What to upgrade?

H

HRslammR

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 20, 2003
Messages
3,438
The upgrade bug is biting me again. I haven't upgraded in roughly two years or so.

Currently have the following:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1050T
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H (M2 socket)
GPU: Radeon HD 7800 2048 MB
RAM: 8gig of DDR3

Mostly just play WoW and FPSers but I'm starting to notice that the video card is having a tough time keeping up.

I've been out of the nerd loop for a while (damn life...) so is my set up pretty solid? maybe just upgrade my GPU?
 
What's your budget?

Your X6 chip is not doing you any favors. See the Anand bench of the 1055T vs. the FX 8320.

Scroll all the way down to the very last benchmark (WoW) and note that you'd get a pretty sizeable gain right off the bat just by upping the CPU to a FX 83xx caliber chip. In fact, you may get the gains you are looking for just by the CPU upgrade alone. The Radeon 7850/7870 series are still represented to this day by the R9 370 cards.

Only after upgrading the CPU, I'd then go for the GPU. You could stay at or around the $200 mark (or slightly below) with the AMD R9 380 or Nvidia GTX 960, or move up to the next segment (~$300) and go with a R9 390 or GTX 970. Past that, you'd want to consider a more rounded platform upgrade.
 
atp1916 said:
What's your budget?

Your X6 chip is not doing you any favors. See the Anand bench of the 1055T vs. the FX 8320.

Scroll all the way down to the very last benchmark (WoW) and note that you'd get a pretty sizeable gain right off the bat just by upping the CPU to a FX 83xx caliber chip. In fact, you may get the gains you are looking for just by the CPU upgrade alone. The Radeon 7850/7870 series are still represented to this day by the R9 370 cards.

Only after upgrading the CPU, I'd then go for the GPU. You could stay at or around the $200 mark (or slightly below) with the AMD R9 380 or Nvidia GTX 960, or move up to the next segment (~$300) and go with a R9 390 or GTX 970. Past that, you'd want to consider a more rounded platform upgrade.
Click to expand...

Budget is roughly 500-700.

If I go CPU/GPU/Mobo would i need to update RAM as well?
 
I'd imagine you can keep the ram. What are the specs on the stuff, just to be safe?

Your sig lists 4GB of Corsair 1066mhz rate, but that was a MTU rate consistent with DDR2 so i think your rig sig is out of date.

A couple more questions though before recommending parts:
1) Do you want to stick with AMD or switch to Intel?
2) Do you have a Microcenter or Fry's near?
 
Last edited:
CPU/Mobo/RAM upgrade. That thing is ancient. Go with an Intel i5 6600 setup and you'll see vast improvements in WoW.
 
atp1916 said:
I'd imagine you can keep the ram. What are the specs on the stuff, just to be safe?

Your sig lists 4GB of Corsair 1066mhz rate, but that was a MTU rate consistent with DDR2 so i think your rig sig is out of date.

A couple more questions though before recommending parts:
1) Do you want to stick with AMD or switch to Intel?
2) Do you have a Microcenter or Fry's near?
Click to expand...

Go off of the following:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1050T
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H (M2 socket)
GPU: Radeon HD 7800 2048 MB
RAM: 8gig of DDR3

sig is indeed very ancient.

Don't care anymore. Just whatever is best for the money. and Fry's is close but a microcenter is within reach. And there's always the internet!
 
Pickup a 6600K from Microcenter with a motherboard. I believe they have a discount on it so it's cheaper than any online retailer. You could probably buy the RAM there too, but I would check prices on online retailers if your budget is tight. They may be a little cheaper online.
 
If you go with a LGA1151 (Skylake) build your DDR3 won't work - you'll need to fit DDR4 in. Also keep in mind that Skylake chips actually do scale a good bit with faster DDR4 - so if you want to maximize your CPU potential, you'll need to drop more on quicker ram.

If you go with a LGA1150 (Haswell) build, then you get to use that DDR3 and don't/won't require quicker ram. Haswell chips by and large keep up with their Skylake counterparts, re nearly as potent for gaming, and do just fine with run of the mill DDR3. It is virtually guaranteed you won't notice a difference.


My take: Go with a LGA1150 4790K bundle + board @ MC. Right now, i see an Asrock Z97 Pro4 board + 4790k combo for $319.99. If you go with that combo, you have a healthy ~$300 or so to drop on a legit GPU like a R9 390 or GTX 970.

As a side note, you could also keep your current GPU, and go with a Skylake LGA1150 bundle and buy ram. However, the Haswell route with a R9 390 / GTX 970 is going to produce far better FPS until you upgrade the GPU so you'd still be sitting on hampered FPS.
 
Avoid brand-new skylake parts. Nothing wrong with them, but if you are looking for MAJOR bang-for-buck, always grab a generation behind. You'll save big money.

I would say go for Haswell generation i5 non-K+ H97 mainboard (preowned) and grab whatever video card you can afford after that.

You may get about 3-5 FPS more if you spend a few hundred$ more on a brand new i5/i7 skylake build with DDR4.

Or you could use that few hundred$ more on a video card that will give you 30-50 FPS more.
 
What revision of motherboard is that? Depending on that it looks like you can install bulldozer parts into your existing board (http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3785)

I think the best bang for the buck if you do have a microcenter around is to grab an 8320e for $99 and you also get $40 off a motherboard, so you could also get this for basically $4 AR, for a total cpu mobo for $105

That is going to be real hard to beat unless you want to spend more $$$. Yeah the skylake or the haswell are better, but 3-4x better?

Also of note, looks like your cpu is still coveted on ebay so if you were willing to sell the old one you might walk out with very little lost.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top