Best CPU and Motherboard combo for under 300?

Vertex_Dreamz

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My current PC specs are :

- AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor
- Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard
- Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
- Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 4GB Dual-X Video Card
- Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
- Cooler Master Hyper T4 70.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler

I am wondering what would be the best CPU and Motherboard combo for me to upgrade. I am only looking to spend up to $300. I just want to get an upgrade that will last for a while. Also I would like to have a full sized ATX motherboard so I can fit my CPU cooler on there since my ram is too big and the cooler is pretty big too.
 
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With 30-50 fps on medium settings you're quite low on expectations. They say the frame timings are better on AMD processors where a game truly supports up to 8 cores/threads. That is the only benefit you can have with AMD CPU's.

Other than that you'll see better/more results frames wise with i5-4690 + H97 Fatal1ty depending on your GPU, which is still the route I'd suggest.

R9 270X can be improved with a much better GPU ofcourse.

RCFProd

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I couldn't find an i5-4690k + good motherboard for 300 dollars so this my next suggestion for 300 USD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($206.93 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Killer ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($95.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $302.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-21 19:20 EST-0500

Edit: updated

Important info: If you buy the i5-4690k you can OC the H97 Fatal1ty Killer.

 
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If you don't mind dropping the cash on extra RAM, this is a good setup, but you won't be able to overclock.
 

RCFProd

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That's not the best value though, is it?. Paying too much extra over the FX-8320 for the 8350 whilst It's the same CPU but just overclocked. Also 108 dollars for a 970 Chipset motherboard is not very good.

With best possible mobo + Better CPU Cooler:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($134.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: RAIJINTEK THEMIS 65.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($27.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme6 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($133.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $296.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-21 20:12 EST-0500
 
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He mentioned that he already had a cpu cooler, but yeah, that's a good point, you probably should go with the 8320 and just overclock it.
 

Vertex_Dreamz

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No. I'd prefer not to. I am not too good at overclocking and I would probably just screw it up. I might later though.
 

Vertex_Dreamz

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Well, I have a gtx 980 Ti, and a 144Hz monitor with GSync, and I easily maintain over 100FPS on ultra settings on most games at 2k. So as far as bottlenecking goes, you shouldn't run into any issues with a 270X
 

RCFProd

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With 30-50 fps on medium settings you're quite low on expectations. They say the frame timings are better on AMD processors where a game truly supports up to 8 cores/threads. That is the only benefit you can have with AMD CPU's.

Other than that you'll see better/more results frames wise with i5-4690 + H97 Fatal1ty depending on your GPU, which is still the route I'd suggest.

R9 270X can be improved with a much better GPU ofcourse.

 
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Vertex_Dreamz

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Okay. So what you are saying is that I will see better performance with the i5 overall than the AMD? And how long do you think this upgrade will last and still have good frames?