Question need advice for my old gaming rig.

[flydude11]

Ok guys here's my tired old system specs, I am from a very small town so don't really have a shop i can go to for this type of advice.

Disclaimer all dollar amounts are in canadian dollars.

i7 3820 not overclocked.
Gigabyte x79 up 4
660 ti
16gb ram (4x4 in quad channel, still have 4 open slots) at 1333mhz
128gb ssd
500gb sata
700 watt thermaltake psu
cpu cooler not sure on model but it's a cooler master with a heat sink aprox 4"x4" plus fan
4 case fans (2 front 1 top 1 rear) not sure on exact size or rpm but my case is full size and they span the width of the case so they are fairly large probably around 5" diameter give or take. i believe the case is a cooler master if i remember.

So i want to get back into fps on the computer BF V etc. Currently just using it for WoW and ESO. Now according to can i run it, my cpu is below minimum specs for BF V and my GPU is barely above the stock 660 required. So that made me start thinking about an upgrade or replacement.

To upgrade with a new cpu (3900x or 9900k) plus mobo (z390 or x570), ram, nvme drive and a rtx 2080 super im looking at around $2000 or so canadian dollars. Probably more as i would go with an AIO, and in the case of the 3900x add another $300 for a pci 4.0 storage. That's using Mid range Asus or Aorus mobo's and gpu, asus rog strix e gaming or aorus master to be exact. Leaning towards the asus due to 5 way optimization and the availabilty of aura sync accesories.

To build a whole new intel system im looking at about $2800 and for AMD system about $3200 mainly because of the cost of the pci 4.0 storage. Now i know im going to eventually buy a new rig. But right now doesn't seem like the time to do it. The ryzen 3000 series appears to be the last of the AM4 socket. Radeon hasn't released it's ray tracing yet.Intel looks destined for a new chipset next year and has yet to embrace pci 4.0 (do they jump straight to pci 5.0 to one up AMD?). I'm curious to see what answer if any they have to the AMD 3000 series. And $1000 seems like alot to pay for a Gpu that can't do 60 fps 4k ultra with both ray tracing and HDR enabled.I'm thinking the next gen of cards may get us into that range. I could be wrong but I just feel money would be better spent a year down the road when some of these questions are hopefully answered.

Which got me thinking about a 3rd possibility. I haven't overclocked my cpu. I meant to once the warranty was up but forgot as i had gravitated to consoles. Even though apparently the i7 3820 doesn't meet the min specs for BF V i have found quite a few youtube clips of people running BF V at 60 plus fps using i7 3820 with gtx 1060's and above. They don't mention if the cpu is overclocked tho. So what I am thinking is this. Amazon prime days is right around the corner. Currently they have gtx 1660's for around $300 and rx 580's for about $260 ish. I'm thinking with the releases of the super series and the navi cards these could be heavily discounted on prime days. i'm thinking my best bet right now would be to pick up a rx 580 or gtx 1660 hopefully for under $200 and to overclock my cpu. i'm sure i could probably find a pack off 4x4 16gb 133mhz ram on the cheap too if that would add an benefit.

If i can get another year or so out of my rig by upgrading my gpu for $200ish i think that's probably the way to go. From what i have read and seen on youtube the i7 3820 is easily overclocked to 4.3 to 4.4 ghz. Apparently you can get more but I have never overclocked before and my cpu is 6 years old so i don't want to push it. From my specs do you think my system is capable of handling an overclock like this? Is it even neccesary? Or would just upgrading the gpu possibly be enough? Am i correct in thinking if I am going to drop 3k on a new system that next year would be the time to do so as compared to now? I imagine BF VI will be releasing november 2020, i think it would be nice to coincide building a new rig with the release....

Any and all suggestions are welcome, thanks for taking the time to read what turned out to be a very long post.

 

[DMAN999]

Have you considered upgrading to something like a Ryzen 5 2600 on a decent B450 board instead of a 3000 series CPU on a pricey X570 board.
I know prices are higher in Canada but I bet you could get a new B450, a Ryzen 5 2600, a GTX 1660 or 1660 Ti and 16 GB of 3000 or 3200 MHz RAM pretty reasonably.
I have a Ryzen 5 2600 rig (see my signature) and I am confident it will perform well for the next 3 to 5 years.
That being said I will most likely grab a Ryzen 7 3700x (which I can use on my current motherboard) next year if I feel it will increase my performance enough to make it worth the cost.

 

[ConanLock]

If you were to go with overclocking the CPU and a new GPU, the you might find that the RAM holds you back. The motherboard supports up to DDR3-2133, so if I were you I'd get some matching DDR3-1866 stick too, 16 GB total, and overclock those to 2133 MHz.
Alternatively, you could get a whole new system. This Ryzen would beat the i7 in most games, and you don't need to spend anywhere near $3000. https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/JznNRJ

 

[flydude11]

If you were to go with overclocking the CPU and a new GPU, the you might find that the RAM holds you back. The motherboard supports up to DDR3-2133, so if I were you I'd get some matching DDR3-1866 stick too, 16 GB total, and overclock those to 2133 MHz.
Alternatively, you could get a whole new system. This Ryzen would beat the i7 in most games, and you don't need to spend anywhere near $3000. https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/JznNRJ

Thanks for the advice. I overclocked the cpu last night to 4.3ghz by simply changing the modifier. Then i saw your response today. It actually made me remember something. I was sure i had purchased better ram then 1333mhz. I didn't build this rig, i picked out the parts and had a local company (now out of business) build it for me. I remembered him telling me when i picked it up that the ram was running at a slower speed then it should for some reason, but not to worry it was still plenty fast enough. So i removed a stick and ran the parts number through google. It's kingston hyper x beast 2400mhz ram 4x4gb 1.65v.

I did a little research and saw that by having overclocked my cpu i should be able to run my ram at 2133mhz on this board by enabling xpm. I did so and now it is running at full 2133mhz. I do have one question in my bios under voltage it is showing channels a/b and c/d as 1.500v and set on auto. Do i need to up the voltage to 1.650v? Or will auto do that automatically? Cpuid show's it's now running at 2133 mhz in quad.

 

[ConanLock]

That might be the max you can. Go into the BIOS ->M.I.T -> Advanced Memory Settings and enable XMP. This should set everything to how it should. It might still only run at 2133, but this is much better than 1333, and should be a good enough speed, and XMP means all other RAM setting will be optimal for the RAM.

 

[cryoburner]

The ryzen 3000 series appears to be the last of the AM4 socket.

I suspect AMD's 4000 series CPUs will likely continue to use AM4 as well. AMD hasn't verified either way, but based on various things they have stated and other information out there, it seems likely that their 2020 CPUs will be compatible with the platform. Most likely, there will be significantly lower performance gains than what we saw with the 3000 series though.

I'm curious to see what answer if any they have to the AMD 3000 series.

It sounds like Intel's next generation of desktop CPUs will still be on the 14nm node, with the same processor architecture as they have been using for some years now. Leaks indicate that they might enable SMT for all of their processors in response to Ryzen, effectively bringing current i9 performance to the i7 price level, i7 performance to the i5 price level, and i5 performance to the i3 price level, much like what we previously saw with their 8th-gen processors. It's effectively a price cut for those parts to stay competitive against Ryzen, aside from a 10-core that should slot into the i9 segment.

If I had to guess, we probably won't see major changes in desktop processor designs from AMD and Intel until around 2021.

And $1000 seems like alot to pay for a Gpu that can't do 60 fps 4k ultra with both ray tracing and HDR enabled.

It's unlikely that a 2080 Super will even manage to reliably maintain 60fps at 1440p with RTX enabled. Even a 2080 Ti can't, and at 4K you are looking at a 30fps experience on that card with those lighting effects enabled in games like Metro. : P

Again, if I had to speculate, my guess is that Nvidia may tackle this problem with next year's cards. Once they move to a new process node, they should be able to add significantly more RT cores without increasing a card's cost. A doubling of RT cores could cut the performance hit in half, making the effects a lot more practical. They might still fall short of providing a smooth 4K60 experience, but hopefully at least 1440p would be good. And perhaps AMD might have competitive raytracing hardware by then. Intel should be launching a line of graphics cards sometime next year as well, though it's unknown whether they will be tackling the high-end right away.

i'm sure i could probably find a pack off 4x4 16gb 133mhz ram on the cheap too if that would add an benefit.

I wouldn't bother adding any DDR3 if you have 16GB already. Games have only recently started to benefit from having more than 8GB, and it will likely be some years before 16GB becomes a significant limitation for gaming.