Whats the best performance upgrades for my gaming build ???

[RobCherry]

i will be looking to upgrade in around a months time and have £150 (gbp) to use.
im looking for the best part to upgrade for gaming as this is what my pc in mainly used for.
my current build is ;
cpu - i3 4150 @ 3.5ghz
mb - gigabyte z97 p-d3
ram - 8gb kingston value ram 1600mhz
gpu - zotac gtx660 2gb
psu - corsair cx600m
ssd - kingston hyperX fury 240gb

all the parts i bought new around a month ago and i have not come across a game it can not play yet, which makes me wonder if i should upgrade as i always hear about people upgrading to get better performance and graphics ect, for example i get around 65-70fps on battlefield 4 with everything on ultra and playing at 1080p. i also get around 85-100fps on the new borderlands.
i used to have a amd build and the specs were massively better than this build but in some games im achieving more fps and better quality than the amd one.

so i guess my quesation is.....is it worth upgrading or should i not bother,and if i should what part is the most important to change first with my £150.

thanks

 

[Thaisnang]

I recommend you upgrade to an i5.

 

[RobCherry]

which i5 would you recommend and why?

 

[Thaisnang]

i5 4690-->http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54690
abit over your budget but its solid CPU. It is the fastest locked i5.
OR
i5 4590--> http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54590
if you want the best in your budget.

 

[RobCherry]

yes i would need the best in my budget, so is it not worth upgrading anything else but my cpu then? as i was thinking of maybe a different graphics card? because i ca pick up a : palit gtx760 2gb for £149 from my local pc shop.

 

[Thaisnang]

yes i would need the best in my budget, so is it not worth upgrading anything else but my cpu then? as i was thinking of maybe a different graphics card? because i ca pick up a : palit gtx760 2gb for £149 from my local pc shop.

No because nowadays gaming uses more than 2 cores so the i3 may bottleneck in some current/upcoming games which require more than 2 cores. Even though it has hyperthreading but it won't be as good as having 4 cores. The GTX 660 will do fine for another year or so.
For now you get the i5 and maybe in next year you can upgrade your GPU. As you know new AMD cards and the GTX 960,990(most probably) are yet to come. And it'll be out by next year. So that'll be a good time to upgrade your GPU.

 

[RobCherry]

ok so ile defiantly look into changing my cpu then, but i thought my i3 4150 was a good processor as ive had no problems with it so far, it plays games like battlefield4/titanfall/borderlands/ghosts ect ect and there all set to max settings on 1080p

 

[Thaisnang]

ok so ile defiantly look into changing my cpu then, but i thought my i3 4150 was a good processor as ive had no problems with it so far, it plays games like battlefield4/titanfall/borderlands/ghosts ect ect and there all set to max settings on 1080p

No one said you won't be able to play games with i3. It is a good processor.It just that it may block some potential of your GPU and in CPU intensive games it will may not perform very well compared to an i5.

 

[Math Geek]

sounds to me like you are happy with what you have and don't actually "need" to upgrade right now. me personally, i would not do anything and sit on the cash and save more and upgrade later when something comes along that will force the upgrade. perhaps next years games will make the upgrade more necessary and by then the cpu's will be cheaper still and so will better graphics.

i only say this cause it seems like you are actually looking for a reason to upgrade cause you have the money and not because you actually have to. you have a good base to build off of later on and saving a little more now will give a better upgrade later on.

 

[RobCherry]

yes the system i have plays all the latest games at high/ultra settings but every now and again when the games get really busy/intense i notice a massive drop in my fps and then a couple of times the games have just black screened and ive had to close them down. it seems like there was far too much going on for the system to cope.
for example i was on borderlands with everything set to the highest and i was fighting a boss with loads of other characters in the screen,lots of jumping about/shooting ect ect and the fps suddenly dropped from around 50-70fps to 20-30fps then it black screened, could still hear the game tho

 

[Math Geek]

can you monitor the system during gaming and see what is struggling when these fps drop? i am not a heavy gamer but from what i am reading here and elsewhere 1080p on ultra settings can bitchslap just about any GPU at times like you describe.

of course the obvious answer is to pick on the weakest link which is the CPU in your case so a nice i5 just might be a good choice for you to take up that slack. the i5-4690k is at the top of your budget (UK prices similar to US prices?) and it of course is the latest and greatest with the new thermal updates and such. it's unlocked as well and should provide a number of years of service and won't need to be upgraded for a long time to come.

 

[Thaisnang]

yes the system i have plays all the latest games at high/ultra settings but every now and again when the games get really busy/intense i notice a massive drop in my fps and then a couple of times the games have just black screened and ive had to close them down. it seems like there was far too much going on for the system to cope.
for example i was on borderlands with everything set to the highest and i was fighting a boss with loads of other characters in the screen,lots of jumping about/shooting ect ect and the fps suddenly dropped from around 50-70fps to 20-30fps then it black screened, could still hear the game tho

Black screens can happen for alot of reasons. CPU overheating,GPU drawing more power than PSU can supply,Connection problem,Problems with OS,Dust in your machine etc.

 

[RobCherry]

I have checked all my connections and they seem fine, ran a temp test on the cpu and gpu and the cpu hit 78degrees at its hottest and the gpu hit 71degreea at its hottest.
Is 79degrees a bit too hot for my cpu, as it runs at low temps normally through the games but when it hits a very busy/intense part of the game the temp goes up. By the way it's only ever black screened twice and I didn't have to reset the PC, just had to task manager the game I was playing at the time to close it.