Gaming/ Recording/ Editing PC

[Wfs0801]

Hello, I've been making YouTube videos of my PC Gameplay and I've noticed that my PC simply doesn't have the power to run games at the higher settings and record at the same time, at least not with more than like 20-25FPS average. Below I have posted my PC with the upgrades to the CPU, GPU, and PSU that I believe are necessary to possibly make this PC much more suitable. Things like the Mobo I did not upgrade because if I did I would also have to purchase a new Windows 7 license. So that I will upgrade when I have the money to blow on a top of the line, no budget, PC.

[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/y9PjNG) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/y9PjNG/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd8350frhkbox) | $174.99 @ NCIX US
**CPU Cooler** | [Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rr212e20pkr2) | $24.99 @ Newegg
**Motherboard** | [Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-m5a97ler20) | $74.99 @ Micro Center
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8gbrl) | $79.98 @ OutletPC
**Storage** | [Sandisk Ultra Plus 64GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sandisk-internal-hard-drive-sdssdhp064gg25) | $54.99 @ Best Buy
**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003) | $52.91 @ OutletPC
**Video Card** | [Asus Radeon R9 290 4GB DirectCU II Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-r9290dc2oc4gd5) | $399.98 @ SuperBiiz
**Case** | [Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc912kkn1) | $49.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [Corsair CSM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cs650m) | $69.99 @ Micro Center
**Optical Drive** | [Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-optical-drive-sh224dbbebe) | $16.11 @ NCIX US
**Case Fan** | [Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-fan-co9050008ww) | $27.99 @ Amazon
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $1026.91

Please let me know your opinion. I was mostly concerned with the CPU & GPU, but the PSU I had to upgrade because my little 450W couldn't handle this. I have done a good amount of research on the selected CPU & GPU and consider them to be at the top when it comes to price/performance ratio.

If you have any other suggestions, please let me know.

 

[Traciatim]

Personally I would just switch to an NVidia based video card for Shadowplay since it's much more mature than the AMD Game DVR. For a gaming rig that you don't rely on the processor to do the video compression you would probably want an i5-4690k rather than the 8350. Though with mantle catching on and more and more reliance on video cards in games rather than the CPU having the slower CPU probably doesn't matter as much as it used to.

 

[Wfs0801]

From my understanding, the motherboard doesn't support Intel cards due to it having a AM3+ socket, that's why I've chosen the FX-8350. Currently, I have the FX-6300 and it does perfectly fine when not recording, however it bottlenecks when I am recording due to the processor power necessary to Record Audio, Video and compress it all while running the game at the same time.

 

[Traciatim]

From my understanding, the motherboard doesn't support Intel cards due to it having a AM3+ socket, that's why I've chosen the FX-8350. Currently, I have the FX-6300 and it does perfectly fine when not recording, however it bottlenecks when I am recording due to the processor power necessary to Record Audio, Video and compress it all while running the game at the same time.

I was under the impression you were building a whole new machine...

The 8350 won't change it all that much, processors are pretty terrible at doing media compression. Though if you already have the motherboard and are just upgrading I doubt it makes much sense to switch over to Intel anyway... have you tried the AMD gaming DVR or NVidia's Shadowplay for recording? They essentially use the video cards specialized hardware for video playback to do the compression so that all your processor has to do is move the compressed video around and get it on to your storage. It should alleviate a huge amount of the CPU work to keep playing the game.

If you don't have a video card that supports them, you might want to start there and just get that first, since you'd see much less impact on your performance by offloading the work off of your CPU anyway. You might be happy enough to just save the cash after you try the video card recording systems.

 

[Wfs0801]

I will have to look into those programs and see if I can test them on my current GPU (R9 270) and see if I notice a performance increase before even purchasing anything. I've tried different recording programs (FRAPS, OBS, Bandicam, MSI Afterburner) and MSI Afterburner seems to give my FPS the least hit and is basically as simple as it gets when it comes to recording.

Thanks for the input, I will definitely look into AMD gaming DVR & Nvidia's Shadowplay.