Hey guys,

Thanks to everyone who gives suggestions and opinions, in case I dont answer everyone - I appreciate the help you give

There was a time a long time ago when I built my PC, which is quit outdated at this moment. Was thinking about upgrading by buying components separately. But I realized my mobo has AM3+ socket which is dead platform s of now (sorry for living under a rock, I wasnt really following computer technologies)

I have AMD FX-8320 CPU and GTX 750TI graphics card. I suppose I could buy a new graphics card, as it should fit (correct me if im wrong). But would I bottleneck my CPU this way ? Basically what I want to know - is there point in upgrading GPU if I keep the CPU ?

Second question - is there CPU I could buy, that would be a worthwhile upgrade for FX-8320 ?

Or, would all this be complete waste of money and should I just build from scratch ? Want to hear your thoughts :) Thanks in advance

PS. what about choosing RAM ? From what I can gather from looking at available motherboards DDR4 is the new deal ? And DDR3 is as good as dead as is AM4+ ?

4 years ago*

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What to do what to do

View Results
Upgrade
New build

NEW BUILD. Your current setup is shittier than mine, and I've made the decision to go new build due to various factors which would make my computer still "shitty" even with a couple of upgrades. Just do it man

Even a cheap i3 build with a 1650S is better than any upgrade you could possibly do, and an i5 setup is recommend and shouldn't be a whole lot more. Your computer is old enough that it's at the point where you're just flogging a dead horse. It will make a nice backup computer, or for use for something/someone else.

4 years ago
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can you prove this??
i3 is far worse than the FX

4 years ago
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The i3 of the same year, indeed. Any current gen i3 (8100 or 9100) is better (except for the 8-Core spec).
I'm not recommending the i3, I'm just comparing it.

I don't like to use CPU Benchmark sites, but... https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-8100-vs-AMD-FX-8320/3942vs1983

4 years ago*
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in a single thread task for sure, but any modern game will at least utilize 6 cores
4 core is no longer good enough for games. its a real bottleneck
and for any new system, a Ryzen5 3600 is the best value

4 years ago*
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i3 is far worse than the FX

I answered your question. Don't go off on a tangent just to argue your case. I'm done here, peace out.

4 years ago
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lol ye, i3 vs ryzen is a big change from i3 vs fx

4 years ago
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I'm pretty sure this is wrong. Multi-threading games is /hard/. Single core performance is still more important for /most/ games.

The benefit of having multiple cores is that all the other stuff you've got running on your computer can run on other cores and not take CPU cycles away from the core your game is running on.

4 cores, should be good /enough/ for gaming at all resolutions for nearly all games. I can't think of a game off hand that this isn't true for.

Please show me benchmarks that prove me wrong. I'd love to learn that our major gaming engines have figured out how to scale well on 6+ cores. Seriously no sarcasm. This would be great news, but it doesn't match with the benchmarks I've seen in 2019-2020.

4 years ago*
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The benefit of having multiple cores is that all the other stuff you've got running on your computer can run on other cores and not take CPU cycles away from the core your game is running on.

actually, this statement is very wrong.
Having multiple cores/threads does not mean each task will take one of them, the CPU will split/arrange/reorder tasks (instructions) as needed

and i can get you all the benchmark you want but it will mean nothing if you don't trust the source.
However, you can try it yourself. switch off cores on your CPU and test games. dont forget to account for SMT
and for what games you can start with GTA, and then go play Civilisation and total war. then tell me how 4 cores/thread is enough
as long as you are not crippled by the GPU, you will notice a performance drop with 4 cores/threads.
but above 8 cores i agree it wont make huge difference

4 years ago
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I'd be interested in seeing your sources. I'd rather not go through the setup, clean boot, & testing procedure to get proper test results. I'd rather spend that time reading 10+ questionable sources to see if they agree.

And I'm not saying that there won't be a performance drop, but I recall the performance for additional CPU cores dropping pretty fast.

4 years ago
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To be clear here. I'm saying that a fast enough 4 core / 4 thread cpu will not hold back an adequate GPU from reaching 60fps@1080 or 30fps@4k. I'm not saying there aren't performance gains to be had, or that there wouldn't be a better CPU for the price (I <3 Ryzen) but there's no reason to discount a 4c/4t CPU from a gaming build consideration based on core count alone.

4 years ago*
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i missed this note!!
its not about intel vs AMD for me, i5 4c/8t is good enough
however, Ryzen do offer more value at the moment

4 years ago
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fair enough, ill be using guru3d for this

  • 1st graph is for RDR2 on Core i9 9900K
    notice even @4c it has 8 threads and there is a drop in FPS
    at the higher resoultion the GPU would be the limiting factor

  • 2nd graph for Borderlands 3 with the same setup
    only at 1080p as this would be less GPU dependant
    same outcome, game will need the core count

keep in mind its not all about core count, speed and architecture will have a say
but as a gamer, you are more likely to be GPU limited. adjusting image quality to get the most out of the GPU, as it should be your most expensive part.
the last thing you need is to cripple it with the CPU. so dont go crazy on 32 cores, but at least have 8 cores\threads.
hope this was convincing enough.

View attached image.
View attached image.
4 years ago
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Yes, a 2c/4t CPU will bottleneck, but you're still very much inside playable performance. A 4c/4t cpu will perform noticeably better.

And when factoring in budget constraints, spending less on a CPU and investing more in a GPU will generally yield better FPS overall, even if your CPU ends up bottlenecking your GPU.

I did some searching to compare GTA V performance at 1080 & 4k. I used an Intel i3 9100f as my starting point. From the benchmarks I could find, you would be better investing an extra $100 into your GPU instead of upgrading to an AMD Ryzen 5 3600. For all GPU price points I was able to compare. If you have preferred review outlets you trust, I'd be happy to run the numbers for you.

Edit: In response to your statement of "4 core is no longer good enough for games. its a real bottleneck"

I don't stand convinced that a 4c/4t CPU isn't enough for a gaming rig. Yes, more threads/cores SIGNIFIGANTLY improve quality of life for things other than pure gaming. But an $80 4c/4t CPU fails to bottleneck even the fastest GPU enough to cause unplayable (<60fps@1080 and <30@4k) frame rate loss. For pure game performance, investing in other parts of your system will likely yield higher returns than investing in CPU cores past 4c/4t.

However, I am convinced that the latest games have improved their multi threading and make decent utilization of up to around 8 threads for most games. Which is a good trend to see.

4 years ago
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agreed, under limited budget it would benefit more to invest in the GPU
but, you can get more than 4/4 @100$. and your GPU budget should already be around double CPU
i dont want to search this anymore as there is no one buying anything at the end XD

im glad to you recognize how CPU scaling is improving, wait till you see it in Civilization and other games with multiple objects moving around.
this was fun, thanks and have a nice day

4 years ago
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i have a core i7-3770 which i think is kind of comparable to yours, actually your cpu is several months newer than mine. i have the same dilemma as you too. i wanna upgrade my cpu, but that means i'd have to upgrade my mobo, aaand my ram. last year i upgraded my gpu from a gtx 970 to an rtx 2070 and even with my 8-year-old cpu and ddr3 ram i still play new games at ultra settings, 1080p60, which is the best my screen can output anyway. so far, so good. no complaints.
my best advice (i'm sure others have given better).. i'd say go ahead an upgrade your gpu first and see how that feels. hell, even getting a gtx 970 would be a nice improvement and you could probably find one of those for a decent price. my 970 was still playing new games at 1080p60 at mid-high settings.
again, maybe not the best advice. i won't claim to be an expert or a know-it-all on this stuff. i did about 20 seconds of googling to compare cards, and idk how much a 970 sells for. i bought mine for like $400 and that was years ago so they should be cheaper by now. sometimes old tech gets expensive once they aren't manufactured anymore and become less plentiful, so i could be wrong. best of luck to you.

4 years ago
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solid advice
a used 970 would be a good upgrade

4 years ago
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I would go with the new build, I was in a similar way, but I had the 8350 and I did originally with that build had it paired with a Radeon HD 7870, I then found a good deal for a 570 8GB and it seemed to do just as good if not worse then my old GPU. I I then decided during like january/february of 19 to do a new build and decided to go with intel since found a good bundle (cpu/mb/ram) for like 550. I then noticed my performance nearly doubled compared to my old system with the same GPU.

I then shortly before the supers came out found a good deal for a EVGA 2070 8GB and decided to buy that (was like under 500) and so far haven't had any issues.

4 years ago
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Wait until the consoles get released and then buy new hardware.

4 years ago
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