Performance Enhancement Options

[monsterzero187]

Hello, I recently purchased this prebuilt rig on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012AO2HWW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
The rig came with a FX 6300 and a GTX 960.
I thought for the price I got a great deal, but I'm finding that my performance in games like Fallout 4 is in the 35 - 50 fps range.
Do yall have any advice on upgrades or overclocking for this rig?

 

[thor220]

There are four major issues with that rig.

One, the processor is weak. It'll only ever perform decent when doing editing or encoding and is slower than a $50 intel Pentium when it comes to gaming.

Two, the graphics card isn't strong and has a measly 2 GB of RAM. The 960 has memory bandwidth issues and will require an upgrade to play modern games on high at 60 fps.

Three, this rig has no upgrade-ability. It's stuck on DDR3, a very old processor and it's platform, and the 960 is in no way the best value for the money.

Four, it's an OEM rig and likely has a weak PSU. Given that they used a lower power draw GPU instead of the much stronger 280x/380x at the same price, it's a pretty safe bet that the power supply is going to be a piece of garbage as well.

Upgrades? Returning the system would be your best best. I'd value the system at $400 and that's stretching it.

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

Hello, I recently purchased this prebuilt rig on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012AO2HWW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
The rig came with a FX 6300 and a GTX 960.
I thought for the price I got a great deal, but I'm finding that my performance in games like Fallout 4 is in the 35 - 50 fps range.
Do yall have any advice on upgrades or overclocking for this rig?

Yeah, if you can return it, do so even if you have to take a bit of a restocking fee.

Building your own rig is the only way to go. The RAM is probably crap, along with the PSU (as stated before), the motherboard is probably crap, and the GTX 960 isn't a fantastic CPU for Fallout 4. You're going to need to look at something like the GTX 970 (my preference) or an R9 390 8 GB.

Go with an i5 4690K if you can afford it, they are around $200 now and are phenomenal gaming CPUs with excellent OCing ability.

Performance enhancing options would essentially be replacing damn near everything unfortunately.

I really hate these companies that sucker people into buying pre-built "gaming rigs"...if you can even call it that. It's such a freakin' scam.

 

[monsterzero187]

Thanks for the responses. I'm not sure returning it is a possibility at this point, as I've already opened it and installed software, etc.

Assuming this is the case, would it be worth it to upgrade to the GTX 970, especially considering the recent price drop? I also have a 700W power supply that I could install to help assuage power consumption issues.

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

Thanks for the responses. I'm not sure returning it is a possibility at this point, as I've already opened it and installed software, etc.

Assuming this is the case, would it be worth it to upgrade to the GTX 970, especially considering the recent price drop? I also have a 700W power supply that I could install to help assuage power consumption issues.

You'll definitely want to install the 700W PSU if you are planning on getting a GTX 970. Those are still excellent GPUs and can be OC'd to rival GTX 980s in most instances. I highly recommend the Gigabyte G1 Gaming Edition. I've OCed the hell out of it with no issues whatsoever. Unfortunately, your FX-6300 will hold back or "bottleneck" (another phrase that gets thrown around far too often by people who really dont know what it means) the GTX 970, but that's no reason to not buy the GPU.

I would definitely consider saving up and investing in an i5 4690K and a moderately priced Z97 motherboard to go along with it...nothing crazy. You can get decent MOBOs for that CPU for $80-100.

I've been running Fallout 4 over 60 FPS with this combo at 1080p. They are great components and have come down tremendously in price lately.

 

[thor220]

A 970 is going to be bottle-necked by your processor. You're going to lose 20-30 FPS.

 

[monsterzero187]

Would yall expect to see any significant fps increases with the jump to the 970?

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

Would yall expect to see any significant fps increases with the jump to the 970?

NO!!!

You NEED a better CPU. I've tried running a GTX 970 on a custom liquid cooled FX-6300 OC'd to 5.0 ghz and it was still bottlenecked. An i5 4690K stock just blew the thing out of the water, it really is that much better.

Save your money until you can afford worthwhile parts.

 

[monsterzero187]

Would yall expect to see any significant fps increases with the jump to the 970?

NO!!!

You NEED a better CPU. I've tried running a GTX 970 on a custom liquid cooled FX-6300 OC'd to 5.0 ghz and it was still bottlenecked. An i5 4690K stock just blew the thing out of the water, it really is that much better.

Save your money until you can afford worthwhile parts.

So would I need to be getting an entirely new rig, essentially? Or would it be possible to replace the 6300 with an i5 on the same mobo?

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

Would yall expect to see any significant fps increases with the jump to the 970?

NO!!!

You NEED a better CPU. I've tried running a GTX 970 on a custom liquid cooled FX-6300 OC'd to 5.0 ghz and it was still bottlenecked. An i5 4690K stock just blew the thing out of the water, it really is that much better.

Save your money until you can afford worthwhile parts.

So would I need to be getting an entirely new rig, essentially? Or would it be possible to replace the 6300 with an i5 on the same mobo?

You'll need a different motherboard for the i5.
- The i5 is made by Intel and requires LGA 1150 motherboards
- The FX-6300 is made by AMD and requires AM3+ motherboards.

 

[monsterzero187]

Ah, in that case, if I was wanting to salvage the mobo, would you recommend I go with an 8350?
I've seen them compared to i5/i7 in terms of performance, especially in games that utilize the multiple cores of the AMD chips.

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

Ah, in that case, if I was wanting to salvage the mobo, would you recommend I go with an 8350?
I've seen them compared to i5/i7 in terms of performance, especially in games that utilize the multiple cores of the AMD chips.

That would definitely be an option, but I would recommend trying to find an FX-9590. Built a gaming rig for a client using this chip, didn't even OC it and ran a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming Edition and it performed exceptionally well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113347

This WILL fit your current motherboard.

They are $200, so about $50 more than the 8350, but well worth it in my opinion. They are actually ridiculously fast, but they were just insanely overpriced when they first came out. That's as close to an i5 4590K in gaming performance you can get, and it might even be superior in some instances.

I'd also recommend getting something like the H60i, H75i or H80i for cooling. I have the H75i in my personal gaming rig and it works great. I also owned several of the H60i's and they were very good too, i just prefer the dual fans on the H75i (that way you can push air out with one fan and pull air out with the other...aka a "push/pull configuration" across the radiator.) Very, very easy to install as well, and will certainly allow you to overclock if you even need to.

You are going to want to get a 750W PSU to be on the safe side. Your current PSU is likely far too weak for these components.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

 

[thor220]

Ah, in that case, if I was wanting to salvage the mobo, would you recommend I go with an 8350?
I've seen them compared to i5/i7 in terms of performance, especially in games that utilize the multiple cores of the AMD chips.

The 8350 compares to an i3 in gaming. It's not a gaming processor. You could get a $60 pentium g3258 and it's performance would be equal to a 8350 in games. The 3258 overclocks very well too. I'm not telling you to get this processor, just using it as a comparison to show the 8350 isn't good for gaming.

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

He wants to keep his motherboard, so we are trying to figure out an AM3+ option. Pentium isn't gonna work.

the 8350 isn't as good as some intels, but it's dependent on the application, but it's certainly not bad for gaming. That's a dramatic a statement. It'd be an upgrade from your FX-6300, but for the extra $50 I'd go with the FX-9590. It's a beast...and I'm not an AMD fanboy, I have Intel everything now, but I started off with AMD and played gamed perfectly fine. 8350 is going to be better for general multitasking as well. If you can spare the extra $50, get the 9590, trust me, you won't be disappointed.

 

[thor220]

He wants to keep his motherboard, so we are trying to figure out an AM3+ option. Pentium isn't gonna work.

And really the 8350 isn't as good as Intel, but it's certainly not bad for gaming. That's a little dramatic of a statement. It'd be an upgrade from your FX-6300, but for the extra $50 I'd go with the FX-9590. It's a beast...and I'm not an AMD fanboy, I have Intel everything now, but I started off with AMD and played gamed perfectly fine. 8350 is going to be better for general multitasking as well. If you can spare the extra $50, get the 9590, trust me, you won't be disappointed.

I left a note in my comment, was speaking hypothetically.

 

[monsterzero187]

I've heard the 9590 had issues with heat, is this something that's no longer a problem with that line?

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

I've heard the 9590 had issues with heat, is this something that's no longer a problem with that line?

No, I've built a few gaming PC's with them now for clients who want AMD since they are cheap. I'm sure some idiot put an Evo 212 on it and tried to OC and had issues with thermal throttling.

You'll need liquid cooling (that's what's recommended by AMD), but that's really not expensive. $60-75 for the mid level corsair series, which is what I've installed in all those PCs. They actually run really, really cool.

It's a bit more money upfront, but trust me, if you want a PC that's gonna last for the next few years for gaming, these parts will just fine. Literally just finished one yesterday. FX-9590, MSI 970 Gaming motherboard, H80i liquid cooler, 16 GB of Crucial Ballistix Sport, GTX 970 GPU, 240 GB Corsair SSD, 2 TB WD HDD with Windows 10. The thing was an absolute monster. Ran Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront maxed out like it was childs play with the CPU and GPU stock settings. OC'ed it and damn near got semi. I was blown away by the performance. Literally couldn't tell the difference between my PC (OC'd i5 4690K at 4.7 ghz, GTX 970 GPU and 16 GB RAM) and this thing.

If you can do it, go for it. Honestly, you probably wont even need to overclock it for right now. At least not for Fallout 4 when I was playing it yesterday on the client's PC.

 

[monsterzero187]

I've heard the 9590 had issues with heat, is this something that's no longer a problem with that line?

No, I've built a few gaming PC's with them now for clients who want AMD since they are cheap. I'm sure some idiot put an Evo 212 on it and tried to OC and had issues with thermal throttling.

You'll need liquid cooling (that's what's recommended by AMD), but that's really not expensive. $60-75 for the mid level corsair series, which is what I've installed in all those PCs. They actually run really, really cool.

It's a bit more money upfront, but trust me, if you want a PC that's gonna last for the next few years for gaming, these parts will just fine. Literally just finished one yesterday. FX-9590, MSI 970 Gaming motherboard, H80i liquid cooler, 16 GB of Crucial Ballistix Sport, GTX 970 GPU, 240 GB Corsair SSD, 2 TB WD HDD with Windows 10. The thing was an absolute monster. Ran Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront maxed out like it was childs play with the CPU and GPU stock settings. OC'ed it and damn near got semi. I was blown away by the performance. Literally couldn't tell the difference between my PC (OC'd i5 4690K at 4.7 ghz, GTX 970 GPU and 16 GB RAM) and this thing.

If you can do it, go for it. Honestly, you probably wont even need to overclock it for right now. At least not for Fallout 4 when I was playing it yesterday on the client's PC.

Awesome! Well, I feel I've got a pretty solid plan to upgrade my PC now. Thank you for all your advice, I really appreciate it.

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

I've heard the 9590 had issues with heat, is this something that's no longer a problem with that line?

No, I've built a few gaming PC's with them now for clients who want AMD since they are cheap. I'm sure some idiot put an Evo 212 on it and tried to OC and had issues with thermal throttling.

You'll need liquid cooling (that's what's recommended by AMD), but that's really not expensive. $60-75 for the mid level corsair series, which is what I've installed in all those PCs. They actually run really, really cool.

It's a bit more money upfront, but trust me, if you want a PC that's gonna last for the next few years for gaming, these parts will just fine. Literally just finished one yesterday. FX-9590, MSI 970 Gaming motherboard, H80i liquid cooler, 16 GB of Crucial Ballistix Sport, GTX 970 GPU, 240 GB Corsair SSD, 2 TB WD HDD with Windows 10. The thing was an absolute monster. Ran Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront maxed out like it was childs play with the CPU and GPU stock settings. OC'ed it and damn near got semi. I was blown away by the performance. Literally couldn't tell the difference between my PC (OC'd i5 4690K at 4.7 ghz, GTX 970 GPU and 16 GB RAM) and this thing.

If you can do it, go for it. Honestly, you probably wont even need to overclock it for right now. At least not for Fallout 4 when I was playing it yesterday on the client's PC.

Awesome! Well, I feel I've got a pretty solid plan to upgrade my PC now. Thank you for all your advice, I really appreciate it.

Of course my friend! If you need any future help or have any other questions, don't hesitate to message me. I am always happy to help out. I hope you enjoy your upgraded rig!