Help me with a CPU. I don't know much about PC building and was taken avantadge of by craigslist PC ad.

[resinmage]

I had like 300$ and some guy on craigslist put this CPU together with a new MB and my old video card (280x) by MSi. Took me to fry's and bought a case and PSU and cooler.

He put the 7850 k kaveri cpu with my video card and I want to know if it is possible to get a better cpu to let my GPU run at top performance.

So My 280x card wont run Fallout 4 on high settings and has low fps below 30 in places.


Is there a chance I can get a better cpu and still use the same MB etc?

Operating System
Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
CPU
AMD A10-7850K48 °C
Kaveri 28nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 930MHz (10-11-10-30)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. A58M-A/USB3 (FM2+ )33 °C
Graphics
SHARP HDMI (1920x1080@60Hz)
3072MB ATI AMD Radeon R9 200 Series (MSI)33 °C
Storage
465GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-75V0A0 (SATA)40 °C
119GB MTFDBAK128MAG-1G1 (SSD)
Optical Drives
No optical disk drives detected
Audio
AMD High Definition Audio Device

 

[cdabc123]

honestly your current cpu isnt very bad. and a 280x isnt really old and is still a great card. if you got all that for 300 you got a good deal. try overclocking the cpu and gpu if you need more performance. and run passmark to see if anything is acting strange.

 

[resinmage]

honestly your current cpu isnt very bad. and a 280x isnt really old and is still a great card. if you got all that for 300 you got a good deal. try overclocking the cpu and gpu if you need more performance. and run passmark to see if anything is acting strange.

But people from here have said that matching that cpu with that gpu is BAD. It bottlenecks the card and is not able to work as good as possible?

 

[Ecky]

Your CPU is not high-end, but it's not terrible either. It performs around what you'd expect from a CPU that costs in the area of $80. It might've cost a bit more because it includes an integrated GPU that you're not using.

A faster and more expensive CPU would allow more frames in some games, but you can find out if your CPU is holding you back by lowering your resolution. If your framerate goes up, your CPU is not the limiting factor.

 

[resinmage]

Your CPU is not high-end, but it's not terrible either. It performs around what you'd expect from a CPU that costs in the area of $80. It might've cost a bit more because it includes an integrated GPU that you're not using.

A faster and more expensive CPU would allow more frames in some games, but you can find out if your CPU is holding you back by lowering your resolution. If your framerate goes up, your CPU is not the limiting factor.

Are most cpu's compatible with my Motherboard? If I went to fry's Electronics store and bought a better CPU and some thermal paste. I could look on youtube how to install a cpu and just do it myself at home and have my R9 280x card work better?

 

[Ecky]

No. Your motherboard has socket FM2+, which only supports socket FM2+ CPUs, none of which are any faster than the one you have, so the CPU you purchased is likely either slower, or does not fit. If you want a faster CPU, you will need to replace your motherboard too.

 

[resinmage]

No. Your motherboard has socket FM2+, which only supports socket FM2+ CPUs, none of which are any faster than the one you have, so the CPU you purchased is likely either slower, or does not fit. If you want a faster CPU, you will need to replace your motherboard too. [/quotems

Thanks