[PC upgrade] CPU and PSU questions

[neigenoire]

Hi, all! Planning to upgrade my ancient AM3 rig mainly for playing Witcher 3 on ultra @1080p 60hz. Details below:

Phenom II 965 BE @3.4Ghz
Sapphire 7850 1gb
Asus M5A97 LE R2.0
2x 4GB Crucial 1334 Mhz CL9 DDR3
CM Thunder 500W, 2x 6+2 pci-e

I want to spend as little as possible because I will be gaming only occasionally on weekends and the main purpose of the PC is still for work (Web, text editors etc.)

For GPU, the GTX 1060 seems like the best option by far; it's priced for as low as 300 euros where I live.

As for the CPU, according to this benchmark, upgrading to Intel i5 (new mobo + cpu and RAM if going skylake, so at the very least ~300 euro upgrade) will boost my average FPS from 70 to 90ish on medium preset. However, on page 4, you can see that on Ultra even an i7 will average mere 56 frames per second.

So as far as ultra Witcher 3, upgrading to an i5 will yield very marginal (if any) FPS increase over my 8-year-old Phenom. Am I correct in this assumption or is there something I'm missing?

The second question I have is about the PSU. I've had the CM for about a year and haven't had any issues with it. I have very limited knowledge and experience with electricity and PSUs in general. I do realize that this is a low-end PSU, although the wattage should be sufficient for the components I'll be using. What I want to know is what is the absolute worst scenario that can happen if I don't upgrade to something better? Can it damage any of the components or cause other issues? I've heard decent PSUs start from around 100 euros and I'd like to avoid spending that if my current PSU is sufficient.

 

[Isokolon]

you can pick up a decent PSU at around 65-70€
the GTX 1060 is a good card and most likely will use less power than your current card.
1 year is not really some age for a PSU, you shouldn't experience any decay on a low quality PSU that soon.
but it can degrade. depending on the safety measures taken by the manufacturer, it could catch fire (unlikely) cause an electric shock that might or might not damage other parts of your computer, it could just provide too little power after a while (that was the case with the PSU of a friend of mine, who's USB devices stopped working when CPU&GPU hit 65%) or just shut down for good.

a cheap Seasonic S12II/M12II Evo with 520 W should be obtainable for around 60€
the reworked version by XFX, the XFX TS Gold 550 W (higher efficiency) or Pro Bronze 550W should be available for ~65€ in most countries.
I run my XFX PSU with a similar setup like yours for many years now and never had any problems with it

 

[neigenoire]

Alright, I'll get the M12II Evo 520W for 68 EUR. Thanks.