Gaming upgrade advice?

[LeRock]

Hello all,

Currently have a entry level gaming PC, can play BF4 at high at a very comfortable frame rate, and can play BF1 at medium settings although it's a better gaming experience at low. I'd like to upgrade this PC for better performance, what should I upgrade first?

Specs:
Intel i3-7100
MSI GT 1030
ASUS H110M-R (1151 LGA)
8GB DDR4 RAM in single channel 2400MHz

So what should I upgrade in order to get either better frame rate or be able to reach higher graphical settings?

Thank you.

 

[n9neman]

Honestly, anything you upgrade would help some. Me personally, I would throw a better processor in there first, and having more RAM wouldn't hurt either.

 

[feelinfroggy777]

I would go for a new GPU. A 1050ti will be a significant upgrade from the 1030. Your CPU will keep you behind in some games such as BF1. BF1 is a CPU intensive game and a i5 6600k is the minimum requirement. But with your board I would not go with the 7600k because you cant over clock it. I would recommend the 7500 for BF1.

But start with the 1050ti and see if your happy with the improvement.

 

[Shektron]

Firstly a better CPU, then the second priority would be graphics card. 8 GB RAM is fine for now, considering that your system is budget-oriented. 16 GB isn't a necessity, so you can skip it for now, though you can't avoid it for too long now.

Firstly, a better CPU would be ideal. Make sure to upgrade the BIOS on your motherboard, that way it'll run 7th gen processors as well. Get a 7th gen i5 or i7 if you can, but don't get an overclockable one.

If you can afford it, a simultaneous(or future) upgrade to a GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti would also help you run games much better. If you can afford it, a GTX 1060 6 GB is ideal for 1080p, but that might not be very budget-friendly (especially right now). A 1050 Ti-equivalent RX 570 is also an option, though a bit more expensive(but it is also slightly faster than the 1050 Ti).

Both upgrades combined(i5 7600 and GTX 1050 Ti) should get you good FPS at medium details, but since you seem to be tolerant to lower FPS as well, high or even very high is also a possibility with the 1050 Ti.

 

[constantine_99]

i personally think getting a GPU first would be a much viable choice
although bottleneck bound to happen on CPU intensive games bcz of the i3, he will still see some performance gains
1050 ti is the only viable choice, for now, unless the miners on your country already starting to unload their GPU (which means cheap GPU incoming)

8 GB is enough, for now at least

CPU should be the 2nd upgrade, since ur H110 can already utilize the i3 7100, im pretty sure the BIOS is flashed already, u should be fine changing into an i5 or even get a i7 (the i7 is very helpful on CPU intensive games, but on normal games, u won't see any significant difference)

 

[Hardware Brad]

Hello all,

Currently have a entry level gaming PC, can play BF4 at high at a very comfortable frame rate, and can play BF1 at medium settings although it's a better gaming experience at low. I'd like to upgrade this PC for better performance, what should I upgrade first?

Specs:
Intel i3-7100
MSI GT 1030
ASUS H110M-R (1151 LGA)
8GB DDR4 RAM in single channel 2400MHz

So what should I upgrade in order to get either better frame rate or be able to reach higher graphical settings?

Thank you.

Absolutely upgrade the GPU first. Honestly a Pentium G4560, which is a lower end CPU than the one you have, does not bottleneck a 1050ti in most cases. You will be MUCH happier going with a gtx 1050ti, which is a much better and much cheaper upgrade than upgrading your CPU. You may even be able to go as high as a GTX 1060, however it may get bottlenecked in some cases, not all, depending on the game.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

i'd agree with the guys on the GPU first. It will garner the biggest improvement for pure FPS. Then CPU/RAM. The I5 7500 would be a good match with a 1050ti/1060 or something similar. Getting a new CPU first will not yield much of an improvement with your lowly GT1030 in there.

On the ram though, you might be better of buying a 16gb (2x8) matched kit. Otherwise you may have probs configuring two different dimms. Even if they are the same manufacturer, and same dimm, the matched sets are proven to work together flawlessly.

the path i'd follow would be :
1. GPU
2.Ram
3.CPU

2/3 could be interchangeable though.

 

[LeRock]

I am not quite sure how to quote all of you at once. But I've read all the replies, and to start with, I am very grateful for the replies. Thanks.

So the jist of it is, the current hardware isn't particularly good, and I should probably upgrade the CPU & GPU. I was looking at a GTX 1050ti earlier as the replacement, and I'll probably go through with that.

Also one of the other topics raised on here was a proccessor, in which the I5-7500 was mentioned, that will be upgrade no.2 most likely. It looks good. I have one question though, as it is a different CPU, someone mentioned I might have to update the BIOS on the motherboard - I'm not that clever with PC's so, why would I need to update the BIOS? Does the cpu have a different coding or something?

feelinfroggy & Constantine- Thanks for the advice, I will probably follow through with what you've stated.
Brad- Depending on how much money I have, it will either be the 1060/1050ti, thanks.
Keith- Regarding RAM, I will probably just buy a set of 2x8 sticks of RAM at a later date, as you say, it might be difficult to try and find the same brand/model as what I currently have installed.

Thanks all.

 

[Hardware Brad]

I am not quite sure how to quote all of you at once. But I've read all the replies, and to start with, I am very grateful for the replies. Thanks.

So the jist of it is, the current hardware isn't particularly good, and I should probably upgrade the CPU & GPU. I was looking at a GTX 1050ti earlier as the replacement, and I'll probably go through with that.

Also one of the other topics raised on here was a proccessor, in which the I5-7500 was mentioned, that will be upgrade no.2 most likely. It looks good. I have one question though, as it is a different CPU, someone mentioned I might have to update the BIOS on the motherboard - I'm not that clever with PC's so, why would I need to update the BIOS? Does the cpu have a different coding or something?

feelinfroggy & Constantine- Thanks for the advice, I will probably follow through with what you've stated.
Brad- Depending on how much money I have, it will either be the 1060/1050ti, thanks.
Keith- Regarding RAM, I will probably just buy a set of 2x8 sticks of RAM at a later date, as you say, it might be difficult to try and find the same brand/model as what I currently have installed.

Thanks all.

Since upgrading from the i3-7100 to the i5-7500, you will not need to update the BIOS because they are processors of the same generation. I also recommend
1: GPU - this will make the biggest initial difference
2: CPU - this may or may not make a difference, depending on what games you play. Some games are more CPU intensive. If you don't play any CPU intensive games, you may only notice a couple FPS improvement going from an i3 to an i5.
3: RAM - 8GB is typically plenty. I game at 4k max settings with a 1080ti, and doubt that I use more than 8gb of RAM, I will have to double check to see an exact amount. The thing with RAM is, having more does not give you performance increases. Going from 32GB to 128GB would not make a difference at all in gaming. The issue is not having enough of it drastically kills performance. It never hurts to have extra, but why waste money if you don't need it.

 

[LeRock]

I am not quite sure how to quote all of you at once. But I've read all the replies, and to start with, I am very grateful for the replies. Thanks.

So the jist of it is, the current hardware isn't particularly good, and I should probably upgrade the CPU & GPU. I was looking at a GTX 1050ti earlier as the replacement, and I'll probably go through with that.

Also one of the other topics raised on here was a proccessor, in which the I5-7500 was mentioned, that will be upgrade no.2 most likely. It looks good. I have one question though, as it is a different CPU, someone mentioned I might have to update the BIOS on the motherboard - I'm not that clever with PC's so, why would I need to update the BIOS? Does the cpu have a different coding or something?

feelinfroggy & Constantine- Thanks for the advice, I will probably follow through with what you've stated.
Brad- Depending on how much money I have, it will either be the 1060/1050ti, thanks.
Keith- Regarding RAM, I will probably just buy a set of 2x8 sticks of RAM at a later date, as you say, it might be difficult to try and find the same brand/model as what I currently have installed.

Thanks all.

Since upgrading from the i3-7100 to the i5-7500, you will not need to update the BIOS because they are processors of the same generation. I also recommend
1: GPU - this will make the biggest initial difference
2: CPU - this may or may not make a difference, depending on what games you play. Some games are more CPU intensive. If you don't play any CPU intensive games, you may only notice a couple FPS improvement going from an i3 to an i5.
3: RAM - 8GB is typically plenty. I game at 4k max settings with a 1080ti, and doubt that I use more than 8gb of RAM, I will have to double check to see an exact amount. The thing with RAM is, having more does not give you performance increases. Going from 32GB to 128GB would not make a difference at all in gaming. The issue is not having enough of it drastically kills performance. It never hurts to have extra, but why waste money if you don't need it.

Ah okay, thanks for clearing that up. GPU will be the first thing I go for, then CPU.

Yeah I get you about the RAM, its more about just being safe (16GB), it doesn't enhance the framerate or anything, though if the game uses more RAM then what you have, then the game freezes until the RAM can catch up to where its meant to be - something like that anyways

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I am not quite sure how to quote all of you at once. But I've read all the replies, and to start with, I am very grateful for the replies. Thanks.

So the jist of it is, the current hardware isn't particularly good, and I should probably upgrade the CPU & GPU. I was looking at a GTX 1050ti earlier as the replacement, and I'll probably go through with that.

Also one of the other topics raised on here was a proccessor, in which the I5-7500 was mentioned, that will be upgrade no.2 most likely. It looks good. I have one question though, as it is a different CPU, someone mentioned I might have to update the BIOS on the motherboard - I'm not that clever with PC's so, why would I need to update the BIOS? Does the cpu have a different coding or something?

feelinfroggy & Constantine- Thanks for the advice, I will probably follow through with what you've stated.
Brad- Depending on how much money I have, it will either be the 1060/1050ti, thanks.
Keith- Regarding RAM, I will probably just buy a set of 2x8 sticks of RAM at a later date, as you say, it might be difficult to try and find the same brand/model as what I currently have installed.

Thanks all.

Since upgrading from the i3-7100 to the i5-7500, you will not need to update the BIOS because they are processors of the same generation. I also recommend
1: GPU - this will make the biggest initial difference
2: CPU - this may or may not make a difference, depending on what games you play. Some games are more CPU intensive. If you don't play any CPU intensive games, you may only notice a couple FPS improvement going from an i3 to an i5.
3: RAM - 8GB is typically plenty. I game at 4k max settings with a 1080ti, and doubt that I use more than 8gb of RAM, I will have to double check to see an exact amount. The thing with RAM is, having more does not give you performance increases. Going from 32GB to 128GB would not make a difference at all in gaming. The issue is not having enough of it drastically kills performance. It never hurts to have extra, but why waste money if you don't need it.

Ah okay, thanks for clearing that up. GPU will be the first thing I go for, then CPU.

Yeah I get you about the RAM, its more about just being safe (16GB), it doesn't enhance the framerate or anything, though if the game uses more RAM then what you have, then the game freezes until the RAM can catch up to where its meant to be - something like that anyways

Thanks for the advice.

8gb used to be he sweetspot for gaming. As the demands for games have, and will continue to become greater, having 16gb makes sense. At some point your gonna run out of system ram, and start using the swapfile. This can have a dramatic effect on gaming, causing sever stuttering in some cases.

 

[LeRock]

One extra question for y'all, which 1050ti should I go for, I imagine the EVGA one - isn't it slightly faster. And gets power straight from the motherboard I think.

Evga?

 

[Hardware Brad]

One extra question for y'all, which 1050ti should I go for, I imagine the EVGA one - isn't it slightly faster. And gets power straight from the motherboard I think.

Evga?

Its all user preference. I personally like EVGA. There are other people out there that will tell you MSI, or Gigabyte, Asus, etc... Sure there are some that advertise slightly higher clock speeds, but at the end of the day, we are talking about a couple FPS. They are all comparable with each other.

Also all video cards draw some power from the motherboard directly (up to 75w), any additional power after that requires a 6pin or more from the power supply. I'm 99% sure that the 1050ti requires a 6pin. I know that the 1050 does not.

 

[LeRock]

One extra question for y'all, which 1050ti should I go for, I imagine the EVGA one - isn't it slightly faster. And gets power straight from the motherboard I think.

Evga?

Its all user preference. I personally like EVGA. There are other people out there that will tell you MSI, or Gigabyte, Asus, etc... Sure there are some that advertise slightly higher clock speeds, but at the end of the day, we are talking about a couple FPS. They are all comparable with each other.

Also all video cards draw some power from the motherboard directly (up to 75w), any additional power after that requires a 6pin or more from the power supply. I'm 99% sure that the 1050ti requires a 6pin. I know that the 1050 does not.

Ah okay, fair enough. Not really a fan of any brand, so will just go with the EVGA. There's several 1050ti's from EVGA the SSC model is the only one to use more than 75w - infact it uses a 6pin, and at 120w. I'd just go for one of the normal ones, at 75w. I'm pretty sure my PSU has a 6+2 pin adapter, so that should cover both 6 pin and 8pin GPUs. Though I'm not sure for definate. I can't find the manufacturers website, I think it's made by 'beQuiet'.