Graphics upgrade for Black Friday?

[Spuderoony]

Here's my current spec:

My use is lots of desktop/two 36" widescreens with loads of windows, online poker and lately a lot of Beyond All Reason the RTS.

When the game has large 8x8 battles the FPS can drop down to 30 or so. What do I need to get to keep this at 70+? (Assuming rest of components are OK?)

 

[Bidley]

I would look at a new CPU, busy RTS will be CPU bound so an X3D or something modern would help out.

 

[Spuderoony]

Thanks. Is there a way of finding out where the particular bottlenecks are whilst the game is running at an intense point? I thought the processor might still be good, but open to changing it.

 

[heatonpkmassive]

I would look at a new CPU, busy RTS will be CPU bound so an X3D or something modern would help out.

Yeah definitely this. 3000 series is becoming long in the tooth as is the 5900x I'm running. I plan to get a 9800x3d, 9900x3d or 9950x3d in the new year, just need the latter two to be released.

Might be worth waiting for those if you multitask, but if not the 9800x3d is a gaming powerhouse.

 

[heatonpkmassive]

However the above advice is really if you only play rts games, any first person shooter is going to want graphics power.

 

[Spuderoony]

I'm guessing if I go for a new CPU I'm going to need to upgrade the mobo/go onto a newer platform to make it worthwhile?

 

[Tinek]

Thanks. Is there a way of finding out where the particular bottlenecks are whilst the game is running at an intense point? I thought the processor might still be good, but open to changing it.

Very easily - if your GPU is at 100% it's a GPU bottleneck. If not and you are below refresh rate of your monitor, it's a CPU. Otherwise likely you need to get higher refresh rate monitor to not be capped with vsync on

(I know there's more to it, but that's accurate in huge number of cases, so good enough as a rule of the thumb)

 

[SuperElectric]

I'm guessing if I go for a new CPU I'm going to need to upgrade the mobo/go onto a newer platform to make it worthwhile?

If you want Ryzen 7000 or 9000 series cpus you won't have a choice.

The fastest cpu on your platform is the 5800x3d. Which is really good, but mostly out of stock now. This leaves the 5700x3d as the fastest gaming cpu on AM4, at approx £200.

If it was me, I would upgrade platform to AM5, get a 7600 and save up for a 9800x3d.

 

[Bidley]

Agree with the above - get a cheap 7000 series CPU, then get 9800X3D when you can.

 

[Thekwango]

Thanks. Is there a way of finding out where the particular bottlenecks are whilst the game is running at an intense point? I thought the processor might still be good, but open to changing it.

AMD’s own software has a monitoring overlay function where you can see the gpu/cpu/ram usage (among other things) run that while gaming and see if either the cpu or gpu are pegged at 100% and report back before going to the extreme of replacing cpu ram and mobo.

 

[moppy89]

If you're happy buying from China, you can get a 5700X3D for £120 right now. At that price, I think that + blowing the rest of your budget on a GPU gets you something that will probably keep chugging until AM6

 

[freddie64]

If you're happy buying from China, you can get a 5700X3D for £120 right now. At that price, I think that + blowing the rest of your budget on a GPU gets you something that will probably keep chugging until AM6

This is a good idea.

Prices for AM5 X3D are going the wrong direction, so who knows when they are going to be at a acceptable price.