A10-7800 upgrade to i5-4670k - much improvement?

[FlakGunna]

I can get the following:

Avexir - Core series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Intel® Core™ i5-4670K Processor
Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3 Motherboard
Alpenfohn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler

All for £200

I currently have a GTX 960 with my APU. Will I notice a nice boost in fps heavy games?

Or I could just buy a GTX 970 for £160 and keep the APU

What's the best option?

thanks

 

[subbytna]

God yeah. The APU is a lot weaker than the i5. I'd move over and the next step would be to bin the 960 (not a well loved card ) and get a used 970 to let the i5 stretch its legs.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

What memory do you currently have? Could you mix n' match? Or even get money off and reuse your DDR3?

Given that you're not using the onboard GPU then there is no plus point to the AMD CPU. The i5 will let your GTX960 stretch its legs more.
Pairing a 970 with the old AMD chip isn't an amazing move. I ran an RX480 with a 7850k for a little while before rebuilding my Ivybridge-e PC and the difference really was night and day. I'm not a benchmark person so it's just from my own eyes/experience but less stutter and a more pleasurable gaming experience.

 

[FlakGunna]

I got the bundle in the end for £150. What a bargain in my opinion, he even threw in a GTX 660 2GB which I've already sold for £35.

So £115 for RAM, Mobo, massive CPU cooler (barely fits in my case) and 4670k which is running nicely at 4.2GHz

I swapped out the RAM for my own Corsair Vengeance Pro Series DDR3 2400MHz RAM

Games are running great now finally. I will upgrade GPU later as it's performing good for my needs right now.

 

[sandys]

Yup, good move, APUs are decent for what they are but most normal CPUs are far stronger, ran an APU myself for a while and it was acceptable overclocked but in complex areas it really fell over, I jumped mine up to an i5 though the i5 was clock to 4.6 vs 4.3 of the APU it was more than twice as strong on the physics side.

my i5 vs a10

https://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/11925619/fs/11846976

I'd imagine the gap would be wider with a better gpu.

 

[Calo]

GPU is way more important than CPU for games. Just saying for balance here.

For reference, my budget rig below stays above 60fps at 1080p on very high settings in any game I've played. Latest was Wolfenstein 2. Before I put the 970 in, it only just ran Wolfenstein: The New Order on lowest settings and resolution, so that's a nice demonstration of how much the 970 is doing!

 

[FlakGunna]

GPU is way more important than CPU for games. Just saying for balance here.

For reference, my budget rig below stays above 60fps at 1080p on very high settings in any game I've played. Latest was Wolfenstein 2. Before I put the 970 in, it only just ran Wolfenstein: The New Order on lowest settings and resolution, so that's a nice demonstration of how much the 970 is doing!

Clearly not in my case. Since upgrading from the A10-7800 to a 4670k every game I'm playing has a 50-60% boost in performance. Still using the GTX 960 2GB.

I play CPU heavy games though so that's probably why.

 

[Calo]

I play CPU heavy games though so that's probably why.

Then you made the best choice of course.