Question AMD FX 6300; What should I upgrade to?

[KupoJoe]

Hi. I build this gaming oriented PC many years ago, I've added only an SSD and 8 more gigs of RAM to it. I can tell that I'm not overworking my GPU for most games that I try to play, but I can only maintain 60fps with settings at medium or below for the more demanding games like Apex, PUBG, Titanfall, and of course Star Citizen.
I believe that my CPU is bottlenecking performance, but I don't know by how much really.
Will upgrading my CPU be enough or will I need to get a new Mobo, PSU, and GPU? If just the CPU is enough, what's a good one for under $200? Thanks in advance

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Listing your full PC specs will help greatly!

GPU/Ram/mobo/PSU etc. Also monitor resolution too.

 

[velocityg4]

There aren't really any CPU upgrades you can do which will make any meaningful difference in gaming. As compatible CPU are all old and slow for gaming. Everything on there is getting quite old. At this point you are looking at a complete new build for a meaningful upgrade.

You can probably reuse the PSU. I wouldn't as that is a pretty poor quality model which is likely pretty worn out by now.

The hard drive is still good. SSD are much faster though.

Listing your full PC specs will help greatly!

GPU/Ram/mobo/PSU etc. Also monitor resolution too.

The Op hyperlinked the build within the paragraph.

 

[ceriumin]

Hi. I build this gaming oriented PC many years ago, I've added only an SSD and 8 more gigs of RAM to it. I can tell that I'm not overworking my GPU for most games that I try to play, but I can only maintain 60fps with settings at medium or below for the more demanding games like Apex, PUBG, Titanfall, and of course Star Citizen.
I believe that my CPU is bottlenecking performance, but I don't know by how much really.
Will upgrading my CPU be enough or will I need to get a new Mobo, PSU, and GPU? If just the CPU is enough, what's a good one for under $200? Thanks in advance

I was in the same position as you and owned an FX4300 which was on an AM3 Socket. Yes I could upgrade but it wasn't worth it. The FX series is dead nowadays and are 8 years old. They are weak and the FX8xxx exist but they are very power hungry and not worth the money. Thus I recommend buying a new mobo cpu and ram. I first will need your specs though

 

[KupoJoe]

There aren't really any CPU upgrades you can do which will make any meaningful difference in gaming. As compatible CPU are all old and slow for gaming. Everything on there is getting quite old. At this point you are looking at a complete new build for a meaningful upgrade.

You can probably reuse the PSU. I wouldn't as that is a pretty poor quality model which is likely pretty worn out by now.

The hard drive is still good. SSD are much faster though.



The Op hyperlinked the build within the paragraph.

Thanks so much for your responses. If I switch out my Mobo (to an MSI B450-A PRO ATX), CPU (Ryzen 7 2700x), and PSU; do you think I'll still need to upgrade my GTX 960?

 

[dorsai]

The 3600 is a better gaming cpu than the 2700x and yes upgrading the GPU will provide large gains.

 

[KupoJoe]

The 3600 is a better gaming cpu than the 2700x and yes upgrading the GPU will provide large gains.

I'm on a budget, so I can't afford to swing that high. I'm not going for incredible fidelity, just 60fps and satisfying graphic quality.

 

[dorsai]

There's a 15 dollar difference between the 2700x and the 3600.

The GTX 960 should do 60fps on medium settings so if money's tight just run it for now.

 

[velocityg4]

Thanks so much for your responses. If I switch out my Mobo (to an MSI B450-A PRO ATX), CPU (Ryzen 7 2700x), and PSU; do you think I'll still need to upgrade my GTX 960?

Your linked specs showed a GTX 760. If right now you aren't hitting 100% on your GPU or lowering settings aren't improving your FPS. Then you CPU is limiting everything. Which makes sense. Given that it is an FX 6300. As those are older games you listed and their requirements are modest. I'd expect the GTX 960 to achieve 60FPS at medium settings. If you aren't above buying used. You can get a GTX 1060 6GB or Rx 580 8GB for about $100.

You also have to buy new RAM.

 

[KupoJoe]

There's a 15 dollar difference between the 2700x and the 3600.

The GTX 960 should do 60fps on medium settings so if money's tight just run it for now.

Oh, okay. I guess the website I was looking at was inaccurate, it showed $150 difference. Anyway, thanks so much for all the advice I've got a much better idea of what I need to do

 

[Schlachtwolf]

Well here in Germany there is 30€ between the 2700x and the 3600 for a very small increase in FPS, but the 2700x has 8 cores and the 3600 has 6 so if he is doing more than just gaming the 2700x might be the way to go. I have one and it is great even with a RTX 2080 and causes no bottlenecks. I previously had a 1060 6GB in and it was fine for medium settings on newer games and great for the older ones.

 

[bryanc723]

I'm running an 8350 and a radeon r9 fury on a less capable but same name mobo(m5a78l-m lx plus). I bought the cpu for $50 and the gpu for $90 off of ebay. It was a very substantial upgrade over my r7 260x and fx4300, so it was worth it to me. What made it worthwhile to me is I don't have a problem with my mobo crapping out due to the VRMs frying, since I'm definitely above factory levels of power. It was either that or start over with a new mobo, cpu, and ram. Which would have cost me much more than the $150 I spent upgrading from very obsolete equipment to just obsolete equipment. If you can find a really good deal, you could do something similar. All in all, upgrading to the AM4 platform is the best option if you can. And these days the AM4 CPUs are more affordable than when I upgraded, which is a large reason I took the route I did.

 

[dorsai]

Well here in Germany there is 30€ between the 2700x and the 3600 for a very small increase in FPS, but the 2700x has 8 cores and the 3600 has 6 so if he is doing more than just gaming the 2700x might be the way to go. I have one and it is great even with a RTX 2080 and causes no bottlenecks. I previously had a 1060 6GB in and it was fine for medium settings on newer games and great for the older ones.

I sold a 2700x to move to the 3600...they are very both good chips but the 3600 is faster in gaming as well as all desktop apps that can't actually push 16 threads worth of work. File decompression, photo editing, and all around use is slightly better on the 3600 while using less power.

 

[Skpstr]

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Your linked specs showed a GTX 760. If right now you aren't hitting 100% on your GPU or lowering settings aren't improving your FPS. Then you CPU is limiting everything. Which makes sense. Given that it is an FX 6300. As those are older games you listed and their requirements are modest. I'd expect the GTX 960 to achieve 60FPS at medium settings. If you aren't above buying used. You can get a GTX 1060 6GB or Rx 580 8GB for about $100.

You also have to buy new RAM.

Just as a comparison, with an RX580 8Gb and 2700x, I'm getting 45-50 FPS @ 4K on Very High settings on World of Warships. (just got the new TV, haven't tried other games yet)