Question Any easy upgrade wins here?

[darrenj1471]

Hi

Im looking to upgrade my PC which I use for gaming mostly as I know its getting a little old. Im ideally looking for ideas on what I could swap in the existing case to deliver most bang for buck however worst case Id consider a completely new rig, however not sure I can afford to do so. My current specs are:

MB: X470 Gaming Plus Max (MS-7B79)
Proc: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
RAM: 16GB Corsair DD4 3200mhz (although I think its actually running at 2133??)

Any quick wins here? Thanks

 

[Unolocogringo]

A bios update would allow you to install a 5800x3d, one of the best gaming CPUs still available today.

Go into bios and set AMP/XMP for your memory. This by itselt will give a 10-20% performance improvement in game FPS. .

 

[darrenj1471]

Hi
Unolocogringo and thanks for your reply. Can I ask 2 things :
1. When you say a Bios upgrade do you mean a new Motherboard? (apologies Im not very savvy in this area) . My laymans understanding is motherboard is the hardware and bios is its software but I didnt know you could upgrade one without the other?

2. How would set AMP for my memory? ( I guess I could google this if too hard to explain)

 

[Unolocogringo]

Bios upgrade is software for the motherboard. Ryzen platforms need updating for new CPUs that were not available when the motherboard was made and ram support.
Motherboard bios page.
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X470-GAMING-PLUS-MAX/support
As you can see bios updates are available for new CPUs and you need 7B79vHE for 5800x3d support.
Instructions for setting memory are on page 43 of manual.
https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/E7B79v3.0.pdf

 

[Math Geek]

what resolution do you play at? the 1080 is getting a bit old for certain scenarios. the cpu is plenty strong enough for now again depending on what you play and at what settings.

but an "easy" upgrade would be a 5000 series cpu upgrade (using the above noted bios update), or a new gpu.

but turning on XMP is a must either way. no sense running your ram at lower speeds than you paid for, simply due to not checking the box in bios to turn on the xmp profile.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Easy wins are a 5800x and any new GPU from the 3xxx/4xxx from Nvidia, or the RX6xxx/7000 from AMD. Huge jump in performance with both.

As @Math Geek mentioned, that 1080 is too long in the tooth. For AAA games just good enough for medium settings at 1080p. It's 8gb vram keeps it in the game.

Possibly have to consider a new PSU. What are you running at the moment?

 

[Bob.B]

Hi

Im looking to upgrade my PC which I use for gaming mostly as I know its getting a little old. Im ideally looking for ideas on what I could swap in the existing case to deliver most bang for buck however worst case Id consider a completely new rig, however not sure I can afford to do so. My current specs are:

MB: X470 Gaming Plus Max (MS-7B79)
Proc: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
RAM: 16GB Corsair DD4 3200mhz (although I think its actually running at 2133??)

Any quick wins here? Thanks

What does task manager/perf/mem show for ram speed?

Is this ram one or two sticks?

If two sticks are they in the proper slots?

 

[darrenj1471]

I play in 1440

Ive added 16GB more memory and in Bios set A-XMP to on. It still says current DRAM freq is 2133...

 

[darrenj1471]

ignore that, task manager now shows 32gb ram at 3200mhz
thanks

 

[darrenj1471]

Hey there,

Easy wins are a 5800x and any new GPU from the 3xxx/4xxx from Nvidia, or the RX6xxx/7000 from AMD. Huge jump in performance with both.

As @Math Geek mentioned, that 1080 is too long in the tooth. For AAA games just good enough for medium settings at 1080p. It's 8gb vram keeps it in the game.

Possibly have to consider a new PSU. What are you running at the moment?

How does one find out what PSU they have?

 

[Math Geek]

open the case and look at the label on the psu

if possible take a pic of the label and post it for us to check out. we can quickly tell you what you got, what it can do and whether or not it needs to be replaced.