Need a VERY solid upgrade for rig, with as little spent as possible

[leolego]

CAUTION, wall of text, but ALL help is VERY appreciated and I just need input. That being said..

Friends, I have a dilemma, about 3ish years ago I came here and got your help on building a gaming rig on a low low budget and it has served VERY well for 3 years and only cost me about $560. Ran everything I wanted maxed out. But as most of you know, about 3 years can go by and things can and WILL change in gaming a lot.

Here is what I'm running currently:
i3-2100 (dual core 3.1ghz) which was surprisingly more powerful than I had hoped.
EVGA GTX 750TI FTW (overclocked a little bit) which was an upgrade from an ol' Gigabyte 6850 I had for two years, I've only had this newer card less than a year. (I think it was a mistake, but feel free to advise)
Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600
Antec BP550w 80 plus

Here is my problem, even though I run only at 1366x768 (I don't fidget about high res) I can juuuust barely get ultra settings at 20-30 fps on current gen games such as GTA V (okay it isn't that new but its demanding enough). I plan on getting upcoming games such as The Division or Ghost Recon Wildlands, and knowing Ubisoft's optimization (they don't) I will need a significant upgrade. Buuuut. I am a student currently and while I've had jobs (I'm a photographer/videographer) part time I have no consistent income. So I can't spend a lot. I was hoping at max possibly $400-ish upgrade would suffice for the next few years. What sucks horribly is that Intel thinks its just GENIUS to change 1-5 pins on a CPU every year (while AMD has used the same one for years) and so unless there is a SOLID 1155 upgrade I'll have to buy a new mobo as well and that puts me back another 100+ (also given current gen would be a little more money).

What direction should I go? Is my CPU bottlenecking? Should I stick with 1155 and try my luck with an i7-2600k or something? A GTX 970 for a new card? (overkill at my res but it would be future proof)

In advance, thank you for reading and thank you for any help.

 

[BadActor]

A GTX 970 wouldn't be bottlenecked by the 2600k, so that's a viable option. Find a used one on EBAY from someone that's already upgraded.

 

[leolego]

A GTX 970 wouldn't be bottlenecked by the 2600k, so that's a viable option. Find a used one on EBAY from someone that's already upgraded.

Do you think the i7-2600k will stay very usable for a few years or do you recommend me saving the extra $100+ for a new mobo and getting current gen?

 

[BadActor]

I would think you could get a couple of more years from a 2600K. They are still more powerful than most AMD's. Find a cheap one, get the 970, and in the future you can upgrade the CPU and mobo and move the 970 over.

 

[leolego]

I would think you could get a couple of more years from a 2600K. They are still more powerful than most AMD's. Find a cheap one, get the 970, and in the future you can upgrade the CPU and mobo and move the 970 over.

So I'm assuming you think the 970 should be solid for a while?

And the only reason I'm worried is because if the i7-2600k is okay for a few years then I'll be fine, but if not I'd rather not buy a used 3 year old $200 processor on ebay if it would be more wise to buy current gen at more expense. But if its worth it I'll do that.

 

[Outlander_04]

Intels processors havent improved much for th last few generations . A 2600K is a still a very competitive cpu

 

[BadActor]

I think you'll find one much cheaper than that if you're patient. If the best you could do for that CPU was $200.00, I would go ahead and use a new CPU and motherboard. The 970 will no doubt serve you for a few years. You could get a newer CPU and motherboard for about $200.00 and reuse your RAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $219.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-06 22:15 EST-0500

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

You might also look at a used 2500k quad. Cpus have evolved but not that much. I wonder if the op were to only upgrade his card and wait till next fall when zen comes out. If nothing else maybe prices will drop.

Looks like the cheapest i7 2600k was 200 but it now, i5 2500k was about 170. Maybe you could pick up a locked i5 2400 or something cheaper?

 

[leolego]

You might also look at a used 2500k quad. Cpus have evolved but not that much. I wonder if the op were to only upgrade his card and wait till next fall when zen comes out. If nothing else maybe prices will drop.

Looks like the cheapest i7 2600k was 200 but it now, i5 2500k was about 170. Maybe you could pick up a locked i5 2400 or something cheaper?

I'm wondering if perhaps my graphics card isn't the main problem (I mean its only 1366x768 so I don't know) and maybe its the processor. When I check my numbers while playing GTA V (according to PC meter) its using over 90+% of the CPUs "horsepower" so to speak almost at all times (the graph shows near flatline at the top of the meter)

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

You know, 750ti should be able to push 1080p. That cpu is old but should be ok. If you are seeing that much cpu usage, I wonder if what's actually happening is if you are experiencing a bottleneck. In other words at that low of a resolution, your video card may be feeding the cpu frames faster than it can handle them, hence the frame rate drop, and also why you probably did better with the older card.

Here's a test. Do you have a 1080p tv set? Plug into that for a little while and fire up a game, but turn it up to 1920x1080. If it's smoother, then you know, plus the cpu usage should drop, because them you'd be pushing the video card harder and so it would not be able to overwhelm your cpu. In which case upgrade your monitor and call it a day, or still grab an i5 or i7 that fits your board, sell off the i3, then you could save for a better board and chip, but if you bought a cpu for say 180 but sold your old one for 80 or 90. The upgrade would not sting as bad.

 

[MrNamegame]

You might also look at a used 2500k quad. Cpus have evolved but not that much. I wonder if the op were to only upgrade his card and wait till next fall when zen comes out. If nothing else maybe prices will drop.

Looks like the cheapest i7 2600k was 200 but it now, i5 2500k was about 170. Maybe you could pick up a locked i5 2400 or something cheaper?

I'm wondering if perhaps my graphics card isn't the main problem (I mean its only 1366x768 so I don't know) and maybe its the processor. When I check my numbers while playing GTA V (according to PC meter) its using over 90+% of the CPUs "horsepower" so to speak almost at all times (the graph shows near flatline at the top of the meter)

Since you are running a resolution as low as 1366x768, a graphics card upgrade wouldn't do anything for you seeing as the CPU is going in guns blazing and still poorly performing. I currently have a 2600K 2nd Gen overclocked to it's maximum 4.4 ghz and it has a spot just underneath the Xeon leaderboard entries in Cinebench R15. While I do have a stronger platform than your machine overall, at the same time there's no doubt that a stock 2600K alone would make night and day an understatement, especially with how hard that poor i3 is working.

 

[leolego]

You know, 750ti should be able to push 1080p. That cpu is old but should be ok. If you are seeing that much cpu usage, I wonder if what's actually happening is if you are experiencing a bottleneck. In other words at that low of a resolution, your video card may be feeding the cpu frames faster than it can handle them, hence the frame rate drop, and also why you probably did better with the older card.

Here's a test. Do you have a 1080p tv set? Plug into that for a little while and fire up a game, but turn it up to 1920x1080. If it's smoother, then you know, plus the cpu usage should drop, because them you'd be pushing the video card harder and so it would not be able to overwhelm your cpu. In which case upgrade your monitor and call it a day, or still grab an i5 or i7 that fits your board, sell off the i3, then you could save for a better board and chip, but if you bought a cpu for say 180 but sold your old one for 80 or 90. The upgrade would not sting as bad.

Well I actually did worse with the old card, (I phrased what I said weirdly sorry about that) but I thought I had made a mistake with the new card because it had performed "okay" for less than a year and now it seems like a waste. I can definitely try this though.

 

[leolego]

You might also look at a used 2500k quad. Cpus have evolved but not that much. I wonder if the op were to only upgrade his card and wait till next fall when zen comes out. If nothing else maybe prices will drop.

Looks like the cheapest i7 2600k was 200 but it now, i5 2500k was about 170. Maybe you could pick up a locked i5 2400 or something cheaper?

I'm wondering if perhaps my graphics card isn't the main problem (I mean its only 1366x768 so I don't know) and maybe its the processor. When I check my numbers while playing GTA V (according to PC meter) its using over 90+% of the CPUs "horsepower" so to speak almost at all times (the graph shows near flatline at the top of the meter)

Since you are running a resolution as low as 1366x768, a graphics card upgrade wouldn't do anything for you seeing as the CPU is going in guns blazing and still poorly performing. I currently have a 2600K 2nd Gen overclocked to it's maximum 4.4 ghz and it has a spot just underneath the Xeon leaderboard entries in Cinebench R15. While I do have a stronger platform than your machine overall, at the same time there's no doubt that a stock 2600K alone would make night and day an understatement, especially with how hard that poor i3 is working.

So in your opinion a new processor could make all the difference if perhaps the i3 is causing the issue, and a 2600k scores that well at 3 years old huh? hmm, what is the 3rd gen, 4th gen and 5th gen equivalent of the 2600k (or 2500k, even)? I'm wondering if I saved maybe just a little more I could get a newer generation (although that may be of little benefit.)

 

[leolego]

So I have new insight (or is it the opposite?). A guy running literally the exact same hardware that I'm packing in this video, with even higher settings and achieving 4-5 fps on average better than I am without any stutters. What?... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJOCRsddixc

 

[BadActor]

I wouldn't trust that video. Game Debat tested with a 4670k and even at 720p, couldn't get those kind of numbers.

http://www.game-debate.com/news/?news=16584&game=Grand%20Theft%20Auto%20V&title=GD%20Machine%20Benchmark%20Grand%20Theft%20Auto%205%20GTX%20750%20Ti%20i5%204670K

It kinda looks like he hits "Restore Defaults" after he shows his settings.

 

[leolego]

I wouldn't trust that video. Game Debat tested with a 4670k and even at 720p, couldn't get those kind of numbers.

http://www.game-debate.com/news/?news=16584&game=Grand%20Theft%20Auto%20V&title=GD%20Machine%20Benchmark%20Grand%20Theft%20Auto%205%20GTX%20750%20Ti%20i5%204670K

It kinda looks like he hits "Restore Defaults" after he shows his settings.

So would my best possible option be to upgrade both?

 

[BadActor]

For getting more FPS at high settings, yes. For getting more FPS and doing it cheaply, a used 100 dollar processor. You might find this is all you need with the 750Ti to get acceptable frame rates at 768p. A newer quad core and a 970 average close to 60 FPS at high settings and 1080p.

 

[MrNamegame]

I wouldn't trust that video. Game Debat tested with a 4670k and even at 720p, couldn't get those kind of numbers.

http://www.game-debate.com/news/?news=16584&game=Grand%20Theft%20Auto%20V&title=GD%20Machine%20Benchmark%20Grand%20Theft%20Auto%205%20GTX%20750%20Ti%20i5%204670K

It kinda looks like he hits "Restore Defaults" after he shows his settings.

So would my best possible option be to upgrade both?

Well, the only reason I've been able to make my old 2600K do such a thing is because I spent such a long time optimizing and fine tuning it all the time. However, even so a low-end quad core i5 would be a large wake up call on it's own for that machine...I'm still finding used and new 2600K CPUS on Ebay, Amazon, etc. ranging from just under $450 to almost $600 on average. (A non-K Core i7 2600 will still ask you for around $265.) Besides, mine uses specifically a 1150 socket as opposed to the 1155 socket that your machine uses. (Yes, there's a small difference in pins and firmware.)

Anyways, I have gone looking around for you for a bit and found that some websites will sell an i5 3570K for just below $250. For example, Ebay has some that range between $250 and $370 dollars right now depending on the seller and condition of the CPU. (There are some that are more expensive, but personally I wouldn't spend more than $370 on these things except the ones that come bundled with a motherboard, which there seem to also be many of.)

 

[kwa-e]

I would think you could get a couple of more years from a 2600K. They are still more powerful than most AMD's. Find a cheap one, get the 970, and in the future you can upgrade the CPU and mobo and move the 970 over.

So I'm assuming you think the 970 should be solid for a while?

And the only reason I'm worried is because if the i7-2600k is okay for a few years then I'll be fine, but if not I'd rather not buy a used 3 year old $200 processor on ebay if it would be more wise to buy current gen at more expense. But if its worth it I'll do that.

Wouldn't worry much, It's still a solid CPU and for $200 it's much better than any I5 you can get today. With that you have an extra 200USD to spend on a graphics card and that's enough for a 380 or a 960 which are both very capable cards.

(You might even find a working 3770K at $200 if you look hard enough.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

I can agree. It's quite interesting, I was watching YouTube video recently abs they did a gaming benchmark of the 2500k vs the i3 6300. For the most part they showed the newer i3 was slightly faster, but the 2500k was still doing pretty well considering it's 3 generations old now. I don't think the differences were that much, but still shows how viable it still is, especially if you would overclock it. So if you especially had the 2600k, overclock that puppy for all you can get out of it and enjoy it.

 

[leolego]

I would think you could get a couple of more years from a 2600K. They are still more powerful than most AMD's. Find a cheap one, get the 970, and in the future you can upgrade the CPU and mobo and move the 970 over.

So I'm assuming you think the 970 should be solid for a while?

And the only reason I'm worried is because if the i7-2600k is okay for a few years then I'll be fine, but if not I'd rather not buy a used 3 year old $200 processor on ebay if it would be more wise to buy current gen at more expense. But if its worth it I'll do that.

Wouldn't worry much, It's still a solid CPU and for $200 it's much better than any I5 you can get today. With that you have an extra 200USD to spend on a graphics card and that's enough for a 380 or a 960 which are both very capable cards.

(You might even find a working 3770K at $200 if you look hard enough.

Well after some more extensive research (I legit spend dozens of hours making sure I buy the right thing lol) I have found some overwhelming recommendations to get a Xeon e3-1241 v3. I didn't know of this hidden gem (although apparently a lot of people did) and it is the highest performing processor available under $300. Apparently its almost identical to an i7-4690k but it is locked and has no integrated graphics (useless to users like us anyway).

That being said, I was planning on trying to snag an i7-2600k for $200, but I can get this Xeon on ebay for only 15 dollars more. Yes that also requires a $80 H97 board (recommended for being solid but for non overclocking) and so it would be $95 over what I originally wanted to spend, but the jump in performance seems worth it for only that much more money.

Unless someone walked up to me and said "oh hey do you want an i7-2600k or i7-3770k for $120?" I think this is my best choice. And before anyone says "i7s and xeons don't really matter for just gaming, get an i5." I use Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop part time and so the xeon (or i7) would be a better choice than an i5.

So unless one of you has found some stupidly good deal on a good i7 somewhere (100-130 bucks) I think I've found the right chip.

As far as the GPU however, I am going to wait out getting an upgrade until I know how well a new processor performs with the 750ti at 768p. That will give me time to save up a little more, but I'm hoping that a new processor will make an upgrade not necessary.

What do you guys think? (I also appreciate everyone's input very much, thank you, it has been extremely helpful in figuring this out)

 

[kwa-e]

I would think you could get a couple of more years from a 2600K. They are still more powerful than most AMD's. Find a cheap one, get the 970, and in the future you can upgrade the CPU and mobo and move the 970 over.

So I'm assuming you think the 970 should be solid for a while?

And the only reason I'm worried is because if the i7-2600k is okay for a few years then I'll be fine, but if not I'd rather not buy a used 3 year old $200 processor on ebay if it would be more wise to buy current gen at more expense. But if its worth it I'll do that.

Wouldn't worry much, It's still a solid CPU and for $200 it's much better than any I5 you can get today. With that you have an extra 200USD to spend on a graphics card and that's enough for a 380 or a 960 which are both very capable cards.

(You might even find a working 3770K at $200 if you look hard enough.

Well after some more extensive research (I legit spend dozens of hours making sure I buy the right thing lol) I have found some overwhelming recommendations to get a Xeon e3-1241 v3. I didn't know of this hidden gem (although apparently a lot of people did) and it is the highest performing processor available under $300. Apparently its almost identical to an i7-4690k but it is locked and has no integrated graphics (useless to users like us anyway).

That being said, I was planning on trying to snag an i7-2600k for $200, but I can get this Xeon on ebay for only 15 dollars more. Yes that also requires a $80 H97 board (recommended for being solid but for non overclocking) and It would be $95 over what I originally spent, but the performance to me seems fair worth it for only that much more money.

Unless someone walked up to me and said "oh hey do you want an i7-2600k or i7-3770k for $120?" I think this is my best choice. And before anyone says "i7s and xeons don't really matter for just gaming, get an i5." I use Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop part time and so the xeon (or i7) would be a better choice than an i5.

So unless one of you has found some stupidly good deal on a good i7 somewhere (100-130 bucks) I think I've found the right chip.

As far as the GPU however, I am going to wait out getting an upgrade until I know how well a new processor performs with the 750ti at 768p. That will give me time to save up a little more, but I'm hoping that a new processor will make an upgrade not necessary.

What do you guys think? (I also appreciate everyone's input very much, thank you, it has been extremely helpful in figuring this out)

Only a 7% diifference between the Haswell Xeon e3 and the 2600K though (based on user benchmarks), Personally don't think spending extra for that small an increase isn't worth the money

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

And the 2600k can be overclocked vs the locked cpu can't. So something to think on.

 

[leolego]

I would think you could get a couple of more years from a 2600K. They are still more powerful than most AMD's. Find a cheap one, get the 970, and in the future you can upgrade the CPU and mobo and move the 970 over.

So I'm assuming you think the 970 should be solid for a while?

And the only reason I'm worried is because if the i7-2600k is okay for a few years then I'll be fine, but if not I'd rather not buy a used 3 year old $200 processor on ebay if it would be more wise to buy current gen at more expense. But if its worth it I'll do that.

Wouldn't worry much, It's still a solid CPU and for $200 it's much better than any I5 you can get today. With that you have an extra 200USD to spend on a graphics card and that's enough for a 380 or a 960 which are both very capable cards.

(You might even find a working 3770K at $200 if you look hard enough.

Well after some more extensive research (I legit spend dozens of hours making sure I buy the right thing lol) I have found some overwhelming recommendations to get a Xeon e3-1241 v3. I didn't know of this hidden gem (although apparently a lot of people did) and it is the highest performing processor available under $300. Apparently its almost identical to an i7-4690k but it is locked and has no integrated graphics (useless to users like us anyway).

That being said, I was planning on trying to snag an i7-2600k for $200, but I can get this Xeon on ebay for only 15 dollars more. Yes that also requires a $80 H97 board (recommended for being solid but for non overclocking) and It would be $95 over what I originally spent, but the performance to me seems fair worth it for only that much more money.

Unless someone walked up to me and said "oh hey do you want an i7-2600k or i7-3770k for $120?" I think this is my best choice. And before anyone says "i7s and xeons don't really matter for just gaming, get an i5." I use Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop part time and so the xeon (or i7) would be a better choice than an i5.

So unless one of you has found some stupidly good deal on a good i7 somewhere (100-130 bucks) I think I've found the right chip.

As far as the GPU however, I am going to wait out getting an upgrade until I know how well a new processor performs with the 750ti at 768p. That will give me time to save up a little more, but I'm hoping that a new processor will make an upgrade not necessary.

What do you guys think? (I also appreciate everyone's input very much, thank you, it has been extremely helpful in figuring this out)

Only a 7% diifference between the Haswell Xeon e3 and the 2600K though (based on user benchmarks), Personally don't think spending extra for that small an increase isn't worth the money

Given that the 2600k can reach the same performance of the e3-1241 with enough overclocking, that requires at least 4.1+ ghz (seen from both benchmarks and gameplay) and I'm not equipped to overclock that much (or at all, not sure), and it isn't because cooling is an issue (hyper 212 evo is enough for a little bit), but when I bought the i3 I didn't go for a z77 board.

 

[MrNamegame]

I would think you could get a couple of more years from a 2600K. They are still more powerful than most AMD's. Find a cheap one, get the 970, and in the future you can upgrade the CPU and mobo and move the 970 over.

So I'm assuming you think the 970 should be solid for a while?

And the only reason I'm worried is because if the i7-2600k is okay for a few years then I'll be fine, but if not I'd rather not buy a used 3 year old $200 processor on ebay if it would be more wise to buy current gen at more expense. But if its worth it I'll do that.

Wouldn't worry much, It's still a solid CPU and for $200 it's much better than any I5 you can get today. With that you have an extra 200USD to spend on a graphics card and that's enough for a 380 or a 960 which are both very capable cards.

(You might even find a working 3770K at $200 if you look hard enough.

Well after some more extensive research (I legit spend dozens of hours making sure I buy the right thing lol) I have found some overwhelming recommendations to get a Xeon e3-1241 v3. I didn't know of this hidden gem (although apparently a lot of people did) and it is the highest performing processor available under $300. Apparently its almost identical to an i7-4690k but it is locked and has no integrated graphics (useless to users like us anyway).

That being said, I was planning on trying to snag an i7-2600k for $200, but I can get this Xeon on ebay for only 15 dollars more. Yes that also requires a $80 H97 board (recommended for being solid but for non overclocking) and It would be $95 over what I originally spent, but the performance to me seems fair worth it for only that much more money.

Unless someone walked up to me and said "oh hey do you want an i7-2600k or i7-3770k for $120?" I think this is my best choice. And before anyone says "i7s and xeons don't really matter for just gaming, get an i5." I use Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop part time and so the xeon (or i7) would be a better choice than an i5.

So unless one of you has found some stupidly good deal on a good i7 somewhere (100-130 bucks) I think I've found the right chip.

As far as the GPU however, I am going to wait out getting an upgrade until I know how well a new processor performs with the 750ti at 768p. That will give me time to save up a little more, but I'm hoping that a new processor will make an upgrade not necessary.

What do you guys think? (I also appreciate everyone's input very much, thank you, it has been extremely helpful in figuring this out)

Only a 7% diifference between the Haswell Xeon e3 and the 2600K though (based on user benchmarks), Personally don't think spending extra for that small an increase isn't worth the money

Given that the 2600k can reach the same performance of the e3-1241 with enough overclocking, that requires at least 4.1+ ghz (seen from both benchmarks and gameplay) and I'm not equipped to overclock that much (or at all, not sure), and it isn't because cooling is an issue (hyper 212 evo is enough for a little bit), but when I bought the i3 I didn't go for a z77 board.

True that. The Z77 could do it with the right settings, but unless you have dual channel 1366 mhz RAM or a single 1600 mhz RAM stick of no less than 8 GB DDR3, you're not gonna get much out of that thing.

However, I have a Hyper 212 EVO and rewired Dell Optiplex 745 minitower case fan on top of Arctic Silver M4 as well as the fan profile maxing out the fan speed at 60 degrees celcius. This is actually not a bad choice for a budget performance fan because not only is the plug type just an awkwardly wired version of the one that your motherboard would use, the entire computer you can rip this from is $70 and few of them have bearing whine problems due to the very low speed the computer spins the fan at in these things. I have far worse issues with GPU fan noise than CPU fan noise at full load and never reach full fan speed keeping this CPU below 50 degrees.