AMD AM3 CPU Upgrade

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
I

ianallan75

May 10, 2018
5
0
10
Hello, My son is wanting to upgrade his PC CPU and I was needing some advice

What he has now -

Cyberpower gaming battalion 1050ti,
AMD FX 4300 QUAD CORE 3.8GHz,
8GB ram,
2TB HDD,
NVIDIA GTX 1050ti,

He mainly plays fortnite and isnt happy with the performance, so I was looking at an upgrade to another AM3 CPU.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated

Was considering FX 6300 / 50 or FX 8350
 
Solution
COLGeek
The FX-8350/8370 is pretty much the pinnacle of useful AM3+ CPUs (do not get a FX-9xxx CPU).

What is the make/model of the motherboard in this system?
Sort by date Sort by votes


You can go for an 8 core but the main problem with this socket is the really weak single core performance. The games that will make use of the extra 4 cores will be too much to handle for the cpu anyways and it will result in thrown away money since not much of an increase will be had.
Then you also have the 95w limit for the board.

I would advice to save up to upgrade to a new platform instead of getting a new cpu. Even the best am3+ cpu out there (9590) gets beaten (by a fair bit) by the 100$ ryzen 1200.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
FX6350 isn't worth upgrading to.

Assuming that the board you have can support the 8350/8370, I'm not sure the gain from it would be significant enough to justify the cost. Unfortunately, the only alternative is to fully upgrade the platform, but then that becomes more costly (new motherboard, DDR4 RAM, new CPU).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Honestly would not spend good money on upgrading that platform.

Look at an AM4 build, suggest a Ryzen 3. According to your form, you could be in as little as around $125 or so and they are a VERY capable gaming proc and OC reasonably well also. I build my first AM4 with one and upgraded to the R7 later. I have to say that cost to performance I was MUCH more impressed with the Ryzen 3.
I still have it and have contemplated whether I want to sell it or do another build with it. The kicker is that OS license will be more than the rest of the build with the parts I have left over. lol
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
FX 8350/8370 is as high as you want to go and only run those on 970 or 990X chipsets. If you have a older board "7XX chipset" you can safely go with a FX 6300/6350. Fortnite isn't entirely hard to play

Try this with what you have, a FX6XXX or FX8XXX overclocked will improver your FPS slightly but not by a huge margin it would also help if you overclock that CPU to the 4.4-4.6ghz range provided you have the support and cooling to do so.

View Distance to Medium
Set Shadows to Off
Set Anti-Aliasing to Off
Textures to Medium
Set Effects to Low
Post Processing to Low
Vsync to Off
Motion Blur to Off
Show Grass to Off

Edit FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe
Select the tab Compatibility and check Override high DPI scaling behavior

With that you should average much higher, It worked pretty well on a 860K @ 4.5ghz with a 1050ti which tended to dip in the high 30's before.

 
Upvote 1 Downvote


Thanks for the prompt reply, the motherboard is a MSI 760GM-P23 (FX)

I forgot to mention that I know very little about PC's

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
It is an okay lower end system (by today's standards). Using a SSD to load the OS and games would improve responsiveness vice loading from the HDD.

As others have said, a new/modern lower end rig will out-perform this system by leaps and bounds. Don't spend a lot of money to put lipstick on this pig, so to speak.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Note that the CPU support list does not include the FX-8350 or other 125W CPUs (other than the FX-8150, which I'd prefer to treat as an error). This low-end motherboard does NOT have the supporting circuits and heat sinks for a FX-8350 and will likely burn out, especially under heavy processor loads. I'll add my voice to those strongly recommending an upgrade to AM4, even if you start with a R3 CPU.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


The AM3+ FX series is rapidly becoming outdated. Any of the CPU's will start struggling in modern games. Personally if you're looking for better performance out of an AM3+, I'd suggest buying a beefy cooler and doing some overclocking. If you really wish to upgrade the best you could do is save up a little more and buy a Ryzen 5, New Mobo, and DDR4 RAM.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


The RAM would normally be fine, but of course, if you go with a modern system, you have to use DDR4 RAM - your existing RAM is DDR3.

But, Case, hard drive, GPU, monitor, power supply (what brand and model?) all be reusable.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'd hold off on any determination on the PSU until we know what it is. Using cheap PSUs is one of the ways Cyberpower cuts corners to lower their cost. With a GTX1050Ti in that system, it is possible they used an ancient PSU that may not even have PCIe power cables.
So, what is the brand and model (not just claimed wattage) of the PSU?
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Hmmm, I don't think that one will burn your house down, however it is otherwise only a notch or two above "junk." Coolermaster is on my personal "do not buy" list for a history of overrating and otherwise lying about a number of their products (PSUs and fans), and despite decent, heavy material, having shoddy workmanship on others (cases). Unless you're in an extremely limited market, there is otherwise always[/s] a better choice available.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks again for your help and opinions.
Would it be cheaper just to buy a new PC or to upgrade myself (with limited knowledge)? It would appear as though everything needs to be upgraded however
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I suspect building a new PC would make the most sense, OR, buy a recent refurbished business-class PC, and move the GTX1050Ti (which uses very little power) into it. If yours needs a PCIe power cable (many do not), you may also need to replace the PSU, but you can find something suitable for around $50.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sometimes Dell, HP, etc., have some remarkably good deals on new PCs, typically on their slightly-out-of-date models. SOMETIMES, though, these types of computers have limits in upgradeability.

Generally, however, building your own is more cost effective, and you can nail down exactly what parts you want.

One thing to consider is the Windows 10 license. If you have a Retail Windows 10 license, you can transfer it to a new computer. If not, then the license is pretty much tied to the motherboard.

Another thing to consider in terms of building yourself is that you already have a case, hard drive, and a video card. If it's a normal tower case, then most standard motherboards, power supplies, etc., will fit.


Finally, you have 8GB of RAM in that, and if I am correct in assuming that it's DDR3, then getting, say, a used Intel system (preferably after Sandy Bridge, but Sandy Bridge is still fairly capable), that still uses DDR3 will allow you to use your existing RAM as well. But, you're dealing with a used system, of course.


Depends on how much you like to tinker vs how much of a budget you have, etc.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom