Intel I5-3570 still good?

badwolf713

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Apr 20, 2017
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I recently purchased a PC from a friend for 400$ and it has this cpu in it. I definitely want to upgrade the ram to 16gb and I'm going to get a new graphics card but do I need to upgrade the 3570? If I have to replace the mobo then I'm also going to get ddr4 ram instead of ddr3. Here is my parts list.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/tDpjCy

Any comments would be appreciated.

Also I'm not 100% on the PSU but I think thats what he said was in there.
 
That Ivy Bridge era PC is still quite viable as a gamer with the addition of a faster single gfx card. The i5-3570 is capable of handling almost any single-GPU gfx card on the market with little to no bottleneck at 1440p or less resolutions. Tom's Hdwr still ranks the i5-3570 in the top tier for gaming CPUs: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

The dual GTX 660 should be pretty fast, but the 2GB of VRAM is the main problem today. You have a decent machine there for upgrading. The PSU is top of the line and more watts than needed in most cases.

Besides, the i5-3xxx line of processors cannot use DDR4 RAM. So changing the board alone will do no good. Unless you want to spend another $400 on CPU/board/RAM, I would just add a single faster 8GB card and have fun.
 


yea I understand that it doesn't support ddr4 which is why I would only do it if I have to upgrade the processor and mobo. it runs the witcher 3 on ultra (can get a little choppy at times haven't done actual fps numbers on it) but that is a couple years old still. I have money to upgrade since he made me such a good deal on this so I'm probably gonna throw a 1060 6gb in there and another 8gb of ram if the processor is still good. i haven't had much time with it as I just got it and still need and desk and what not to put it on but my friends all upgraded to pc recently and the biggest thing they are playing right now is battlegrounds.
 
The GTX 1060 6GB would be an excellent choice. And 16GB RAM will help as well. The CPU is still strong enough to do that card and more. The GTX 1070 is another great choice if you want to spend more. But the GTX 1060 will max out those type of games at 1080p easily. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVM0Nb5crMM
(Witcher 3 begins around 11:00)
Granted, this is with a newer i7 processor. But I doubt you'll see much difference in framerates.
 

Awesome I really appreciate the input. Another concern I have is if I need to pull off the cooler and reapply the thermal paste? This PC is about 5 years old and when he first brought it over I played Witcher 3 on ultra for about an hour and the air coming out of the case was still ice cold but other than that I haven't ran any other tests to seen what the temps are on the CPU.
 
If you haven't abused the system in any way that would cause the thermal paste to deteriorate (like OC'ing with the stock cooler), it should still be fine. Easy way to check is to max out the CPU with a demanding game and check the core temp. If it stays below 64.7C, it is still fine. Max temp for that CPU (the point where it throttles) is 105C.