Gaming PC Upgrade Advice?

[Eleven13]

Hey everyone,

I built my PC with a friend a few years ago who was more knowledgeable about PCs than myself, and now I'm at the point where I would like to upgrade but need some guidance on what/how I should upgrade.

My current PC specs from a dxdiag I ran yesterday are:

Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 980 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.7GHz
Available OS Memory: 8172MB RAM
Graphics Card : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (currently have 2 of them running in SLI)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA‑990FXA‑UD3

The games I play most are WoW, Overwatch, and a few various steam games. I'd ideally just like to be able to max out WoW with the best AA option while maintaining 60fps. I know that my graphics card and my processor are two things holding me back according to things like system requirements lab, but I'm unsure what to upgrade first (or if I would need to upgrade both).

How would you guy suggest I proceed with an upgrade? The news of the Nvidia GTX1050 series for sub-$200 is very appealing, but would simply getting one of those get me the performance boost I'm looking for?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Isokolon]

easiest way to determine what to upgrade: lower all graphical eye-candy settings and monitor your fps
if they do go up, get a new GPU
if the remain about the same, upgrade your CPU

honestly I think it'll be the CPU.
but 560 Ti SLI....depends on how well optimized the game is for that setting

 

[Eleven13]

Thanks for the response, so with my other specs in consideration (motherboard, RAM, etc), would getting something like an Intel I7 and a GTX 1050 be a smart upgrade? As in, would my other components be sufficicent enough to get the most out of the new CPU and GPU?

I have tried lowering the settings graphical settings to basically "off" and was getting like 200+ fps so I'm assuming the GPU definitely needs to go. The other issue is that SLI seems more trouble than its worth with most games, so I'll be happy to go back to just 1 card.

 

[Eleven13]

Actually, I just realized my motherboard isn't compatible with intel processors: what is the AMD equivalent of the i7?

edit: or if there isn't an i7 equivalent, how much would a decent motherboard that supports intel cost?

 

[Isokolon]

Well whatever you upgrade will be held back by all the other components.

But check the game you're playing and see if it's the GPUs or the CPU.

A CPU upgrade is somewhat costly. Especially if you want an i7.
A non overclockable Skylake i7 uses b150/h170 boards. Decent boards are 80-110$
Overclockable i7s use Z170 boards. Decent ones start at around 135$
However you'd need new RAM as well.

Different route would be to go with a last generation i7 like the 4790k which is still almost as fast as the 6700k. You'd need a decent Z97 board (around 100$) and can reuse your current RAM.
However it's not as 'future proof'

If you determine its your GPU holding you back the bottlenecking due to a weak CPU depends very much on the game and how much CPU power the game needs. But yes you will experience some drawbacks.

Back in the day SLI wasn't what it is today. So in some games even when running SLI it will act as if you don't.

With a 1050Ti / AMD Rx470 (wait for next week when we will see how they perform against each other) the CPU drawback won't be as hard as with a better card.

The question you have to ask yourself though is what you're planning in the future. I mean you're talking about i7s, which is a high end CPU, the 1050/1050Ti/Rx470 are midrange gaming cards at best and struggle with ultra settings on games released today.
So if you say, your birthday is coming up in march and you'll get yourself an i7 then it might be wise to invest in a better GPU right away. If a cpu upgrade won't happen until Christmas 2017 then get a cheaper card to accommodate your current build and upgrade it with the CPU all along in late 2017.

 

[Eleven13]

Thank you for all the advice, that helps a lot. I'm currently downloading a monitoring tool to help see whether it's my GPU or CPU that's the biggest thing holding me back performance wise.

I suppose what I'm looking for is just the best bang for my buck right *now*. My build is still pretty outdated and has served me well for a while, and I'm really just looking to get some more miles out it before just completely rebuilding in a year or two.

Do you think it would be possible to a MB/CPU/GPU that would be capable of maxing out WoW for <400-500 bucks total? Based on what you said above, I didn't realize that the i7 was super high end, I just thought that was sort of the standard processor now. Would I be able to get the performance I'm looking for out of an i5 with the new Nvidia 1050Ti and a new ~$100 motherboard?

I know you mentioned that the 1050 will struggle with ultra settings on games coming out today, but if it can max out WoW and get me some decent settings on some newer games (Overwatch, Civ VI, etc) I'd definitely be happy with that. I guess I just want to try and get whatever performance boost I can immediately, and then when I have the money down the road spring for a ground-up, super high end new build entirely, case and all.

What do you think you would suggest with that in mind?

EDIT: After using the monitoring program, it also seems like my GPUs are the bigger culprit, both run at around 95-97% in the open world while the CPU fluctuates between 50-70%. So it seems like both aren't great, but the GPUs seem to be the limiting factor.

 

[superninja12]

well your budget is kinda big...

with that money you're able to max out triple a games on ultra 1080p(gta v witcher 3).

whats your power supply unit?

so yeah do you want?

 

[Eleven13]

Really? Even with only upgrading the motherboard and CPU/GPU? And my budget isn't super tight but I would like to keep the price as low as possible, somewhere in the low 300s for everything would be ideal but if the performance jumps are really significant I'd definitely consider spending some extra.

Also, while it would be awesome to max out witcher 3, I'm really just aiming to max out WoW Legion, so whatever would get me there for the lowest price would be great.

And I did forget to take into account my power supply, I currently have a corsair TX750 - is that going to limit me significantly as well?

 

[Isokolon]

Well it's kinda....
If you're completely rebuilding in "a year or two" I wouldn't splash so much cash on a new.cpu/board. Development in CPUs is very slow these days, the difference between an 3rd generation i7 and a 6th generation i7 isn't too big.
GPU-wise we still see huge gains from generation to generation.

If I were you I'd just get a 1050Ti/Rx470 for 150-200 bucks and see if thats sufficient for now. If it's indeed not you can always upgrade your CPU as well. But chances are your CPU is doing fine for your needs and it's better to save the cash for a complete overhaul next year.

 

[superninja12]

corsair tx is a great quality psu from the past so you've got that going for you.

to sum up i agree 100% with isokolon, grab the 1050 ti and see where that gets you.
we ca nalways replace the cpu and mobo later if needed.

 

[Eleven13]

Thanks a lot for the advice you guys I really appreciate it, that does sound like a plan.

The reason I was interested in upgrading the CPU was that system requirements lab flagged my CPU as not meeting recommended requirements, and then I just started reading how intel seems to blow out AMD in almost every way when comparing processors.

If I do get the 1050Ti and I do want a little bit more, could you suggest an intel i5 model and MB combo that would allow me to still use my current RAM just so I know what to look for?

Thanks again

 

[superninja12]

i5 4690
asrock h97 anniversary mobo.

 

[Eleven13]

Thanks for the suggestion, at least according to Amazon it seems like the i5 4690 is the same price as the i5 6600, would I be better off going with that instead?

And is this the motherboard you're referring to?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00M9A5Q12/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1477335967&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=asrock+h97+anniversary&dpPl=1&dpID=51TtbSlsMJL&ref=plSrch

There's that and the "Z97" anniversary that's just about the same price?

 

[Isokolon]

newer tech is always better
however boards are more expensive and the 6600 uses DDR4-RAM
there are boards that run DDR3 RAM with it but you run into all kinds of troubles when trying that

 

[Eleven13]

Ah ok I see, thanks for the information those are the sort of details that trip me up.

So I would go with the 4690, and is there a difference between the asrock h97 and z97 motherboards?

Edit: also, I see a 4690 and 4690K, would either work or would I specifically need just the 4690?

 

[Isokolon]

the 4690 is a "locked" CPU meaning it can't overclock.
therefore it's best used with an H97 board

the 4690k is an "unlocked" CPU meaning it can be overclocked
therefore you need a board that can overclock the CPU, that's the Z97

 

[Eleven13]

Ok thanks I see, I have zero plans of overclocking so I'll go with the 4690 if it comes to that. And for just one final thing, is the Z97 compatible with the 4690 if you don't plan to overclock, or does it *have* to be the 4690K?

And would the link I posted a few posts above be the correct H97? I'm just noticing it says "micro" in the name and don't know if that makes it something completely different.

 

[superninja12]

z97 work with the 4690

 

[Eleven13]

Great, thanks again for all the help you guys I really appreciate it!