Should I upgrade or start from scratch?

TomG888

TomG888

TomG888

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Joined
19 Oct 2024
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12
Location
London
Hi,

I’ve been off the gaming scene for quite some time and I never really had a strong understanding of the hardware I was using in the first place.

I played a lot of Total War Warhammer 3 and was always annoyed I could play it in 2k at a solid 60fps. I needed to be able to play it in 2k because I foolishly bought a 2k only monitor. Besides the point.

I’ve pasted my specs below and wondered if someone could give me some feedback on what they think I should do, upgrade my current rig or just sell it buy a new pre-build. I don’t really have the knowledge to build something myself so if I were to upgrade my current rig (which has been in storage for 2 years) I would presumably have to send it to someone.

I have a one terabyte SSD not a 250 GB like it says below but that is the only thing that has changed.

CaseTHERMALTAKE V200 TEMPERED GLASS RGB EDITION GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900K (3.6GHz) 16MB Cache
MotherboardASUS® PRIME Z390-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card8GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 2080 SUPER - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCle NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W)
1st Storage Drive2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB
CACHE
Intel Optane Memory16GB INTEL® M10 OPTANE MEMORY - USE WITH MECHANICAL HDD
DVD/BLU-RAY DriveNOT REQUIRED
Power SupplyCORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor CoolingCorsair H60 2018 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal PasteARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound CardONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt OptionsMIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT
PORTS


Thanks
Tom
 
I would first test out some games you want to play and see how they run with what you've got first.

If you are unhappy with the performance go from there, that PC isn't too bad depending.
 
WH3 is a CPU intensive title, so a CPU upgrade would benefit you. The cache on the Ryzen X3D CPUs is good for gaming and excels in strategy games in particular.
 
zaniro said:
WH3 is a CPU intensive title, so a CPU upgrade would benefit you. The cache on the Ryzen X3D CPUs is good for gaming and excels in strategy games in particular.
Click to expand...
According to this its not that cpu intensive especially over 1080p.

www.dsogaming.com

Total War: Warhammer III PC Performance Analysis

Powered by TW Engine 3 (Warscape Engine) and using DirectX 11, it's time now to benchmark it and see how it performs on the PC platform.
www.dsogaming.com www.dsogaming.com
 
TomG888 said:
I can’t just put a new graphics card in though can I? I’d need to change the power supply etc as well wouldn’t I?
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You would. The VS series aren't really made for powerful graphics cards, best to get a new one. Corsair RM series or Seasonic GX or Focus would do the job.
 
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You could upgrade your psu to a better rated psu for more power effeciency and modular to save space in the case like the ones mentioned above.

A 4070 super would be a great upgrade and is a great card for 1440p.
 
dfour said:
You could upgrade your psu to a better rated psu for more power effeciency and modular to save space in the case like the ones mentioned above.

A 4070 super would be a great upgrade and is a great card for 1440p.
Click to expand...
I would if I knew how to. How would you go about upgrading your rig if you didn’t have any technical knowledge like me?
 
I returned to the hobby last year after 15+ years since my last build.

I found PC Centric on YouTube helpful. Watching a couple of his build videos brought it all back.

There’s one where he builds a pc for his mate who’s never built one before and explains everything step by step
 
For Total Warhammer you're possibly better off with a platform upgrade to an AMD X3D variant.

The 9900K is getting a bit long in the tooth at this point, I've seen people bottlenecking on it with cards not much faster than a 2080ti in some scenarios, I was quite heavily with a 3700X and a 4070 and there's only around 10-15% between that and the 9900K last I checked.

It's worth noting that the Total Warhammer series is a bit of a mixed genre, they have RTS battles where you control troops but there's also an overworld management part that's similar to a 4X type game. Think Civ, Crusader Kings etc, the management part can really nuke your CPU at times, especially if you're running a custom scenario with a lot of AI opponents as you need to wait forever between turns. The built in bechmarks aren't necessarily representative of the game proper, especially late into scenarios.
 
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