Upgrade or replace older gaming system?

[wiatrog]

Hi All,

I have an older gaming system that I built myself several years ago. I mostly play ARPGs or MMOs @ 1920x1080.

Lately I've been experiencing frequent freezes and occasional crashes while playing Diablo III. I've rolled back my video card drivers and am getting less crashes, but wonder if it's time to upgrade part or all of my system.

Would a GPU upgrade help? Or would my CPU hold me back? Would a Nvidia card be a better choice? I seem to recall hearing the AMD drivers are less robust.

I'd rather not buy a whole new system but could easily sink a few hundred into keeping this one alive a few more years. I'm not an expert and don't know much about overclocking. This was only my second PC build.

Thanks in advance.

• 
  ASUS Maximus III GENE LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
  
  G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model
  
  Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield Quad-Core 2.66 GHz LGA 1156 95W BX80605I5750 Processor
  
  Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heatpipes
  
  ASUS Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) DirectX 11 EAH5850 DIRECTCU/2DIS/1GD5 1GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
  
  WD Raptor WD1500ADFDRTL 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 1.5Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive (System)
  
  Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 32 MB Cache, 7200 RPM SATA II WD1001FALS (Data)
  
  PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 Quad - Copper 750W Continuous @ 40°C (825W Peak) EPS12V SLI Certified
  
  PC Design Lab Qmicra v2 Rev. E Micro-ATX Case w/ Liquid Cooling Support
  
  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builder

 

[profoundnoah]

Hate to break it to ya, but it looks like your PC's on its last legs. If I were you, I'd throw a bit of money towards a GPU, probably a 1060 or something like that. Do mind your board doesn't even support PCIe 3.0, just to give you a scale of how far back we're talking. The CPU is rarely the bottleneck in most cases, but I think you'd see more improvements in putting money into a new GPU and transferring it over in a few months to a new platform. REPLACE if you CAN.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Would a GPU upgrade help? Or would my CPU hold me back? Would a Nvidia card be a better choice?

1. Your system is missing SSD.
2. 6GB ram is rather low for a modern gaming system. 8GB minimum, 16GB recommended.
3. GPU upgrade would help also. GTX 1060 is a good option.

 

[ArchitSahu]

^ Yes.

i5 750 is quite far back and the HD 5850 is practically irrelevant. 6 gigs will limit you. It will do you good to upgrade, perhaps keeping your storage and case but getting a new PSU because that PSU is really old and all though it was pretty good, it may fail anytime.

 

[jankerson]

Ram upgrade to 8 GB or better yet 16 GB

GTX 1060 will last for awhile as an upgrade.

An SSD would be a nice improvement.

Upgrade the CPU to an i7 870 (Cheap on EBAY)


However instead of doing that it might be better to build a new system, using the above money to put into a new machine.