Upgrade Advice Please

R33C3 4 · 23 Feb 2018 at 20:05

Hi Folks

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to upgrading/specifying PC components so id appreciate some honest advice.

I'm currently playing WoW and experiencing frame rate spiking in high populated areas but mainly when there is lots happening on screen. I would like my ideal setup to be able to run MMO's on maxed settings at 60+ fps in most situations which my current setup does fall a little short of.

I don't want to shell out cash for a full new setup and from what I've gathered MMO's are CPU intense (Could be wrong) so ill start upgrading from here.

Here is my current setup:

8Pack Approved - Intel Core i5 6400 @ 4.4GHz Overclocked Quad Core Gaming Bundle

- Asus Z170-E ATX Motherboard
- Corsair Vengeance LPX 2 x 8GB DDR4 2666MHz
- Provide Liquid Cooler in the bundle above (Dont have the spec handy)
- XFX Radeon Fury Triple Fan 4096MB HBM PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-FURY-4TF9)
- Samsung SSD 850-Evo 500GB
- Corsair CX750M ATX Power Supply
- Corsair CC-9011052-WW Carbide Series SPEC-03 Mid-Tower ATX Gaming Case
- AOC G2460PG 24" 1920x1080 TN G-Sync 144Hz 1ms Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor
- Windows 10 - 64 bit

Here is what I was thinking about adding:

- Asus-ROG Maximus X Hero ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
- Intel - Core i7-8700k 3.7GHz 6-Core processor (Ideally overclock)
- Corsair H60 Liquid CPU Cooler

Please let me know what you think whether its good, bad or ugly. I appreciate all help.

Many Thanks

Reece

tamzzy · 23 Feb 2018 at 20:15

is it your cpu bottlenecking or gpu bottlenecking your framerates? (have you checked before you go spending all that money?)

if it's the cpu, cheapest way would be to bung in a 6700k/7700k and overclock it, wow's multithread support isn't that great anyway.
wow relies on faster clockspeeds, and a 8700k would be wasted on wow.

R33C3 4 · 23 Feb 2018 at 20:26

Hi Tamzzy

I'm pretty novice at this, what does bottlenecking mean and what tests can I perform to eliminate this?

Thanks

Reece

tamzzy · 23 Feb 2018 at 20:41

use a program like hwmon (hardware monitor) to see whether its the cpu or gpu that's pegged at 90-100% when you're getting these framerate dips.
the component that's pegged at 90-100% is the bottleneck

4K8KW10 · 23 Feb 2018 at 20:53

It is the i5 6400 the bottleneck. Can't be Fury at 1920 x 1080, impossible.

R33C3 4 · 23 Feb 2018 at 21:20

I'm pretty sure my CPU peaks at 100% during stages of fps spikes. I did notice this when playing BF1.

My question is would I see an improvement with the upgrades as mentioned above? I do play other games that like BF1/Titanfall 2 so it would be put to good use.

tamzzy · 23 Feb 2018 at 21:31

R33C3 4 said:
My question is would I see an improvement with the upgrades as mentioned above?

yes, definitely - especially for bf1 - even going to a 6700k/7700k would see an improvement.

4K8KW10 · 23 Feb 2018 at 21:43

Go all in and try to find a 8-core / 16-thread CPU.

R33C3 4 · 23 Feb 2018 at 21:49

tamzzy said:
yes, definitely - especially for bf1 - even going to a 6700k/7700k would see an improvement.

What about compatibility with those upgrades in my current setup?

R33C3 4 · 23 Feb 2018 at 21:50

4K8KW10 said:
Go all in and try to find a 8-core / 16-thread CPU.

Please recommend

tamzzy · 23 Feb 2018 at 21:51

R33C3 4 said:
What about compatibility with those upgrades in my current setup?

6700k is a drop-in replacement. the 7700k may require a bios update before you drop it in.
(6700k and 7700k are essentially the same chip - if you're going down this route, just get the cheapest 2nd hand one you can find)

R33C3 4 · 23 Feb 2018 at 22:04

tamzzy said:
6700k is a drop-in replacement. the 7700k may require a bios update before you drop it in.
(6700k and 7700k are essentially the same chip - if you're going down this route, just get the cheapest 2nd hand one you can find)

My idea was to have a setup that will handle current games + upcoming games that's why I went overkill on my upgrade suggestion. I definitively don't mind spending some cash on an upgrade that will last.

tamzzy · 23 Feb 2018 at 22:14

R33C3 4 said:
My idea was to have a setup that will handle current games + upcoming games that's why I went overkill on my upgrade suggestion. I definitively don't mind spending some cash on an upgrade that will last.

the 6700k/7700k will still last a few years yet lol - and also much cheaper to upgrade just the chip, compared to getting a whole new platform (and then having the hassle of selling your current platform)

(for comparison, i'm still running a 3770k (which is 3 generations older than the 6700k/7700k) 5 years down the line...

4K8KW10 · 23 Feb 2018 at 22:18

tamzzy said:
the 6700k/7700k will still last a few years yet lol

The i5 6400 should have lasted as well, but it failed.

Go all in with an 8-core/16-thread CPU, for example Ryzen 7 1700 or the future Ryzen 7 2700 or i7-5960X or higher.

tamzzy · 23 Feb 2018 at 22:27

4K8KW10 said:
The i5 6400 should have lasted as well, but it failed.

er...no. for the last couple of years (skylake/kabylake series), we've been advocating getting i7s due to hyperthreading, rather than i5s. it was forseen.

for the next 2-3 years at least, 4c8t should be sufficient. and by then @R33C3 4 can have a proper upgrade. going from a i5 skylake to coffee lake (8700k) or ryzen isn't that much of a jump to warrant spending the best part of £400/500.

please go back under your bridge.

4K8KW10 · 24 Feb 2018 at 06:21

tamzzy said:
for the next 2-3 years at least, 4c8t should be sufficient

Should but they are not. Even today there are reports about micro-stuttering with these sad quad cores with MT.

Now you go back to your hole..

orbitalwalsh · 24 Feb 2018 at 07:53

Buy a 1440p monitor

Try BF1 but set in-game resolution to 1440p and monitor resolution at default 1080p

This will tell the game to upscale rendering on your 1080p screen making the GPU work harder !

Give this a try , note down how your GPU/CPU usage is from just gaming at 1080p to upscale 1440p .
If you notice a good drop, then screen time, if not a massive amount , as above slap in i7k and still worth in-game upscale to 1440p

If your really dead set on new hardware , April for zen+ or next year for 8 core Intel it seems .
See how much your chip is going for on the bay as or how much board and CPU combo goes for .

I love to spec new Hardwear but for the cost of new set up could..

£130 for 6700k +

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x AOC Q3279VWF 32" 2560x1440 VA 75Hz FREESYNC WideScreen LED Monitor= £179.99

Total: £191.09 (includes shipping: £11.10)

Just about cheaper then budget Ryzen 1600+Mobo+16gb

tamzzy · 24 Feb 2018 at 11:15

4K8KW10 said:
Now you go back to your hole..

Says the amd uberfanboi...

4K8KW10 · 24 Feb 2018 at 12:44

tamzzy said:
Says the amd uberfanboi...

TBH, I am not a fanboy of AMD. I appreciate AMD because their products correspond to my requirements for quality and to my style.

If you wanna live in a world full of Intel systems... I don't want.

4K8KW10 · 25 Feb 2018 at 15:46

R33C3 4 said:
Hi Folks

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to upgrading/specifying PC components so id appreciate some honest advice.

I'm currently playing WoW and experiencing frame rate spiking in high populated areas but mainly when there is lots happening on screen. I would like my ideal setup to be able to run MMO's on maxed settings at 60+ fps in most situations which my current setup does fall a little short of.

I don't want to shell out cash for a full new setup and from what I've gathered MMO's are CPU intense (Could be wrong) so ill start upgrading from here.

Here is my current setup:

- AOC G2460PG 24" 1920x1080 TN G-Sync 144Hz 1ms Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor
- Windows 10 - 64 bit

Please let me know what you think whether its good, bad or ugly. I appreciate all help.

Many Thanks

Reece

Hi,

I had used a 24" AOC i2369Vm that is still around me, so I can look at it from time to time. What to tell you...... its image quality because of the HUGE pixels is terrible for me...
Looking at it, I would take a 22" 4K 3840 x 2160 monitor any time now.

22" Class UltraFine™ 4K IPS LED Monitor (21.5" Diagonal) 22MD4KA-B Black http://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-22MD4KA-B-4k-uhd-led-monitor