are for sure. I.e. you're not sure what monitor you'd get, you don't know when Star Citizen will come out or what requirements it will have, etc. Trying to future proof your PC is often a fool's errand to begin with, but seemingly even more so in your case. Unless you really want improved GPU performance right now, you're probably better off just waiting.
 
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Naxis

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I'm torn between upgrading my CPU or the GPU. I would like improved performance now but I'm just not sure if it's worth it yet.

The other thing I'd like to do is run an Oculus Rift. According to spec standards, I can already do that, but i kind of suspect it would lag a bit.
 
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jankerson

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You can pick up used I7 LGA 1155 CPU's at good prices these days, like I7 2700K's.

 
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mgallo848

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I'd be willing to bet that you probably won't see much of an improvement at all upgrading just the GPU. There are plenty of games on the market right now that your RX 480 is being held back by your CPU.

For example:

My RX 580 8gb in BF1 @1920x1080 gets 120 fps (locked) on medium settings in my i7 4930k setup.

My RX 580 8gb in BF1 @1920x1080 gets 53-80 on medium settings in my FX 8320 setup (overclocked to 4.5)

My advice from first-hand experience: Upgrade your CPU first.

 
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King_V

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I would say that this decision, including whether you go with a GSync or a FreeSync monitor, would be important to make BEFORE choosing a video card.
 
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Naxis

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That's interesting, thanks. I am starting to agree that I should go for a CPU upgrade first.

 
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justin.m.beauvais

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Wow, not one recommendation for Vega. Personally, if you are looking for a GPU upgrade in the GTX 1070 price range, I think the Vega 56 is the better way to go.

However, I agree that your CPU needs an upgrade first. Your CPU is a little weak for the RX 480. If you could find a used i7 3770K you'd see a 14% uplift in performance and bring you where you need to be to be balanced on CPU and GPU. That said, it wouldn't be a cost effective upgrade. If you are going to CPU upgrade use your whole budget on that and get something worth upgrading to. Your RX 480 is still a very reasonable GPU and will serve you fine for another year or more.

So, an upgrade to something like an 8th or 9th gen i5, or a Ryzen 5 would give you PLENTY of CPU so that you can swing for the moon when it comes time for a GPU upgrade. Not to mention that in a years time the GPU playing field will be more favorable with more performance for less money. NVidia still has mid range 2000 series GPUs to release and AMD has Navi coming next year as well.
 
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Naxis

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Thanks, good advice. I think I can hang on at least another year with my RX 480, it's actually a really good graphics card. I'm more inclined to upgrade the CPU now, although I'm going to have to look into what my motherboard can handle as its a few years old (ASUS P8B75-M LE).
 
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mgallo848

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Your motherboard can support up to an i7 3770k. Here's the list: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P8B75M_LE/HelpDesk_CPU/

It needs BIOS version 0402 (or higher). Just make sure you have the proper BIOS installed (and update it if needed) before you swap out the old CPU and you're good to go.
 
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Naxis

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Do you think there's much difference between a i7 3770k and something of a higher generation (either i5 or i7)?
 
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volkgren

volkgren

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[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCK1JbKlLiQ"][/video]
 
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mgallo848

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Yes there's a pretty nice bump in speed if you're looking at a new i5 that is 6 cores or an i7 that has 12 threads but then again you'll have to upgrade the motherboard and memory also. If your budget doesn't allow you for a new motherboard CPU combo then I would say and i7 3770k is definitely worth it. It should last you until 2020. That would give you plenty of time to save up and upgrade your system then

FYI: I also own an i7 3770k in my home theater PC with a GTX 1060. Even though it's overkill for a home theater PC I occasionally play racing games in the living room on a big TV. Games like Forza Horizon 3 run on high settings at 1080p well over 60 frames per second
 
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Naxis

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I can afford to upgrade the motherboard too. Two possibilities I'm currently looking at:

i5 7400 or RYZEN 5 1600. Difficult to choose, but I like the fact the Ryzen has 6 cores.
 
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