What to upgrade for better fps?

[Fry539]

Hey, I'm looking to upgrade my PC to boost FPS ingame. Most of my components are about four years old now apart from the graphics card and power supply. I'm considering buying the Intel i5-4690K processor, but I'd need a new motherboard with the correct socket type too; suggestions?

Here are my specs- if I've missed something, just say:

(Windows 9.1 Pro N 64-bit)
Intel i5-2500 @3.3 Ghz (4 CPUs), LGA1155 socket type
12gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 graphics card
ASUS P8Z77-V LX Motherboard
Ezcool PS-1000 Infinity Power Supply, 700W
(One fan)

Side note- sometimes I get graphical stuttering in games, and I've heard this can be caused by an overheating fan; would another fan help?
Thanks

 

[l1ghtm4st3r]

To address your main question of better fps:

First and foremost the best thing you can do is upgrade your graphics card and then overclock as much as you safely can ensuring you have adequate cooling and temperatures aren't too high.


To address your side note:

Can you elaborate as to what games you get stuttering in and at what resolution + graphical quality you're playing at.
E.g. Battlefield 4, 4K, everything ultra.

You have a top notch graphics card so there's not much you should experience stuttering in unless you're pumping serious resolutions (4k) or playing a game that is specifically poorly optimised or just a game that is particularly demanding (e.g. Crysis 3).

Your card seems to be reference as you've given no indication of brand or anything, these cards require that the case temperature be relatively cool as they blow all the case air straight through the card. You should look at your gpu temps when gaming to check that your card is not overheating, I'm not sure how intelligent the gpu itself is on nvidia cards but if it is overheating then the gpu may underclock itself to force temperatures down in order to cool itself down and this MAY be where you're seeing stuttering.
Getting another fan MAY help, and i stress 'may' as it depends on your case (if you can add that information in it would help), as that can tell whether you're getting enough cool air into the case.

Your CPU doesn't need an upgrade, there's no reason that should be causing any bottlenecking of the graphics card so I wouldn't worry about that at all, that should last a good few more years before it starts holding back your fps.

 

[jsgrant31]

What FPS are you getting? What's your display? If 1080p/60Hz your GPU is fine and you should be maxing out the refresh rate, if 1440p it depends. Standard RAM for gaming is 2x4GB so you should be fine with the tri-channel afaik. New games are recommending 3rd generation i5/i7; I would say the CPU/mobo is the thing to upgrade, but it isn't necessary. The i5-2500 is still the typical minimum CPU required, but if you want to play at recommended specs the 4690k is the best choice right now for gaming IMO. For mobo it really depends on the connections you want. Gigabyte Z97 D3H, Asus Z97-A, and the MSI Gaming boards are all considered pretty good; it's just up to your needs/preferences.

Really though you shouldn't be having a problem with your specs unless you're playing above 1080p.

Graphics stuttering could be Drivers/VSync/RAM/HDD/mobo related. Assuming you know your CPU/GPU temps are appropriate under load, you'd have to do some testing to figure it out.