Question Is it worth going from a i3 to a i5?

kyrith

Honorable
Nov 13, 2017
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10,510
Hey guys, My rig is turning 200yrs today and i have absolutely no money or intention to buy a completely new rig(which is what i should do). Instead, i'm thinking of just buying something a little better so it doesn't explode when i try to run a new game... Currently I have a i3 4130t, 12gb ram, gtx 750ti an Asrock H81m-hg4... Since my rig is pretty outdated and there's not much i can do, i was thinking that updating my processor is going to give me a boost both while gaming and while browsing internet and stuff... So, what do you guys think? Is it worth going for an i5-4690k?
 
Nov 26, 2019
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It can be, yes. Depends on why you want to upgrade.

I'm upgrading from an i3-8100 to an i5-9400f in my budget gaming machine. The i3-8100 I can sell on ebay for $90-$100 and I can pick up an i5-9400f at microcenter for $145, making a huge upgrade for me for ~$50.

It's paired with a 1050Ti though, not a 750. Oof :p
 
What drive(s) do you have?
First thing you should do is find out where you have resource contention. It could be CPU. It could be GPU. It could be drive IOPS. It's going to depend on the software and games that you run. Heck, it could even be too many background apps or OS errors.
Have you done any logging of CPU, GPU, memory, drive usage when your system slows down? GPU-Z would be a good place to start.

I'm also curious how you got to 12GBs of RAM. Your board is a dual channel board. Memory needs to be installed in pairs for it to work optimally. if you have 2x4GBs and then a single 4GB stick, your system will be running in single channel mode, not dual channel.
 

kyrith

Honorable
Nov 13, 2017
14
0
10,510
First thing you should do is find out where you have resource contention.
I was doing some research this morning, i think that what's really holding me back the most is my HDD and maybe my GPU, I don't know... 2gb is almost nothing these days.

I'm also curious how you got to 12GBs of RAM.

It's not Dual-Channel, I've read somewhere that, because of my old ass rig, Dual-Channel wouldn't make much of a difference, so i bought a 8gb stick and paired with my 4gb.
 
I was doing some research this morning, i think that what's really holding me back the most is my HDD and maybe my GPU, I don't know... 2gb is almost nothing these days.
That could very well be the case. Your overall computer performance is only going to be as fast as its slowest component. I'm guessing SSDs are pricey in Brazil.

It's not Dual-Channel, I've read somewhere that, because of my old ass rig, Dual-Channel wouldn't make much of a difference, so i bought a 8gb stick and paired with my 4gb.
Got it.
You'll see an average of 4-7% increase in memory performance if you went to dual channel. If you are doing heavy simulations or copy tasks the gain would be more substantial. However, when running matching sticks of RAM, motherboards usually run at a faster Mhz speed and with tighter timings as well. When dual channel boards drop down into single channel mode it's usually at one of the slower default speeds/timings.
 
For instance, this i5 would be worth almost a whole month's salary!
Unless this is a figure of speech (your 200 year old PC) no single component is worth an entire month's salary. Heck I'd have to be a pretty avid gamer to even spend a whole month's salary on an entire rig (tower, monitor, m&kb, etc).

Your CPU certainly isn't high end, but I'd wager that your GPU is probably the bigger performance bottleneck for gaming.
 

kyrith

Honorable
Nov 13, 2017
14
0
10,510
Unless this is a figure of speech (your 200 year old PC) no single component is worth an entire month's salary.
The "200 year old PC" was a figure of speech, but the part where an i5 is worth an entire month's salary is a sad truth.

Your CPU certainly isn't high end, but I'd wager that your GPU is probably the bigger performance bottleneck for gaming.

I suppose i could go for an 4gb RX 570, or maybe an 1050ti, i think i'm going to begin by switching my hdd or at least buying an ssd to see how it works...
 

kyrith

Honorable
Nov 13, 2017
14
0
10,510
That could very well be the case. Your overall computer performance is only going to be as fast as its slowest component. I'm guessing SSDs are pricey in Brazil.
For the last month or so i'm feeling that the os is running a little bit like something is holding it back, i mean when browsing the internet not even gaming, that's probably my hdd, most of the time when i open task manager it shows that disk usage it's 100%...
In case you wanna take a look this is my hdd Western Digital WDC WD5000AVVS-63M8B0.
A 128gb ssd is not that expensive i think i'm going to follow your direction and buy one to see how it works... Doubt it will be worse with it.