Question System upgrades on a budget!

[will2605]

Hi All,

I brought a scan XPS build 5 or so years ago which i have used and will continue to use for architecture AEC and BIM (autocad & Revit), photoshop, vray etc. Im interested in upgrading the ram and graphics card to be able to start learning unreal engine 5 for architectural renders.

my PC is as follows (possible upgrades)
550 watt PSU
Asus Z370-P motherboard
i7 8700k CPU
16gb 2600mhz DDR4 ram (64gb 3200mhz DDR4 Ram - will sell the 16gb stick on ebay)
P620 graphic cards (3060 12gb Nvidia - will sell the P620 on ebay)

Do i also have to think about upgrading the CPU or PSU? and /or are the upgrades overkill for what im looking to achieve?
looking to spend max 400£

Btw Revit is largely uses single core processing. and is quite RAM heavy.
UE5 is RAM and GPU heavy (as far as i know)

would i beenfit much by upgrading the CPU too?

Any help would be greatly appeciated!

 

[Misgar]

Please tell us the manufacturer of the 550W PSU and the model number.

My 3060 pulls a nominal 170W when rendering and a strong 550W PSU might be sufficient to power a GPU upgrade, provided it's a TierA or a TierB unit.

If your 5-year old PSU is TierC or below, now might be a good time to consider an upgrade.

I don't think you'll see much difference upgrading the 8700K to, say, a 9700K.

You won't get much for a second hand 16GB DIMM, but the Quadro P620 should net a few dollars/euros/pounds/etc.

 

[CountMike]

Hi All,

I brought a scan XPS build 5 or so years ago which i have used and will continue to use for architecture AEC and BIM (autocad & Revit), photoshop, vray etc. Im interested in upgrading the ram and graphics card to be able to start learning unreal engine 5 for architectural renders.

my PC is as follows (possible upgrades)
550 watt PSU
Asus Z370-P motherboard
i7 8700k CPU
16gb 2600mhz DDR4 ram (64gb 3200mhz DDR4 Ram - will sell the 16gb stick on ebay)
P620 graphic cards (3060 12gb Nvidia - will sell the P620 on ebay)

Do i also have to think about upgrading the CPU or PSU? and /or are the upgrades overkill for what im looking to achieve?
looking to spend max 400£

Btw Revit is largely uses single core processing. and is quite RAM heavy.
UE5 is RAM and GPU heavy (as far as i know)

would i beenfit much by upgrading the CPU too?

Any help would be greatly appeciated!

CPU is pretty well top for that MB, for any significant CPU upgrade you would need new MB too, possibly DDR5 RAM which is still more expensive.
PSU upgrade only if and when you upgrade GPU.

 

[will2605]

Please tell us the manufacturer of the 550W PSU and the model number.

My 3060 pulls a nominal 170W when rendering and a strong 550W PSU might be sufficient to power a GPU upgrade, provided it's a TierA or a TierB unit.

If your 5-year old PSU is TierC or below, now might be a good time to consider an upgrade.

I don't think you'll see much difference upgrading the 8700K to, say, a 9700K.

You won't get much for a second hand 16GB DIMM, but the Quadro P620 should net a few dollars/euros/pounds/etc.

Thanks for the post.

the PSU is a Corsair CX550M. fingers crossed thats a Tier A or B! PSU

 

[geofelt]

Here is the list of possible cpu upgrades for your motherboard:

PRIME Z370-P - Support

www.asus.com

The strongest would be a I9-9900K.
It would be a modest upgrade for apps that are heavily multithreaded, but not so much for single thread performance.
Run the cpu-Z bench on your 8700K.
You should get a number like 468.

CPU-Z Benchmark for Intel Core i7-8700K (1T) - CPU-Z VALIDATOR

Best CPU performance - 64-bit - July 2023

valid.x86.fr

I9-9900K might be 556.

In the US, a I9-9900K sells for $200-$250 on ebay.
For that price, you can buy a new I5-13400 that scores 715.
Do not be put off by the I5.
I3/I5/I9/no longer designates the number of cores and/hyperthreading.
Today it is more of a performance category.
You would need a lga1700 motherboard. Most any would do, but I would avoid the very cheapestH610 chipsets.
B660/B770 chipsets are fine, and MATX size is usually cheaper. <$150 would buy you one.
DDR4 performs the same as DDR5 so you could initially use your DDR4 ram.

CX-550M may well work.
It is not a dangerous psu, I would be inclined to try it.