[SOLVED] Questions about upgrading my 5 year old PC

Faultyclone

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Jul 16, 2016
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Hi all,
I built my PC 5 years ago and have a few questions about potential parts and upgrades. I particularly want to upgrade my GPU.
My specs currently are:
MSI GTX 970
I5 - 4690K
8 gb ddr3 hyperxfury ram
msi z97 gaming 3 motherboard
WD 1tb 3.5 inch HDD
Samsung 850 evo SSD
Be Quiet! BK010 Be quiet shadow rock (after market cpu cooler)
Corsair CX600M PSU
My questions are as follows (and I appreciate any help at all with any of them):
  1. If i upgrade my GPU to something on the level of the rx 5700, will I have to upgrade my CPU to prevent bottlenecking?
  2. Should I add 8 more gb of ddr3 ram or should i replace my ram entirely with 16gb of either ddr3 or ddr4 ram?
  3. Will my current motherboard be compatible with these newer GPU's and CPU's?
  4. Im looking to add bluetooth to my PC; should i use a bluetooth card or a dongle?
  5. Will all these changes require me to upgrade my PSU?
  6. Would you recommend simply upgrading certain parts or building a new PC from scratch entirely?
  7. Generally any recommendations when upgrading.

Thanks in advance !!
 
Solution
Would it therefore be worth it to upgrade motherboard. Maybe to the MSI B450 Tomohawk?
B450 is a AMD Promonotory Chipset for AM4 sockets, so you might need a Ryzen cpus to be fitted in.

Also, if you have the budget, yeah. depending on what size you go on, if your case is micro atx (mATX) go with B450M Tomahawk, or if u have a mid tower, go for ATX, if you prefer the non RGB one well go for B450 Gaming Plus Max.
1. It would be a Bottleneck even it's not too much

2. If you have the budget, go for 16 gb of ram (2x8) DDR4, but you have to change processor and motherboard aswell. ddr3 2x8 is pretty good atm, just wait till price drop.

3. Your motherboard will be compatible for the gpu, as for the cpu it could only use LGA 1150 Haswell/Refresh CPUs

4. To be practical just use dongle. prefer a better gen one (Bluetooth 5.0)

5. Your PSU is plenty Enough for 5700 XT, depends on how you overclock and push the power load. Still theres a plenty headroom even overclocked.

6. If you want to upgrade, make sure you know what it is aimed for in your upgrade. If it's for gaming, then your current would be enough, but if you're someone that multi tasks alot or a Video Editor or anyelse, youre good to upgrade for more power.

7. Be sure to get some surveys on the part that you are searching in your upgrade, such as the power consumption, the VRMs good enough for stable power delivery, etc. and the last thing is to decide wether it is worth it or not
 
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1. It would be a Bottleneck even it's not too much

2. If you have the budget, go for 16 gb of ram (2x8) DDR4

3. Your motherboard will be compatible for the gpu, as for the cpu it could only use LGA 1150 Haswell/Refresh CPUs

4. To be practical just use dongle. prefer a better gen one (Bluetooth 5.0)

5. Your PSU is plenty Enough for 5700 XT, depends on how you overclock and push the power load. Still theres a plenty headroom even overclocked.

6. If you want to upgrade, make sure you know what it is aimed for in your upgrade. If it's for gaming, then your current would be enough, but if you're someone that multi tasks alot or a Video Editor or anyelse, youre good to upgrade for more power.

7. Be sure to get some surveys on the part that you are searching in your upgrade, such as the power consumption, the VRMs good enough for stable power delivery, etc. and the last thing is to decide wether it is worth it or not
He cannot use DDR4 on that platform.
 
1. It would be a Bottleneck even it's not too much

2. If you have the budget, go for 16 gb of ram (2x8) DDR4, but you have to change processor and motherboard aswell. ddr3 2x8 is pretty good atm, just wait till price drop.

3. Your motherboard will be compatible for the gpu, as for the cpu it could only use LGA 1150 Haswell/Refresh CPUs

4. To be practical just use dongle. prefer a better gen one (Bluetooth 5.0)

5. Your PSU is plenty Enough for 5700 XT, depends on how you overclock and push the power load. Still theres a plenty headroom even overclocked.

6. If you want to upgrade, make sure you know what it is aimed for in your upgrade. If it's for gaming, then your current would be enough, but if you're someone that multi tasks alot or a Video Editor or anyelse, youre good to upgrade for more power.

7. Be sure to get some surveys on the part that you are searching in your upgrade, such as the power consumption, the VRMs good enough for stable power delivery, etc. and the last thing is to decide wether it is worth it or not

Thanks for the detailed help!
 
Would it therefore be worth it to upgrade motherboard. Maybe to the MSI B450 Tomohawk?
B450 is a AMD Promonotory Chipset for AM4 sockets, so you might need a Ryzen cpus to be fitted in.

Also, if you have the budget, yeah. depending on what size you go on, if your case is micro atx (mATX) go with B450M Tomahawk, or if u have a mid tower, go for ATX, if you prefer the non RGB one well go for B450 Gaming Plus Max.
 
Solution
B450 is a AMD Promonotory Chipset for AM4 sockets, so you might need a Ryzen cpus to be fitted in.

Also, if you have the budget, yeah. depending on what size you go on, if your case is micro atx (mATX) go with B450M Tomahawk, or if u have a mid tower, go for ATX, if you prefer the non RGB one well go for B450 Gaming Plus Max.

Thanks !!
 
Lets just say i helped about 10-15 people with rx5700 issues, some had new gpu from warranty and issues continue or partially resolved. There are multiple issues and new drivers they released wont solve everything.

As for nvidia i let someone who actually used 10 or 20 series card to give you suggestion, i only used 600-700 and 900 series. Good luck.
 
Hi all,
I built my PC 5 years ago and have a few questions about potential parts and upgrades. I particularly want to upgrade my GPU.
My specs currently are:
MSI GTX 970
I5 - 4690K
8 gb ddr3 hyperxfury ram
msi z97 gaming 3 motherboard
WD 1tb 3.5 inch HDD
Samsung 850 evo SSD
Be Quiet! BK010 Be quiet shadow rock (after market cpu cooler)
Corsair CX600M PSU
My questions are as follows (and I appreciate any help at all with any of them):

1. If i upgrade my GPU to something on the level of the rx 5700, will I have to upgrade my CPU to prevent bottlenecking?
Don't worry about any sort of "ideal balance" between CPU and GPU, as that entire concept is a fiction. It depends a lot more on what game(s) you're playing, and also on your monitor's specs (resolution? refresh rate? Does it have GSync, FreeSync, or neither?)

2. Should I add 8 more gb of ddr3 ram or should i replace my ram entirely with 16gb of either ddr3 or ddr4 ram?
You cannot use DDR4 RAM on your motherboard. You might get SOME benefit from getting more RAM, but that depends on the game.

3. Will my current motherboard be compatible with these newer GPU's and CPU's?
No.

5. Will all these changes require me to upgrade my PSU?
Cooler Master makes good fans and cases. They do NOT make good PSUs. I would replace that even if you don't make any changes. See the first link in my sig for a guide to good vs bad PSUs.

6. Would you recommend simply upgrading certain parts or building a new PC from scratch entirely?
I think you would definitely see benefits from a newer video card. Still, the CPU and RAM may hold you back some, depending on the games. Some games are more CPU dependent, others are more GPU dependent.