[SOLVED] Been out of the loop for a while, what is my best upgrade option?

[KJSTRIPE]

Hi all,
So it has been a while since I kept up with all the new PC hardware and I am trying to figure out what is my best upgrade option at this point or maybe not even upgrade at all?

My current system:
I5-7500
MSI B250M Bazooka
8gb of Ram @ 2400 (2 slots still open, thinking this might be the only upgrading I need but not sure)
500GB HP 3NAND SSD
1TB HDD
A Cryorig H7 cooler? Back in the day, I got it mostly for the aesthetics lol
XFX RX480 8gb
The PSU is crap, it's like a Cooler Master 550 bronze certified. It has served me well though.
Oh, not sure if it matters but my monitor is an Acer something that is 1440p 75hz

Back when I built this thing it was mostly for gaming but nowadays I am on it 8+ hours a day doing schoolwork or doing extreme multitasking with spreadsheets for my business. So I'm not sure if just a few sticks of RAM would be a good solution as I notice my usage is always 75%+ or am I better off to blow the whole thing up while I can still sell my parts for some value. I'm more into getting the most bang for my buck as I am a college student who can't go crazy spending 500 on a CPU.

Thank you so much, everyone!

 

[tennis2]

I also have a RX480 and up until last month, an i5-3570K (OC'd to 4.2GHz though). I've recently played very demanding titles like Rise of Tomb Raider at ~70FPS (albeit at Medium-ish settings). All depends on what your demands are.

What's your full replacement budget?

 

[KJSTRIPE]

I also have a RX480 and up until last month, an i5-3570K (OC'd to 4.2GHz though). I've recently played very demanding titles like Rise of Tomb Raider at ~70FPS (albeit at Medium-ish settings). All depends on what your demands are.

What's your full replacement budget?

Agreed, the GPU is still definitely good enough for the needs of gaming like once a month. I just wasn't sure if the CPU was up to the task. The next dilemma I suppose is what to do with the ram, I can get 16gb@3200 for 55 but then I'm mixing and matching and I think the mobo only supports 2400 IIRC.

 

[tennis2]

Yeah, non-Z mobos will be limited to the 2400MHz. There's still a couple more years left in DDR4 though. So you could be looking at a purchase situation where buying 2x8GB DDR4-3200 now could be carried over to a new system.

Sucks that your CPU is 4C/4T, but it's still decent. Depending on your gameplay needs, I'd say there's a couple years left in it. At the very least, you're looking at stepping into an i7 or eqivalent 6C/12T (or better) Ryzen 3xxx CPU to get a noticeable upgrade and not a "side-grade", so if the money isn't there for a system overhaul like that, I'd say ride it out.

On the GPU: The upcoming RX5600XT or GTX1660Ti may be a compelling upgrade, but Nvidias 3xxx GPUs will be on the 7nm process node and are rumored to have much improved ray tracing performance. AMDs late 2020 generation (call it 6xxx) will have hardware ray tracing also. So it seems ray tracing is here to stay. So not having it COULD leave you feeling left out a couple years from now.

 

[KJSTRIPE]

Yeah, non-Z mobos will be limited to the 2400MHz. There's still a couple more years left in DDR4 though. So you could be looking at a purchase situation where buying 2x8GB DDR4-3200 now could be carried over to a new system.

Sucks that your CPU is 4C/4T, but it's still decent. Depending on your gameplay needs, I'd say there's a couple years left in it. At the very least, you're looking at stepping into an i7 or eqivalent 6C/12T (or better) Ryzen 3xxx CPU to get a noticeable upgrade and not a "side-grade", so if the money isn't there for a system overhaul like that, I'd say ride it out.

On the GPU: The upcoming RX5600XT or GTX1660Ti may be a compelling upgrade, but Nvidias 3xxx GPUs will be on the 7nm process node and are rumored to have much improved ray tracing performance. AMDs late 2020 generation (call it 6xxx) will have hardware ray tracing also. So it seems ray tracing is here to stay. So not having it COULD leave you feeling left out a couple years from now.

Yeah, I might be able to step up to a ryzen 3600 on my budget. Not sure if it's necessary though. You think I'm better off to just sell off my current sticks of ram and get a 16gb kit or try to get an 8gb kit and keep what I have? I'm thinking to sell it off but I doubt it's worth anything.

 

[tennis2]

I was suggesting buying the 16GB kit AND keep your 8GB kit.

See what Ryzen 4000 brings to the table this year. Rumors are another 17% performance uplift.