FX 4300 CPU upgrade

[UnbrokenOath]

Im looking to upgrade my pre-built CyberpowerPC, mostly for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
It's current specs are:
CPU: AMD FX-4300

GPU: Radeon RX 460

8GB RAM

350W PSU

I would like to just upgrade my CPU, but I don't want to bottleneck too much. any advice?

Update: I found the AMD FX-6350 Vishera 6-Core 3.9 GHz, and this is what im looking for, what would be the best PSU Wattage for this plus a 128GB SSD?

 

[Justiceinacan]

I'd say that a 450 or 550W unit would be fine, but beware that an FX 6350 has a TDP of 125W; at stock frequency, it can draw a lot of power. Make sure your cooling is up to the task (get off stock heatsinking and at least use the wraith) and make sure your motherboard is up to the task. Most 990FX chipset motherboards are capable of doing so, and a good amount of 970 boards can too.

 

[UnbrokenOath]

I'd say that a 450 or 550W unit would be fine, but beware that an FX 6350 has a TDP of 125W; at stock frequency, it can draw a lot of power. Make sure your cooling is up to the task (get off stock heatsinking and at least use the wraith) and make sure your motherboard is up to the task. Most 990FX chipset motherboards are capable of doing so, and a good amount of 970 boards can too.

my MOBO is a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2, I'm not sure if its compatible, some people are saying no while sites are saying yes, is it?

 

[Justiceinacan]

I wouldn't put a 125W CPU on it. Low phase count, no VRM heatsinks.

In fact, this CPU support list suggests to only use 95W processors here. I owned an FX 6300. Wasn't bad, but I was running it on a 78LMT USB3 which had listed support up to 125W (though the communities don't recommend it)

It's debatable whether it's worth it to me, maybe if you can sell that 4300 for a little cash and maybe even buy a decent used FX 6300 or something. Otherwise I might just save up and get a new motherboard-cpu-RAM-psu combo.

Also I'd bet that you would be able to get away with using the new CPU with the same PSU. If it's a crappy OEM like PSU then I'd scrap it but I'm a snob so of course I would.

 

[damric]

If you need something good and cheap right now, your best bet is the new Kaby Lake Pentiums. Even the low clocked SKUs will be a huge upgrade coming from an FX-4300.

But if you want to wait, AMD has some budget CPUs coming. Soon the Ryzen quad cores will be out. Hopefully this year we will also see Ryzen-based Athlons (ie neutered APUs without the useless high latency L3 cache) for ~$70.

 

[Justiceinacan]

Has AMD been clear? I thought Athlon was the super budget low power AM1-like option from now on.

 

[damric]

Has AMD been clear? I thought Athlon was the super budget low power AM1-like option from now on.

Of course not. They keep the lid on these Athlons and never bother to make a press release because they would rather your pour money into the higher end higher profit margin products. The ones they released for FM2 and FM2+ were awesome budget tweakers for overclockers.