Best cost-benefit optimization

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Hi people. I've got this rig, but it doesn't strike me as good enough just yet.

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-S2 AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core
4GB Kingston ValueRAM. 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM. 1333 MHz.
XFX Core Edition FX-787A-CNFC Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit G DDR5 PCI Express 3.
550 Watt XFX Core Edition PRO550W

What could I do? What could be replaced and what would result in a noticeable improvement? What would 8 GB memory do? What about the CPU? What would the gain be? If any :)

Thanks a bunch.
 
The best improvement would be a new cpu and HSF. I don't think RAM would do much. Just check RAM usage in game and see how much you use. If it's close to maxed out then you'll want more. As for the cpu you should get an FX-6300 and a 212 evo so you can OC a litle.
 


Thanks a lot :) Out of curiosity: What would the %-improvement be, going from FX-4100 to FX-6300? 5% 10% Will look in to the memory thing. One final thing: Is my current HSF not enough for FX-6300?
 
Depends on what you're planning to use it for. Typical home use with occasional gaming (or especially if playing older games) will probably be fine. If you're going to focus more on gaming (especially newer ones like BF4, COD:G, etc.), then you want to double the RAM to 8GB & consider using a better FX CPU (maybe even as high as the FX8320).

Beyond that, though, about the only thing I would really recommend is getting another PSU. 550W is kind of pushing it if you're going to have an HD 7870 in there. I'd recommend going up to at least 650W, or even 700-750W if possible.
 


Thanks. Ram, got it. How big would you say the difference is between FX-6300 and the one that you mentioned (FX-8320)? I really thought my 550W was enough. Sigh.
 
That psu is fine for a single 7870. The amount of improvement depends on the game. Here's how you can figure it out yourself. Pick the most demanding game you have (Crysis 3, BF3/4, etc.) and watch cpu and gpu usage in game. When your cpu is maxed out what's your gpu usage at? For example let's say your cpu is maxed out and your gpu is at 75% usage. That would me that you could expect (100-75)/75=1/3=33% more performance. See how that works?

Edit: In case you don't know use task manager>performance for cpu usage (watch the core graphs, if one core is maxed out then your cpu is essntially maxed out) and MSI afterburner for gpu usage.
 


It may be enough, but I always like to have plenty of cushion for future upgrades. A 500W PSU, I believe, is the minimum recommendation from AMD, so a 550W will probably work...but you're not going to have a lot of wiggle room.

As for the 6300 vs. 8320, it apparently depends on whether you plan on overclocking or not (see http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-FX-8320-vs-AMD-FX-6300). Core speeds are identical for both (3.5 GHz), as is the L3 cache (8MB for both). The 8320 has 8 cores vs. 6 (which also means more L2 cache -- each core has 1 MB), so it can handle more programs, & when both are at stock settings the 8320 benchmarks 20-30% better than the 6300. But, it does use a little more power...& apparently the 6300's performance scales better when you overclock it.
 


Great Scott. Good to know. Tell me, does this mean the FX 6300 is outright preferable if you want to overclock? I’ve got to learn that then. Is it difficult? If it is, then I’d better get the FX8320 instead :)
 


Ha ha. I didn't know that. Gotta check this out. Thanks again 😀
 


Good question. Personally, I don't overclock; although I could probably fiddle a bit, I'm not the sole user of the desktop, & my wife would kill me if any "fiddling" resulted in an emergency trip to Micro Center.

Personally, though, it's going to be up to you. The money you save buying the 6300 (~$30 USD) is going to be offset by buying an after-market air cooler (i.e. Hyper 212 EVO), although the extra performance could be handy. Of course, once you start overclocking your CPU, you'll probably end up also investigating overclocking the RAM, GPU, & other parts. It all depends on your comfort zone.
 
Hi again. Just bought 4 more GB og ram and yet another CPU: FX-8350. Not entirely related to the topic, but here is the thing: The specs. state 4.0 ghz, but the Windows info screen states 2.81 ghz and the activity-measure-thingy in Win8 says ca. 2.1. Also: Neither the ram, nor the CPU seems to improve anything. Is my system perhaps flawed with some nasty evil?
Any help would be appreciated :)
 
The motherboard should have a Gigabyte utility that will let you monitor the CPU's current speed. If the FX chips are anything like my Phenom II, though, they throttle down whenever they're not in use (saves power & stress on the CPU).

If you're worried, though, you can always double-check with CPU-Z.
 


Thanks. Well, according to CPU-Z my core speed ranges from 1.4 to 2.8 - standing idle. That does not bode well, does it?
 


Jumping out from Metro: Last Light it says 2.8 in the app. The same number as the Win8-CPU-measure-thingy says is max. Strange, no?

Note: I am afraid I have a much more severe problem with my rig. It seems that - somewhere in the system - there has come a nasty bottleneck. Metro goes from 80FPS to 18 whenever certain scenes come. And it doesn't come up. It doesn't relate to open places or such. Same goes for Skyrim. I used to get a gazzilion, now I get 28. Even with my new CPU and mem. Something is wrong 🙁
 


Ahem. Blush and sigh. Sorry, the problem was internal within Metro (Advanced Physx). The noob says thank you none the less 😀