Question Need help in deciding if I need to upgrade or not for 1080p gaming.

[tlandreth]

So currently I want to move my current PC to a Mini-ITX Case because I'm tired of shipping my Mid-size tower back and forth between college and home. So I am defintely going to buy a Mini-ITX Case and motherboard. I need help in determining if I should upgrade the rest of my parts, or if I can make do with my current parts. I am only interested in 60 fps 1080p gaming at 60 Hz.

current parts

• E.V.G.A Super Nova 750w Bronze
• MSI GTX 970
• Intel i5 4690k
• Corsair Vengeance 16 GB Ram 1600 Mhz DDR3

My question is, do I need to upgrade my rig for 60 fps 1080p? If I were to upgrade, I would consider getting either a ryzen 5 or ryzen 3 and rx 580/590, and 16gb ddr4, however I'm unsure if this would provide that big of a performance boost over my current configuration.

Also Since I mispackaged my i5 processor this time in shipping (wrapped in a plastic ziplock bag and bubble wrap, which I only found out was bad after the fact) I think I might've ruined my processor so I'll probably need to upgrade to a new one. So I was thinking about getting a ryzen 3 or ryzen 5, or just buying an old proccessor off ebay that works with ddr3. Let me know your thoughts on this. I really don't want to spend too much money as I'm a broke college student, but really enjoy playing games on my PC.

 

[popatim]

It depends on the game really since the 970 has issues using all 4gb vram.

 

[tennis2]

How much are you about to pay for a 6 year old mITX mobo?

Is your CPU actually broken, or are you just worried it is?

What country are you in?

 

[tlandreth]

How much are you about to pay for a 6 year old mITX mobo?

Is your CPU actually broken, or are you just worried it is?

What country are you in?

1. 50$
2. I am worried, but it seems likely. probably will by an i5 4670 for ~ 50$ off ebay if it is broken. However if I buy a ryzen i need to buy an AMD MOBO and thus won't even beable to test if my i5 works.
3. US

 

[tlandreth]

It depends on the game really since the 970 has issues using all 4gb vram.

I don't really play too many graphic intesne games (play strategy primarily), and when I do I don't mind running them on medium or low.

 

[tennis2]

Test your CPU first. If the CPU is broken, it makes little sense to buy a 4th gen CPU and mobo. Might as well get current gen stuff at that point.

 

[tlandreth]

Test your CPU first. If the CPU is broken, it makes little sense to buy a 4th gen CPU and mobo. Might as well get current gen stuff at that point.

First and foremost, thanks for your help

I would totally do this, except for the fact that I left my MOBO and Case in my dorm room when I had to evacuate my dorm and come home because of the whole coronavirus thing, so unless there is a way to test my processor without a MOBO, it will be kind of hard. I suppose I could just buy a 50$ mobo to test and if it works great, and if not I can get next gen. but if thats the case I have two questions

1. What next gen ryzen is a good fit for GTX 970 (so that it won't bottleneck?). I am thinking the ryzen 3.

2. If that is the case with the ryzen 3, isnt a fourth/fith generation quad core i5 at similar performance to a ryzen 3? i5 would also probably be cheaper to buy used, AND I would'nt have to buy another motherboard in the case my old i5 doesnt work. The only reason to buy a ryzen 3 I see is for upgradeability, but it comes a tthe cost of potentially having to buy two mobos if I still want to test my i5 and probably gonna be > 100$ more total

 

[tennis2]

Side note - I'm not sure why you see the need to completely disassemble your PC for shipping. The only things I'd be concerned about are:
Hard drives - carry those with you.
Large CPU coolers - small enough to be carried with you
GPUs - maybe this is something you ship separate.
There's no reason a CPU/mobo/RAM/PSU would be damaged in shipping while fully assembled. The case protects all those items very well. Heck, OEM and Pre-Built machines ship fully assembled including GPUs and such. Depends on your packaging.

 

[tlandreth]

Side note - I'm not sure why you see the need to completely disassemble your PC for shipping. The only things I'd be concerned about are:
Hard drives - carry those with you.
Large CPU coolers - small enough to be carried with you
GPUs - maybe this is something you ship separate.
There's no reason a CPU/mobo/RAM/PSU would be damaged in shipping while fully assembled. The case protects all those items very well. Heck, OEM and Pre-Built machines ship fully assembled including GPUs and such. Depends on your packaging.

I agree with you, and normally I would ship everything assembled for the most part (aside from GPU). However, my case packaging had been through quite a bit at that point and was in no condition to be reshipped, so I opted to ship everything seperately.

 

[tennis2]

I can certainly commiserate with the money situation. However, I do feel that once you start talking about buying a motherboard AND a CPU....unless you can find them VERY cheap, you're throwing money away that could've been put toward getting you up to date hardware.