looking to make an upgrade on my pc

[mjmcclain86]

My pc is about 5 years old with the exception of the power supply. Just replaced. Pc is starting to slow down. Need help determining the best upgrade options at this time as I'm starting to lag and get fps drops In games. Esp pubg

Windows 7 ultimate 64bit
Gpu Amd Radeon R9 200 series
Cpu intel(R) core i7 920 @2.67ghz
Memory 16384 240 pin ddr4
Mobo Intel dx58so2
And a 10yr old 7200 600gb HD only 30gb free atm

Thanks for any feed back.

 

[vapour]

Can you explain the slow down part?
I think 10 year HDD could be the culprit, get a 250 gb ssd and a new HDD.
Clean install of OS and dust cleaning pc will help too.
For real upgrade, Coffee lake I3/I5 or Ryzen 3/5 is best choice atm, what budget do you have?

 

[Ethan Murphy]

The HDD is certainly the issue here. While the low frequency (2.67) on your CPU could be a factor in game performance, I highly doubt that is the issue. I would highly recommend a Samsung SSD and a fresh install of Windows. If you go this route, look into setting up a SSD properly. Moving your Downloads, Music, Videos, etc. folders to the HDD is a good start as well as disabling the pagefile and hibernation file. You should never allow your OS drive to get as low as yours is currently. It wouldn't hurt to invest in a larger HDD either, as you seem to need it haha.

 

[mjmcclain86]

Can you explain the slow down part?
I think 10 year HDD could be the culprit, get a 250 gb ssd and a new HDD.
Clean install of OS and dust cleaning pc will help too.
For real upgrade, Coffee lake I3/I5 or Ryzen 3/5 is best choice atm, what budget do you have?

As far as slowing down, every application takes like 3 to 4x longer to open and load. Everything is about 3 yrs old and until this past year I didn't have really have any load in issues. But even on low graphics on everything game rates are lagging behind. I can't get into a firefight in pubg with lagging. Loading into any city in WOW legs badly. I'm guessing my rig is just getting out dated...?

 

[vapour]

that I7 is still very capable for WOW, get an SSD for sure. Please let us know how it goes. Samsung/Crucial are the best brands imo.

 

[Ethan Murphy]

Would you also mind sharing the PSU you bought? Although unlikely, it is possible that your GPU is not getting the necessary power it needs if your new PSU is too weak. As an owner of an R9 290x I know just how power hungry these damn cards are. If the issue occurred before the new PSU than disregard this.

 

[vapour]

Would you also mind sharing the PSU you bought? Although unlikely, it is possible that your GPU is not getting the necessary power it needs if your new PSU is too weak. As an owner of an R9 290x I know just how power hungry these damn cards are. If the issue occurred before the new PSU than disregard this.

psu does not affect fps.

 

[Ethan Murphy]

psu does not affect fps.

A PSU not supplying sufficient power to the GPU can absolutely lower your FPS. The R9 200 series are incredibly power hungry, so it would be easy to make that mistake.

 

[mjmcclain86]

My current psu is evga supernova 850watt g3 gold power

 

[vapour]

psu does not affect fps.

A PSU not supplying sufficient power to the GPU can absolutely lower your FPS. The R9 200 series are incredibly power hungry, so it would be easy to make that mistake.

If psu can not provide enough power, it will shut down.

 

[geofelt]

Your dx58so2 motherboard does not support DDR4, you must mean DDR3.

A I7-920 has 8 threads and a passmark rating of 4943 and a single thread rating of 1165.
The single thread rating is particularly important in games.
I suspect that is where your limitation lies.

What R9-2xx graphics card do you have?

Here is my canned approach to this perennial question:

Some games are graphics limited like fast action shooters.
Others are cpu core speed limited like strategy, sims, and mmo.
Multiplayer tends to like many threads.

You need to find out which.
------------------------------------------------------------
To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You should also experiment with removing one or more cores/threads. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of threads to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many threads.
If you see little difference, your game does not need all the threads you have.



It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system,
and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
-------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Ethan Murphy]

If psu can not provide enough power, it will shut down.

False. A strained PSU can keep a system running without supplying sufficient power. I ran a CX550 that did exactly that with my 290x. However it is irrelevant, as his power supply is more than capable for his configuration. The issue lies on HDD performance.