[SOLVED] CPU upgrade

Altom_

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Dec 18, 2020
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I Currently have an I5-9400F CPU socket: LGA 1151 (I believe)

I use my PC on a daily and I mostly game. I am wondering if its worth an Upgrade or not without changing my motherboard?
But if I was going to change my motherboard too could you please give me some suggestions
and I have a GTX1660 GPU

kind of asking for a lot here
but
Thanks!
 
Solution
Here is a list of all the processors your motherboard can support, along with the minimum required bios.
As to how to evaluate possible processors, I find it useful to look at the passmark ratings.
For example, your I5-9400F had 6 threads and a rating of 9591. That is when all threads are fully running. The single thread rating is 2491. Single thread performance is probably the most important for gamers.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-9400F+@+2.90GHz&id=3397

Fortunately, with the 10th gen processors out and ryzen 5000 series processors, 9th gen intel seems to be on sale.
A i7-9700K, for example has 8 threads and a rating of 14608/2914...
In what way is your current setup not doing the job?

Games will be limited in performance either by the cpu or the graphics card.
I think your current cpu/gpu is relatively well balanced.

What is the make/model of your motherboard?
There will be many possible cpu upgrades.

What is the make/model of your case?
You will need a better cpu cooler for any significant upgrade, and the case needs to have room for the cooler.

What is the make/model of your power supply.
You may need a stronger power supply, particularly if you want to use a stronger graphics card.

What kinds of games do you play?
Fast action shooters depend most on fast graphics.
Games like sims, mmo and strategy games want good single thread performance.
Multiplayer games like many threads.

What is the make/model of your monitor?
What resolution do you play at?
Do you have any plans for a higher resolution monitor?
The higher the resolution, the stronger you need your graphics card to be.
 

Altom_

Reputable
Dec 18, 2020
69
5
4,535
In what way is your current setup not doing the job?

Games will be limited in performance either by the cpu or the graphics card.
I think your current cpu/gpu is relatively well balanced.

What is the make/model of your motherboard?
There will be many possible cpu upgrades.

What is the make/model of your case?
You will need a better cpu cooler for any significant upgrade, and the case needs to have room for the cooler.

What is the make/model of your power supply.
You may need a stronger power supply, particularly if you want to use a stronger graphics card.

What kinds of games do you play?
Fast action shooters depend most on fast graphics.
Games like sims, mmo and strategy games want good single thread performance.
Multiplayer games like many threads.

What is the make/model of your monitor?
What resolution do you play at?
Do you have any plans for a higher resolution monitor?
The higher the resolution, the stronger you need your graphics card to be.
most games i can pretty much everything however i like to play in 144fps but when my frames drop down to 80 its highly noticeable and makes things slightly harder to aim and feels rough

my motherboard is ASUS H310M-A R2.0

Case is a Stormforce Onyx mATX Gaming Case its the older version i had to take the front off because air flow was terrible like my gpu was reaching 88

my power supply is a fsp group 500w power supply idk if thats the real name but i believe so

i play call of duty, borderlands 2.3 Dirty bomb(60fps game) sometimes minecraft

and my monitor is https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-C24RG50-24inch-Curved-Monitor/dp/B07PFJH2YX
and i play at 144 i find anything below a 100 really hard to play now and i'll probably remain at a 1080 res until we can play 4k 144 or higher
 
Here is a list of all the processors your motherboard can support, along with the minimum required bios.
As to how to evaluate possible processors, I find it useful to look at the passmark ratings.
For example, your I5-9400F had 6 threads and a rating of 9591. That is when all threads are fully running. The single thread rating is 2491. Single thread performance is probably the most important for gamers.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-9400F+@+2.90GHz&id=3397

Fortunately, with the 10th gen processors out and ryzen 5000 series processors, 9th gen intel seems to be on sale.
A i7-9700K, for example has 8 threads and a rating of 14608/2914
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-9700K+@+3.60GHz&id=3335
Even though the K suffix processors can not be overclocked on your motherboard, they will turbo up higher at stock.
Even a 9900K is possible, but I doubt that your motherboard is very well suited to that.
Plan on a good aftermarket cooler.
How high a turbo you can get is partly determined by your cooling capability.

Look at the power supply, and see if you can identify some 6 or 6+2 pin aux graphics cables. A stronger graphics card is going to need at least one of them.
If there are no such cables, you will need a replacement psu.
Using molex adapters is not recommended.
Here is a handy chart to size a psu for different graphics cards:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

If you need better case cooling, you can always replace the front intakes with higher rpm versions, albeit at the cost of noise.

If you have not already done so, connect your monitor via a good quality displayport cable. DP supports faster speeds better.

If you have aspirations to play fast action games at 4k resolution, you are looking at a 3080 class graphics card or better.
Such cards are now overpriced and scarce.

There are a couple of experiments to let you better understand your options.

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

c) While all 6 threads may show activity, that does not mean that they are EFFECTIVELY used. Experiment with removing one or more cores/threads. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of threads to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many threads.
If you see little difference, your game does not need all the threads you have.
 
Solution