[SOLVED] Need advice on how to upgrade a 6 year old gaming PC

[yogagogga]

Hello everyone, salutations from an Indonesian forum dweller!

I need your advice on how to upgrade my wife's gaming PC. Her PC was bought around 6 years ago and the only component that I have upgraded from the ancient version was the GPU and the CPU cooling fan. All of the other components are still the same. Until a month ago, the computer was able to handle games quite well on low to medium settings, but starting from last week I began to experience stuttering when playing games such as GTA V and Assassins creed Origin and Odyssey.

It might be time to upgrade it once more, here is the current specs:

CPU: AMD FX 8350 8 core processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED
GPU: Geforce GTX 1050Ti
Memory: 16GB (2x8) GB Corsair DDR3
Harddrive: Seagate 1GB drive (7 years old)
Mobo: ASRock 970 Pro R2
Keyboard: Razer Deathstalker Essential
Case: Dazumba D-Vita 683
Mouse: Logitech G102 Prodigy
Display: 22" LG 22MP68VQ
Speaker: Logitech Z120

However, we don't expect this PC to be able to run all games on ultra settings at 144 FPS, this computer will only be used for light casual gaming by my wife. Our only expectation is for it to be able to play current and future games at acceptable framerates (60 FPS preferable or 45 fps at minimum) on low to medium settings. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[CountMike]

Hello everyone, salutations from an Indonesian forum dweller!

I need your advice on how to upgrade my wife's gaming PC. Her PC was bought around 6 years ago and the only component that I have upgraded from the ancient version was the GPU and the CPU cooling fan. All of the other components are still the same. Until a month ago, the computer was able to handle games quite well on low to medium settings, but starting from last week I began to experience stuttering when playing games such as GTA V and Assassins creed Origin and Odyssey.

It might be time to upgrade it once more, here is the current specs:

CPU: AMD FX 8350 8 core processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED
GPU: Geforce GTX 1050Ti
Memory: 16GB (2x8) GB Corsair DDR3
Harddrive: Seagate 1GB drive (7 years old)
Mobo: ASRock 970 Pro R2
Keyboard: Razer Deathstalker Essential
Case: Dazumba D-Vita 683
Mouse: Logitech G102 Prodigy
Display: 22" LG 22MP68VQ
Speaker: Logitech Z120

However, we don't expect this PC to be able to run all games on ultra settings at 144 FPS, this computer will only be used for light casual gaming by my wife. Our only expectation is for it to be able to play current and future games at acceptable framerates (60 FPS preferable or 45 fps at minimum) on low to medium settings. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

You are already maxed out on CP and don't need more or faster RAM so that only leaves GPU. AMD Rx 570 would be a good fit with rest of system.
An SSD of at least 240GB for Windows and main programs would also be a nice addition, won't do anything to games performance but would add to system responsiveness.

 

[mdd1963]

Try opening up your case, blowing a simple fan across the mainboard, specifically the voltage regulator circuitry....; perhaps it is heating up and downclocking to control temperature...

What temps do you currently see under a load such as induced by CPU-Z/bench/stress cpu?

If temps under control, perhaps a botched Geforce driver and/or WIndows update occurred, and, if a glitch, perhaps a fresh install from scratch might be worth an effort...(Back up any files/data you wish to keep to an external drive)

 

[yogagogga]

@CountMike I actually thought that the CPU was the first thing I needed to upgrade. Do you think changing to the Rx 570 would improve a lot for games? I need to precise that on some games such as GTA V I often experience a stutter spikes and when looking at the stats i see drop in GPU usage (to as low as 9%) along with an increase of CPU usage (to 100%), would changing the GPU fix this issue?

@mdd1963 I'll definitely clean it up a bit, I admit that it is a little dusty inside the case. As you've advised I just tried the bench and stress test from CPU-Z, the bench is at 22 degrees celcius and the stress at 49 degrees celcius. Is that good?

 

[CountMike]

@CountMike I actually thought that the CPU was the first thing I needed to upgrade. Do you think changing to the Rx 570 would improve a lot for games? I need to precise that on some games such as GTA V I often experience a stutter spikes and when looking at the stats i see drop in GPU usage (to as low as 9%) along with an increase of CPU usage (to 100%), would changing the GPU fix this issue?

@mdd1963 I'll definitely clean it up a bit, I admit that it is a little dusty inside the case. As you've advised I just tried the bench and stress test from CPU-Z, the bench is at 22 degrees celcius and the stress at 49 degrees celcius. Is that good?

That CPU is most that MB can handle, for anything better you'd have to upgrade whole system, CPU, MB and RAM.

 

[yogagogga]

That CPU is most that MB can handle, for anything better you'd have to upgrade whole system, CPU, MB and RAM.

I guess it would be good to do an upgrade which will let me do even more upgrades in the future. What would you advise me to get for the CPU, MB and RAM in that case? Let's say for a budget of 300-500 USD. Money is tight right now with the virus situation..

 

[gertred]

Hey ! so i noticed that your motherboard is actually DDR3 compatible. As the gaming world continues to improve it is important to note the vast difference between DDR3 and DDR4. a DDR4 compatible motherboard is going to do a lot for you. A great motherboard for budget is the B450 Tomahawk Max. This motherboard is compatible with Ryzen 1,2,3 (based on budget i would go ryzen because intel can be quite pricey!) As for your cpu, i would use a ryzen 5 1600af (ryzen 5 3600 is the best performance for price on the market right now for gaming but i don’t know if your budget agrees) the ryzen 5 1600af can be found at $85 on amazon and are great for performance with a budget. It is always safe to invest in good ram, DDR4 Corsair Vengeance 16GB will be plenty. I would research into GPUs and find GPUS that go well with your cpu, because there is such a wide for what you can get out of them. An SSD is very helpful with new computers as it loads windows fast, loads games fast, and keeps your system churning!
In Conclusion:
Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
CPU: Ryzen 5 1600af
RAM: DDR4 Corsair Vengeance 16GB
SSD: (500GB)
GPU: (Interchangeable but at least RX 570)

 

[mdd1963]

@CountMike I actually thought that the CPU was the first thing I needed to upgrade. Do you think changing to the Rx 570 would improve a lot for games? I need to precise that on some games such as GTA V I often experience a stutter spikes and when looking at the stats i see drop in GPU usage (to as low as 9%) along with an increase of CPU usage (to 100%), would changing the GPU fix this issue?

@mdd1963 I'll definitely clean it up a bit, I admit that it is a little dusty inside the case. As you've advised I just tried the bench and stress test from CPU-Z, the bench is at 22 degrees celcius and the stress at 49 degrees celcius. Is that good?

I'll assume these temps are likely expressed in something of 'x amount/degrees over ambient', or similar...

 

[bryanc723]

At this time I would say an upgrade is no longer a viable option amd you should just go ahead and make the leap to next gen. Get a ryzen with a new mobo and ddr4 RAM. Your CPU is the best possible one for amd in that generation as the fx 9 series chips are hot garbage.

 

[yogagogga]

At this time I would say an upgrade is no longer a viable option amd you should just go ahead and make the leap to next gen. Get a ryzen with a new mobo and ddr4 RAM. Your CPU is the best possible one for amd in that generation as the fx 9 series chips are hot garbage.

I see, which parts would you recommend if I want to still keep the GTX 1050ti but take the leap to next gen?