What to upgrade in my existing system?

mastergeorge

Commendable
Feb 1, 2017
5
0
1,510
Hi folks,

I've had my current system for a hair over three years now, and I'm finding that it's below where I want it to be (a combination of my original budget and 'time passing'). It's been a long time since I was anything close to up to speed on the intricacies of systems, and, now that I'm looking to make some upgrades, I want to make sure I'm directing my attention to the most impactful areas.

Here's what I'm running with right now:

AMD FX-6350 Six Core CPU (4.2/3.9GHZ - 8MB CACHE/AM3+)

ASUS® M5A99X Evo R2.0

8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2x4)

Two 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 770

Corsair CP-9020056-UK RM Series RM850

Adding the second GPU really didn't pan out the way I wanted it, because I seem to get poor or no SLI support where it counts.

So, my questions for those here:

What gaming performance should I be expecting from this setup right now (if it's way out of whack with that, it's probably an artifact of user incompetence while changing components)? And, if I want to actually update this to be more competent, what recommendations would you give? I play games of all ages and types, including current titles such as Hitman and Dishonored 2, which are both also examples of games where I'm seeing very low graphical performance.

Thanks in advance -- I really appreciate the chance to benefit from your knowledge. If I haven't included any pertinent details or if I've been unclear on anything, please just let me know.

Many thanks,
George

edit: Made it explicitly clear that this is a gaming system.
 
FX cores are slow, and that is likely your limiting factor.
More in a FX-8 will not help.

Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

If you are cpu limited you are looking at a upgrade to Intel today.
If you are an amd fan, you might wait to see what Ryzen brings.

GTX770 is a very decent card.
 

mastergeorge

Commendable
Feb 1, 2017
5
0
1,510


I must have pasted the wrong line item; just grabbed the box because I definitely picked it based on SLI support. It's a M5A99X Evo R2.0. I'll amend the original post.

I'm considering a switch to Intel, though, as per my next incoming reply, I am seeing performance increase with lower graphics quality, which implies that's not the only factor.
 

mastergeorge

Commendable
Feb 1, 2017
5
0
1,510


Thanks. Anecdotally (I'll run some proper tests tomorrow to actually confirm this), I'm finding better performance on lower graphics settings. Which is what's surprising me a little. e.g. Dishonored 2 I'm on the lowest settings because above that severely dints performance (even with no proper SLI support from the game, that surprises me). Hitman limits me to lowest in many settings. Rise of the Tomb Raider is midrange, but I really can't push it very far.

It seems like a graphics limitation, but I'm still getting what I'd think is lower performance than expected for the two cards.
 
That tells me your cpu still has legs for the game you tested.
Your motherboard is also good enough to let you OC the cpu.

If you upgrade the graphics card, make it a biggish jump or you may be disappointed. GTX1060 at least, perhaps GTX1070.
Graphics upgrades first is a good idea since the card can be easily carried forward to a new cpu/mobo.

Some games are graphics limited like fast action shooters.
Others are cpu core speed limited like strategy, sims, and mmo.
Multiplayer with many participants tend to like many threads.

Here are a couple more experiments:
Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You should also experiment with removing one core. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many threads.
 
In most games you probably better off removing your second GTX 770 because most game do not use or support SLI anyways.
You could do a partial upgrade, to Intel with a board supporting DDR3, would be a little less expensive, but would mean 6th gen not 7th gen CPU's

if you want to wait for the Zen, then you could simply slap a FX-8370 into the board would boost the power for the time you can afford Zen.

so doing just the CPU costs
b]CPU:[/b] AMD FX-8370 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($184.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $184.99

upgrading to Intel CPU/MOBO keeping DDR 3-1600
CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($188.69 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DVS/D3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($54.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $0.00)
Total: $242.69

or just wait for zen or upgrade all out to I7700



 

mastergeorge

Commendable
Feb 1, 2017
5
0
1,510
Thanks for your replies. I'm going to investigate your various suggestions, but I ran some benchmarks today (two hour phone meeting...), and what I'm seeing is that, with one card disabled in Device Manager, I'm getting higher performance than with SLI turned on (benchmarked in Rise of the Tomb Raider and Hitman). Regardless of the settings, there's a solid drop when I turn on both cards + SLI. That's definitely a sign that something's not right, right?
 

mastergeorge

Commendable
Feb 1, 2017
5
0
1,510


Why would performance drop, then, with SLI on, rather than staying in line with a single card? I'm not trying to question the conclusion, but trying to understand the mechanism behind that.