Game Rig Upgrade Recommendation

Zigma90 · 21 Feb 2018 at 02:05

Hi Guys,

I'm currently looking for recommendation to upgrade my old rig.
My old rig is as the following:

Processor: i5-750 @2.67GHz 2661Mhz
Mobo : Gigabyte P55A-UD3P
GPU : AMD Radeon HD5700series (I believe it was 5770)
RAM : 4GB (can't recall the brand, probably corsair)

I'm thinking to upgrade my GPU card to GeForce GTX1060 (or similar class) and the RAM to 8GB.
However, I am not entirely sure if the mobo and processor need to be upgraded as well to accommodate these changes. I also want to keep my budget as low as possible, maybe around $500 mark.

I am a RTS fans, so my benchmark is to be able to play the latest TotalWar series in ultra setting.

Any recommendation is welcome guys.. Thank you!

orbitalwalsh · 21 Feb 2018 at 07:16

Welcome.

Did a build log on here with i7 860 clocked to 4ghz. Tested on a few cards, 660/980ti/1070/1080 and then jumped to i5 7600k @5.2 and found that changing cpu gained my 10+ Minimum/lowest frame rate increase.
There was a jump in performance from 1st to 2nd gen i-cores then after that not so many performance jumps until coffee by adding 2 extra cores. Or Ryzen coming out with cheap high thread count CPUs that destroy their old FX chips !

As always GPU will gain you the most FPS increase.. but itlli be limited due to your cpu, specially if your gaming at 1080p .
On the flip side, because GPUs are so so expensive due to mining, core upgrade of cpu/ram/Mobo should give you a boost and life span ready for when cards either drop in price or H2 when next gen Nvidia launch .
Just seen memory as well, modern titles, you want at least 8GB and RTS games are a massive hug due to all the units on the field !!!!

As you've listed $ , guessing your from across the pond were your not as badly ripped off by exchange rates .

Ryzen 1600/ B350 board such as Asus Strix or Gigabyte Gaming 3 and 16GB of DDR4 3000hz should just be in your price range

Pocah · 21 Feb 2018 at 08:17

I think you will need to upgrade the board BIOS to accept even a 7 series GPU.
Although the GPU will undoubtedly bring you the biggest gain, I would be concerned that the CPU is just slowing you down too much.
The P55A-UD3P will not even fully accept an SSD without crashing now and then.
So honestly I don't know. You could get the graphics card now to see an immediate gain, but you will have to update the motherboard BIOS to accept it.
You could replace the mobo/cpu/ram as a good base in which case you would see an overall increase in speed but you wouldn't achieve as much in games as the graphics card.

pastymuncher · 21 Feb 2018 at 13:16

Hi and welcome to the forums.

If you can't afford to upgrade everything right now just upgrade the gpu and get that i5 750 overclocked if it isn't already. You should manage 3.8Ghz easily enough with a decent cooler and this would help a lot in the total war games. Try and pick up a cheap 16Gb DDR3 kit, 4Gb just isn't enough. Aim for DDR3 2133mhz if possible. That lot will get you the biggest performance boost. As mentioned above, you will probably need to update the motherboards bios to the latest version but that's not a big problem. Just download the latest bios from Gigabytes website and put it on a usb stick. Reboot the pc, enter the bios and under the tools tab you will find Gigabytes built in bios flashing tool Q-Flash. Fire it up and direct it to the usb stick and follow the instructions and then let it do it's thing. When done it will reboot or prompt you to reboot the pc. Do not interrupt the bios flash or turn the power off and don't use any windows based software to flash the bios. Always use the built in tool.

DarkHorizon472 · 21 Feb 2018 at 14:54

I upgraded to Ryzen from an i5-760 overclocked to 3.8Ghz due to it struggling with new games at 1080p, such as BF1.

Start by overclocking your cpu being careful of temps and power, then see what the bottleneck is.

Just be careful spending money on an old setup when saving a little more for new motherboard, ram, cpu and Gpu is a much better option.

Zigma90 · 26 Feb 2018 at 00:19

Thanks for the recommendations guys! really appreciate it..
How can I find the mobo compatibility with gpu card that i want?
Another question, does having 2 GPU better than 1 GPU?

orbitalwalsh · 26 Feb 2018 at 09:35

Zigma90 said:
Thanks for the recommendations guys! really appreciate it..
How can I find the mobo compatibility with gpu card that i want?
Another question, does having 2 GPU better than 1 GPU?

rule of thumb, also buy the most single expensive card you can afford ! if you can afford to buy the best and have money to stare- buy another hahaha (£1800)

Zigma90 · 27 Feb 2018 at 00:25

orbitalwalsh said:
rule of thumb, also buy the most single expensive card you can afford ! if you can afford to buy the best and have money to stare- buy another hahaha (£1800)

I'm sorry, but I find this no help at all, no offence though..
I'm just looking for more serious answer that can help to explain my doubts and questions.. Thank you

DarkHorizon472 · 27 Feb 2018 at 07:21

Try over clocking first being careful of temps and power. Then when gaming use afterburner to monitor cpu / Gpu usage and temps. Whichever is at 100% is your bottleneck. A new Gpu can be moved to a new build in future.

Pocah · 27 Feb 2018 at 09:28

I had the same board and once the BIOS was updated it accepted any modern graphics card. The problem was around the 7 series I think, and it required the BIOS to be updated but beyond that everything was fine on subsequent graphics cards. I ran a 750ti in the PC and I was thinking that was almost at the limit. So the ideal comparison would be a GTX 1050 if you want to save money or a GTX 1060 if you want something future-proof. But bear in mind that CPU will limit you a bit. I think, personally, I would get a 1060 then consider what the next step would be after that. But first off I would get over to the Gigabyte site and update the BIOS. If that, for any reason, doesn't happen, then there is no point in trying to upgrade anything.
Also, yes, get that RAM upgraded to 8GB.

Zigma90 · 28 Feb 2018 at 00:32

Cheers, will get the BIOS update straight away. Is there any website or guidelines to find the compatibility between the BIOS and GPU? As you mentioned, I consider having GTX1060, but I don't want to burn that money and suddenly find out it is not compatible..