CPU upgrade recommandation

[Bloonan]

Hello guys, I recently realized the necessity of upgrading my almost 5 year old CPU (consdiering the resource-thirsty games that are about to be launched this year), an Intel Core i5 3470 3.2 GHz, and I wanted to ask for your opinion on what should I choose as the replacer of my trusty CPU. As of my specs (for I heard that my other components can influence the compatibilty and perfomance of the CPU - I'm a hardware enthusiast, not a "pro", so I don't know very much about these types of relationships between the specs), I am using Windows 10 64-bit, I have an Asus H61M-K Motherboard (on the asus page it says that my motherboard supports 2nd and 3rd generation of i7/i5/and so on), an nVidia GTX 970 4GB and 8GB of DDR3 memory. Regarding the budget, it ranges between 300-350 euros, therefore I'm not looking for a very expensive CPU. I'm more than sure that there's more to my specs than just the names and some superficial descriptions which influence the compatibility of a CPU, but I'll let you guys tell me which details I missed. Thanks a lot for your time!

L.E.: I forgot to mention that I use and intend to use my PC only for gaming.

 

[Sergeant_Sneaky]

You already have the i5 3470? Sorry if I've misunderstood but if you have that CPU already, you don't need to upgrade it for gaming, you won't see much of a difference with a newer i5/i7.

 

[Bloonan]

Truth be told, another reason I had which made me walk this path was opening the Task Manager whilst playing a newly-released game and going to the Performance tab where I saw that my CPU was used at full capacity (indeed, there was also the Memory which was used at full capacity), and I thought to myself that this was a pretty big alarm. If you say that my actual CPU is good enough for today's standards, do you recommend I should try adding more RAM in order to catch up with these next-gen requirements? I honestly want to enjoy these new games at 60+ fps on high (at least). If it's worth mentioning, I also want to use the full potential of my 144 Hz monitor.

 

[Sergeant_Sneaky]

Truth be told, another reason I had which made me walk this path was opening the Task Manager whilst playing a newly-released game and going to the Performance tab where I saw that my CPU was used at full capacity (indeed, there was also the Memory which was used at full capacity), and I thought to myself that this was a pretty big alarm. If you say that my actual CPU is good enough for today's standards, do you recommend I should try adding more RAM in order to catch up with these next-gen requirements? I honestly want to enjoy these new games at 60+ fps on high (at least). If it's worth mentioning, I also want to use the full potential of my 144 Hz monitor.

What games do you play? What does task manager show is using the CPU to the max? There aren't many games that should be pegging all 4 cores on the CPU at 100%. Also, your memory being maxed while gaming isn't normal for 99% of games either, what is using all of the memory?

I have used 8 and 12GB RAM and have noticed no difference between them, I would personally stick with 8GB and try and sort your usage issues first.

 

[Bloonan]

I usually play almost every game that launches during the year. For example, these max values have been recorded during a session of Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, but in a game such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive my PC has no trouble in running it. Earlier I was playing Star Wars: Battlefront in order to see if my PC reacts the same way, turns out, it almost did: https://gyazo.com/21c78fa3122e411597f4f9d164588d2a

 

[Sergeant_Sneaky]

I usually play almost every game that launches during the year. For example, these max values have been recorded during a session of Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, but in a game such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive my PC has no trouble in running it. Earlier I was playing Star Wars: Battlefront in order to see if my PC reacts the same way, turns out, it almost did: https://gyazo.com/21c78fa3122e411597f4f9d164588d2a

Mirrors Edge isn't the best optimised game (judging from the Beta I played that had memory leaks and other issues) but I believe I ran the Star Wars Beta with no issues, how are your CPU temps?

 

[Bloonan]

Sorry, but as I was saying in the original post, I don't know much about getting informations from my PC and doing status checks, so I have no idea how to check the temperature. Either way, I think I'm going to check the temperature in a better optimised game, as well as the percentage my CPU and memory being used.

 

[Sergeant_Sneaky]

Sorry, but as I was saying in the original post, I don't know much about getting informations from my PC and doing status checks, so I have no idea how to check the temperature. Either way, I think I'm going to check the temperature in a better optimised game, as well as the percentage my CPU and memory being used.

You should check it in the games that are causing the high usage, as that is more likely to show us the issue. You can use MSI Afterburner or RealTemp to check your temps (Afterburner will show all of your temps whereas RealTemp will only show your CPU temps)

 

[Bloonan]

Alright, so I decided to play some Battlefront in order to test the temperature with RealTemp. Turns out, my CPU is an oven: https://gyazo.com/bfee16318ed2d1b42de5621d80684b99.

 

[Sergeant_Sneaky]

Alright, so I decided to play some Battlefront in order to test the temperature with RealTemp. Turns out, my CPU is an oven: https://gyazo.com/bfee16318ed2d1b42de5621d80684b99.

I thought so, you should check that the CPU fan is running. Also, I'd recommend reapplying the thermal paste and reseating the cooler.

 

[Bloonan]

Is there any software that I can use in order to turn on or at least increase the speed of the fan? A friend of mine said something about some MSI thing, but I googled it and it said that the MSI (Afterburner) is used only for overclocking.

 

[Sergeant_Sneaky]

Is there any software that I can use in order to turn on or at least increase the speed of the fan? A friend of mine said something about some MSI thing, but I googled it and it said that the MSI (Afterburner) is used only for overclocking.

MSI Afterburner can be used to control GPU fans aswell as overclocking. Your issue is CPU temps though.

 

[Bloonan]

And what software do you recommend using?

 

[Sergeant_Sneaky]

And what software do you recommend using?

The BIOS is the best place to adjust CPU fan speed but I believe there is a problem with your cooler seating.

 

[Bloonan]

Therefore, what should I do?

 

[Sergeant_Sneaky]

Therefore, what should I do?

You should reseat the cooler and reapply the thermal paste, it could just be making bad contact with the heatspreader on the CPU.

 

[RobCrezz]

Or just get a cheap aftermarket cooler that would be a lot better than the stock cooler and enjoy low temps and quieter operation.

Something cheap like the CM Hyper T4 would do the job fine, or the 212 evo if you have a little more money.

 

[Bloonan]

Ok guys, I finally managed to get my hands on a new case and bought an extra fan for it, and since I got it the temperature in the CPU reached a maximum of 70 degrees Celsius whilst playing MGSV:TPP, which is quite good in my opinion. In the end, I think it was a good investment (about 45-50 euros).