CPU & Mobo Upgrade

[MoDe]

Current Specs:

- Case: Corsair 300R Carbide Mid Tower - Case
- Power Supply: Corsair GS 600W PSU
- CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.40GHz Sandybridge CPU
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
- RAM: Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3-1600 UDIMM x 2 (16GB Total)
- Hard Drive: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
- Graphics Card: GeForce® GTX 980 Super JetStream(4096MB GDDR5)

Having some issues with my current build, I believe it's down to my CPU bottlenecking my GPU.

I would be interested to see the minimum upgrade I would need and then maybe something that will benefit me the most, and if you’re feeling generous a middle of the road option.

 

[Plec]

Having some issues with my current build, I believe it's down to my CPU bottlenecking my GPU.

What resolution do you game at and what issues are you having?

If you're gaming at 1080p, from your spec the only thing your system is lacking is 16Gb of memory as more and more games are utilizing this now.

If not then a Ryzen 1600/1700 with a Gigabyte gaming 3 Mobo would set you on the right path.

As an aside I have a 2500K @ 4.5GHz, 16GB memory and a GTX 1070 and game at 1440p at ULTRA with no problems - the 1070 has effectively delayed any thoughts of upgrade.

Below is an example CPU/MB/Memory - this could be upgraded to 1600X or Ryzen 1700 (or downgraded to 1500X - 4 cores 8 threads - but very little difference between the 1500x and 1600 in price) - also memory could be upped to 3200MHz - but it's expensive at present :/

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Gigabyte GA-AB350-Gaming 3 AMD B350 (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £101.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 Six Core 1600 3.60GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £185.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G30= £119.50

Total: £417.98
(includes shipping: £10.50)



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[Terrorfirmer]

It depends on the game though. In BF1 online the 2500K will bottleneck hard, less so if you overclock heavily but it will still bottleneck significantly.

You could do a lot worse than throw in a 3770K, between the reasonable cost of that CPU and the resale value of the 2500K you shouldn't be out more than about £80 for a hefty upgrade and you don't need to think about new boards, ram, etc.

The 3770K is miles ahead of the 2500K in good multithreaded games (BF1 online, Fallout 4, etc)