Preparing my rig for Fallout 4

[JTHarden]

How's it going guys! So as most of you know fallout 4 is coming out soon, I actually built a rig three months ago just for fallout 4 to be released. I used to play on Xbox only but it's time to move onto bigger and better things. So I found out that my previous graphics card couldn't handle the beauty that fallout 4 has to offer so I upgraded and now I want to upgrade my CPU. This is my rig right now...
GPU: Evga GeForce GTX 970
CPU: AMD FX 6300
Power: EVGA 500 watt bronze
5 120mm fans & 2 140mm fans
16 GB ram (I know not necessary)

I was thinking I would get a new Intel i7 processor. What power supply should I get that could handle my current GPU and new CPU when I get it? Also would I need to get a new mother board if I got these new things?

 

[LrnzpKiller]

Well if you're going for an intel cpu you'll need a motherboard that can handle the socket (example, LGA 1150)

 

[JTHarden]

Well if you're going for an intel cpu you'll need a motherboard that can handle the socket (example, LGA 1150) and i would go for a bit higher PSU, about 600 Watt (might not be needed)

My motherboard right now is a MSI Socket AM3+/AMD only compatible with AMD and not Intel?

 

[rowdymoody]

If you were to swap to Intel you will need to get a new motherboard. If gaming is your main intent with this PC I would recommend an i5 instead of an i7.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/x874Bm

If you decide to just stick with your mobo you can upgrade to an amd fx 8350, and do just fine. Intel is a much better CPU for gaming purposes though.

The PSU you have will probably be sufficient you should not need to swap it.

 

[LrnzpKiller]

My motherboard right now is a MSI Socket AM3+/AMD only compatible with AMD and not Intel?

Only Intel not AMD

 

[gergguy]

Your 500w PSU is probably fine for the GTX 970 but not much head room. And just to confirm, your mother board will NOT accept an Intel CPU. If you want an Intel CPU you will need to purchase a new mother board. In my opinion not worth it-Just upgrade to a high end AMD CPU (Make sure your board is compatible with the new chip as you didn't mention the mother board model #.)

 

[Tybost]

+1 Rowdy

I would go for the newer i5-6600k (you won't see a change in FPS from the i5 4690k) but... DDR4, video encoding/rendering and multiple improvements ;o ah but you need to pair it up with an LGA1151 mobo >:

 

[rowdymoody]

yeah, those LGA1151 mobo's are what hold me back from recommending skylake quite yet. Too pricey for my taste.

 

[dudeman509]

Your 500w PSU is probably fine for the GTX 970 but not much head room. And just to confirm, your mother board will NOT accept an Intel CPU. If you want an Intel CPU you will need to purchase a new mother board. In my opinion not worth it-Just upgrade to a high end AMD CPU (Make sure your board is compatible with the new chip as you didn't mention the mother board model #.)

More than enough power for a power-hungry AMD 8-core + GTX 970 and certainly more than enough for an Intel 4-core build.

 

[jaguarskx]

The FX-6300 is an okay CPU, but it will bottleneck the GTX 970 unless the games are not very CPU dependent. Bethesda's Fallout and Elder Scrolls games are moderately CPU dependent and they perform better with Intel CPUs. The following is a CPU performance benchmark for Skyrim with a GTX 580 and various AMD CPUs and Intel CPUs at 1600x900 resolution from 2011.

Excluding the results of the very expensive 3rd generation i7-3960X (6 core CPU), there is not much of a difference between Core i5 and Core i7 CPU performances since Skyrim's game engine (like most games) do not make use of the i7's Hyper Threading (HT) technology. Fallout 4 will be using a modified Skyrim game engine. Buying a Core i5 CPU makes more sense for games unless you know you will be using programs that can take advantage of HT.


http://www.techspot.com/review/467-skyrim-performance/page7.html