Quick question on CPU upgrade

leeince

leeince

leeince

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Joined
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353
Good Morning All,

I currently have an AMD gamjng rig with the following:

Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming 3 Motherboard AM4
16gb Ram
Asus 1080ti GPU
Ryzen 5 six core 1600 3.60ghz AM4

I looking to upgrade the CPU because I feel it's the weak point in the system.

For instance my sons a big Fortnite Fan and we struggle to get 144fps with everything on epic setting at 1440p resolution. It hits about 90fps. We need to drop down to "good" to hit 144hz.

If I was to upgrade to the Ryzen 7 2700x 4.35ghz AM4, firstly would it be compatible with my current motherboard?

Secondly would it allow the system to hit 144hz on Epic settings on fortnite?

Is it a worthwhile upgrade?

Thank you

Lee.
 
EsaT said:
CPU VRM of that motherboard isn't built for 100W TDP CPUs and could ran hot.
Anyway for gaming you'll want best single core performance increase instead of small.
Meaning Zen2 like 3600.

You'll just need to do "few" BIOS updates (through F31) to get there, along with installing newest drivers.
https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboard/GA-AB350-Gaming-3-rev-1x/support#support-dl-bios
Click to expand...

Hi Mate,

Thank you for the reply.

I'm outright novice when it comes to this, j did build the system myself but it was the first one and I had loads of help from member here.

Are you saying I could improve the current CPU's performance to hit what I want it to with bios updates?

And what did you mean when you say "through F31"


Thank you
Lee
 
Last edited:
BIOS upgrades won't improve performance of CPU, unless there was some notable bug needing new microcode.
But motherboard needs new BIOS to support new CPUs released after motherboard's release.

F40 is first Zen2 supporting BIOS and it and newer BIOSes need updating BIOS first to F31.
Other requirements of newer BIOSes are installing first latest chipset drivers and also that one tool.
 
EsaT said:
BIOS upgrades won't improve performance of CPU, unless there was some notable bug needing new microcode.
But motherboard needs new BIOS to support new CPUs released after motherboard's release.

F40 is first Zen2 supporting BIOS and it and newer BIOSes need updating BIOS first to F31.
Other requirements of newer BIOSes are installing first latest chipset drivers and also that one tool.
Click to expand...

Ok, so your saying that my current MB isn't compatible with the Ryzen 7? And if I were to purchase a compatible MB I would need to ensure the BIOS isnup to date for it to work with the Ryzen 7?

Thank you
Lee
 
Your motherboard isn't the best but according to the cpu support list it will even take a Ryzen 9 with a bios update although I wouldn't recommend it without doing something to improve vrm cooling. Kitguru seemed to like your board in their review although they do comment on the weak power delivery (vrm's), poor vrm cooling and a lack of overclocking options in the bios. They did manage to overclock a Ryzen 7 1800x to 4.0Ghz on it.

For a 2700x to work in your board you will need bios version F20 or higher although I would recommend going down the Ryzen 3000 route for the big improvements in per core performance and power efficiency.

For Ryzen 3000 support you would need to update the bios first to F31, then to F40 exactly following the instructions in the notes column on the bios update page and that will allow you to run the Ryzen 3000 series. However, there are two later bios versions with updated AGESA releases so there is still some fine tuning going on and updating to F42a may be worthwhile.

To update the bios download from here and extract (if it's a zipped file) to a usb stick (one bios at a time, so F31 first then F40 and finally F42a if going the 3000 route). Reboot the pc and enter the bios and go to the tools section and fire up Q-flash. Point it to the usb stick with the bios on it and confirm that you want to proceed. Once done it will either reboot or prompt you to reboot. Repeat until you are on the required bios. ***Note that flashing the bios will remove any settings that you have done so write them down before flashing.***

I would take a look at the 3600 as it's a cracking cpu for the price.
 
pastymuncher said:
Your motherboard isn't the best but according to the cpu support list it will even take a Ryzen 9 with a bios update although I wouldn't recommend it without doing something to improve vrm cooling. Kitguru seemed to like your board in their review although they do comment on the weak power delivery (vrm's), poor vrm cooling and a lack of overclocking options in the bios. They did manage to overclock a Ryzen 7 1800x to 4.0Ghz on it.

For a 2700x to work in your board you will need bios version F20 or higher although I would recommend going down the Ryzen 3000 route for the big improvements in per core performance and power efficiency.

For Ryzen 3000 support you would need to update the bios first to F31, then to F40 exactly following the instructions in the notes column on the bios update page and that will allow you to run the Ryzen 3000 series. However, there are two later bios versions with updated AGESA releases so there is still some fine tuning going on and updating to F42a may be worthwhile.

To update the bios download from here and extract (if it's a zipped file) to a usb stick (one bios at a time, so F31 first then F40 and finally F42a if going the 3000 route). Reboot the pc and enter the bios and go to the tools section and fire up Q-flash. Point it to the usb stick with the bios on it and confirm that you want to proceed. Once done it will either reboot or prompt you to reboot. Repeat until you are on the required bios. ***Note that flashing the bios will remove any settings that you have done so write them down before flashing.***

I would take a look at the 3600 as it's a cracking cpu for the price.
Click to expand...

Thank you mate, loads of info there.

So you think I will be ok with my current MB with the updated Bios alone with a Ryzen 7 300?

Should I upgrade my MB too, would that be a better option?

If so can you link to a processor and MB on overclockers that will work with my system please?

Thank you Lee.
 
leeince said:
For instance my sons a big Fortnite Fan and we struggle to get 144fps with everything on epic setting at 1440p resolution. It hits about 90fps. We need to drop down to "good" to hit 144hz.
Click to expand...

Have you tested this by checking CPU and GPU usage?

The good news is that that motherboard will support even the newest Ryzens withthe F40 BIOS update. (BTW I see that list includes the Ryzen 3950X...)
 
Put hardware upgrade (and spending money) on hold, and take @Quartz advice, imo.

Use something like Afterburner to check the CPU and GPU usage (and frequency in case something is downclocking) and report back. Also, Fortnite looks terrible with maxed Anti-Aliasing at 1080p, and at 1440p it'll look even worse. Bring that down a notch or two (lowest setting results in jagged lines or "jaggies", highest setting tends to "blur") and find the sweet spot, and gain some fps at the same time. Not every setting is best when maxed.

Try:
Shadows - High
Anti-Aliasing - Medium or High
Motion Blur - Off
Leave the rest on Epic and check for improvement.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. I will mess around with some settings and see what I can achieve.

Like i said earlier im a total novice, if I was to run Afterburner I wouldnt have a clue what I was looking at or what to do based on the results
 
You want to click on "Detach":

NUzTevj.png



And then you'll get the following window:

VPpBAPr.png



And you can scroll and check things like:

CPU & GPU temp
CPU & GPU usage
CPU & GPU frequency

All of which could have a bearing on the performance you get.

There's also a way to display stats in-game with the accompanying Rivatuner. Suggest watching a youtube video or two on how to do that.
 
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