[SOLVED] Can I remove/minimize CPU bottlenecking by upgrading to i3

[Wirmaple73]

Hey Guys,
Most of People Say there's a serious bottleneck in my PC. People say I should get a better CPU to minimize/Remove the Bottlenecking. I have a Pentium G2020 and a GTX 550 Ti Here. so can I remove/minimize the Bottleneck by Upgrading my Pentium G2020 to at least i3-2120? (I heard i3 CPUs are known for their Good Gaming Performance.)

PC Specs
Intel Pentium G2020
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 550 Ti 1GB DDR5
4GB DDR3 RAM

 

[Obakasama]

CPU would be a candidate, but how is it bottlenecking? 'Bottleneck' can apply to a lot of components of a PC including RAM, GPU and monitor; all dependent on what you are doing. Also, what motherboard do you have?

 

[Wirmaple73]

CPU would be a candidate, but how is it bottlenecking? 'Bottleneck' can apply to a lot of components of a PC including RAM, GPU and monitor; all dependent on what you are doing. Also, what motherboard do you have?

Hi. I have a Gigabyte H61M-S2PV (Rev 2.2) Motherboard. I'm going for medium Gaming. (Like GTAV on medium settings, Mafia 3 on lowest settings 720p)

 

[SkyNetRising]

can I remove/minimize the Bottleneck by Upgrading my Pentium G2020 to at least i3-2120?

i3-2120 is very minor upgrade over Pentium G2020. Pentium and i3 both have only 2cores. i3 has hyperthreadding, pentium doesn't.
I'd suggest upgrading to at least i5 (4 cores). For example i5-2400 or i5-2500.

 

[Wirmaple73]

i3-2120 is very minor upgrade over Pentium G2020. Pentium and i3 both have only 2cores. i3 has hyperthreadding, pentium doesn't.
I'd suggest upgrading to at least i5 (4 cores). For example i5-2400 or i5-2500.

So can I remove the bottleneck by upgrading to i3 2120?

 

[SkyNetRising]

So can I remove the bottleneck by upgrading to i3 2120?

Very minor upgrade. If you have bottleneck with G2020, then you'll have the same bottleneck with i3-2120.

 

[Third-Eye]

So can I remove the bottleneck by upgrading to i3 2120?

This still doesn't really mean anything. What are you trying to play and what fps are you looking to get? An i3-2120 may not fix all your perceived issues with bottlenecks. What you should actually do is buy an i5 or i7 as those CPUs would actually remove any possible CPU bottlenecks when using GTX 550 TI. You can get a 2000 or 3000 series i5 or i7 from $20-80 depending on what model it is and then you would need to spend another $15-30 on a new CPU cooler like the Deepcool Gammaxx 400 120mm tower cooler. You might need a shorter 92mm tower cooler or a low profile if your case has limited space.

As an example, about 2 months ago I bought an i5-2500s (lower power model) for $20 on ebay to replace a Pentium G2120 in a system that needed more CPU cores but without changing the stock heat-sink. If you did the same, you would lose 200Mhz at 2.7Ghz base speed, but gain 2 physical CPU cores and turbo boost to 3.7Ghz so it would still be a pretty large upgrade and you might not even need to change the CPU cooler if it's the taller Intel stock cooler.

 

[Rodrigodrt]

First things first, there's no bottlenecks there, second, that equipment is just obsolete and under min requiremenets in most titles, upgrading the cpu should improve overall by 5%-10%, are you happy with that?

what are you aiming to play? you are in the 2 cores only zone, even if you upgrade to that i3 you'll just have 2 cores still and 4 threads, while the resonable minimum nowadays is 4/8, so that upgrade wont get you much far at all.

furthermore the GPU is terrible, im sorry but its way too old and weak, there isnt much you can do at this point other than upgrading everything...

long story short, the i3 upgrade is not worth it.

 

[cakedealer]

I love seeing people making the most of their hardware, this is an ideal behavior with resources. You can still have alot of fun with that setting if you like hanging out on gog 🆒

 

[Third-Eye]

First things first, there's no bottlenecks there, second, that equipment is just obsolete and under min requiremenets in most titles, upgrading the cpu should improve overall by 5%-10%, are you happy with that?

what are you aiming to play? you are in the 2 cores only zone, even if you upgrade to that i3 you'll just have 2 cores still and 4 threads, while the resonable minimum nowadays is 4/8, so that upgrade wont get you much far at all.

furthermore the GPU is terrible, im sorry but its way too old and weak, there isnt much you can do at this point other than upgrading everything...

long story short, the i3 upgrade is not worth it.

Nonsense. The system the OP has is capable of using an i7 which is still really good for games these days and only around 15% slower than an Ryzen 5 2600.

 

[geofelt]

There is no such thing as "bottlenecking"
If, by that, you mean that upgrading a cpu or graphics card can
somehow lower your performance or FPS.
A better term might be limiting factor.
That is where adding more cpu or gpu becomes increasingly
less effective.
Here is a link to the processors your motherboard supports.
https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboard/GA-H61M-S2PV-rev-10/support#support-cpu
Your G2020 has two cores/threads and a passmark rating of 2753. That is when all threads are fully utilized.
The single thread rating is 1544.
You can check out the passmark ratings for other supported processors.
For example, the i3-2120 will have 4 threads and a rating of 3932/1691.
Really, not a big increase.
Way back when, the i5-3550 was a very good processor. You can buy one on ebay for about $20.
It has 4 full threads and a rating of6968/1970.

 

[DSzymborski]

Nonsense. The system the OP has is capable of using an i7 which is still really good for games these days and only around 15% slower than an Ryzen 5 2600.

Sure, once he upgrades to the i7, upgrades the GPU (his current one is much slower than GT 1030), and his RAM. But at this point, he's already upgraded half his parts, so it's not really the same system.

 

[Wirmaple73]

Change of plans. Can I gain 10-20 more fps by upgrading g2020 to i5 2500?

 

[DSzymborski]

Change of plans. Can I gain 10-20 more fps by upgrading g2020 to i5 2500?

In games where the CPU is the problem, likely. But you'll also have GPU limitations.

 

[geofelt]

Change of plans. Can I gain 10-20 more fps by upgrading g2020 to i5 2500?

Perhaps.
The i5-2500 is actually, about 10% slower than the i5-3550 mentioned above.
The key to increasing fps is to find out what your limiting factor is for YOUR games.
Commonly, fast action games are limited by the graphics card.
Try this experiment:
Run YOUR games but lower your settings and resolution.
If your fps increases, it suggests that you would be better off upgrading the graphics card.
I do not expect that to be the case for you.
Games such as sims, strategy and MMO tend to be cpu limited.

It makes no sense to buy such an old gen processor new.
Used, either should sell for about $20.
At an equal price, I would favor the newer gen i5-3550.

 

[እዚ ናተይ ሂወት]

What games are you trying to play? If it's modern AAA games it will be little difference however if it's much older 2012-2015 games it probably will make a difference. Either way to play even old games like Skyrim in reasonable FPS I would go with an Intel Core I7-3770K at the minimum but then your forking around $150+ so that is better spent saving up for a full upgrade of the motherboard later on... Unless you're sure you don't want to play games after 2013+ except indie games with 60FPS +

If I was you I would save up a little and sell all your components and create a new budget build that can play new games in low-medium settings decently and max out any older games, this new budget build would also provide me with an upgrade path in the future something yours doesn't currently.


Assuming you want to run these games at High Settings*

 

[logainofhades]

Personally, I would recommend building a new system. Even a Ryzen 2400g system would run circles around what you have now.

 

[Jassen]

Hi. I have a Gigabyte H61M-S2PV (Rev 2.2) Motherboard. I'm going for medium Gaming. (Like GTAV on medium settings, Mafia 3 on lowest settings 720p)

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but i3 with GTX 550 will not be able to handle GTA V, I tried to play the game on GTX 950, old core i7-970 and it was not good, on low 1080p. And from what I see Mafia 3 is even more demanding. Maybe you'll be able to run it, but I doubt that you'll get playable FPS. Never tried 720p, but I doubt it will be a huge FPS improve. And that 4GB Ram is the bare minimum for GTA V, Mafia 3 wants 6GB as minimum.

My advice is:

Get at least i5-2500, it goes for around 40$ on e bay, get +4GB RAM and start saving for a GPU. My advice, is anything better than GTX 950 to make sure you'll get more than 40 FPS.