£500 Upgrade - Will it run Crysis?

m0r94n

m0r94n

m0r94n

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Hey all. A few friends have had upgrades recently and I think I've now got the bug. My current build is largely around 6/7 years old having been purchased back in 2011. I have made some upgrades since then:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz DualQuad Channel Kit
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Samsung SH-B123LRSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gbs 64MB Cache - OEM

Ontop of this I'm also running with:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 D5X WindForce 3x 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card
OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply
NZXT Phantom 410 Enthusiast Midi Tower Case - Black

My main concern atm is that the GPU is being limited by the CPU and RAM, especially as one of the sticks failed so I'm currently running with 12GB. I also have two SSDs in there but as I didn't get them from OcUK I don't have the exact specs.

The system itself still holds up pretty well but it's starting to struggle (especially in VR). Given I've been quite spoiled by the i5 in terms of how long it's both lasted and held up, I'd ideally like to get the current equivalent. To that end I've been looking at the i5-8600K as it seems pretty decent and doesn't cost the earth.

My budget is ~£500 though I could potentially stretch to more for the right kit. I've contemplated an upgrade bundle but I'm not sure if I could make my money go further by picking up the individual components themselves.

Which parts (if any) do you guys and girls feel would be worth replacing atm?

Thanks!
 

tamzzy

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orbitalwalsh

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as above ^^^^ if you want a new psu 550w focus version is on sale for £73 and saves some pennies if your really digging deep!

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/seas...plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-05p-ss.html

to be honest - if your not going to go the second hand i7 K route, should push for I7 8700K - just makes more sense and more gains

I'll tread lightly here - Ultra board comes with Far Cry 5 for free currently . Aorus Ultra 2.0 version is also currently just out this week for same price and with the free game (cant say more then that). It overcomes Ultra issue with VRM count and its heatsink - not an issue when gaming- but heavy CPU work loads then yes - Basically its a cheap clone of the Aorus 5/7

https://www.kitguru.net/components/leo-waldock/gigabyte-z370-aorus-ultra-gaming-review/2/

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £649.47 (includes shipping: £10.50)​
​

if you google Aorus H370 Gaming 3 - you'll see prob one of the best VRM set up of any board- if you can wait a while, this is what Z390 boards will be packing

Makes ryzen look damn good^^^^
 

Quartz

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m0r94n said:
My main concern atm is that the GPU is being limited by the CPU and RAM, especially as one of the sticks failed so I'm currently running with 12GB. I also have two SSDs in there but as I didn't get them from OcUK I don't have the exact specs.
Click to expand...

You need to test your concerns. Hook up a second monitor and run Task Manager on the Performance Tab and GPU-Z (or similar) on that while you play your games. You will then be able to see where your bottlenecks lie.
 

southernorth

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Definitely replace the PSU as already mentioned. For the CPU/motherboard/RAM you have 2 options - wait 2 weeks to see what performance Ryzen+ actually brings (likely means getting a 2600/X) or get an i5 8600k/i7 8700 bundle. I wouldn't buy the current Ryzen right now.


As you've mentioned VR, I assume you'll be using the PC for mostly gaming.

Intel is currently ahead in most gaming scenarios. Pick 8600k if you have decent cooling and intend to overclock a lot, or 8700 if you want more longevity. The 8700 is slightly more expensive, but you can save money with cheaper cooling and motherboard.

Does also depend which games you play, as many still benefit the most from higher single core speeds (8600k) over having hyper-threading (8700).

Finally, what resolution do you play at? If it's 1080p then the 8600k/8700 would offer much bigger gains than at 1440p or 4k.
 
Last edited:

m0r94n

m0r94n

m0r94n

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Quartz said:
You need to test your concerns. Hook up a second monitor and run Task Manager on the Performance Tab and GPU-Z (or similar) on that while you play your games. You will then be able to see where your bottlenecks lie.
Click to expand...

Have done. The memory usage seems to be the bigger factor in regards to performance.

tamzzy said:
yeah, with an entry level 450w (on the 12v rails) PSU from 2011, and a 1080. that's just asking for trouble
not to mention it's OCZ...lol
Click to expand...

I've got a good place to start then :D

southernorth said:
As you've mentioned VR, I assume you'll be using the PC for mostly gaming.

...

Finally, what resolution do you play at? If it's 1080p then the 8600k/8700 would offer much bigger gains than at 1440p or 4k.
Click to expand...

Yup, mostly gaming. I generally play at 1080p. With the 1080 I have been able to upscale in a few games with some success.
 

m0r94n

m0r94n

m0r94n

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Thanks for the replies so far all.

I'm thinking of the following:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £581.02 (includes shipping: £11.10)​
​

Is there any reason to jump £60ish for the Z370 mobo listed above? Would there also be any disadvantage to getting the 550W over the 650W psu?
 
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