Upgrading Current PC

[dylanw]

Hi, I bought a PC from PC Specialist a few years back and I feel like its time to upgrade the CPU. I have got a second hand Intel i5-7600 that I would like to replace my current CPU with, and I was wondering if PC Specialist would replace my current CPU with the one that I have purchased elsewhere.
Thank you,
Dylan

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi, I bought a PC from PC Specialist a few years back and I feel like its time to upgrade the CPU. I have got a second hand Intel i5-7600 that I would like to replace my current CPU with, and I was wondering if PC Specialist would replace my current CPU with the one that I have purchased elsewhere.
Thank you,
Dylan

PCS will only perform upgrades with parts bought by them as that's the only way they can insure warranty, standard for any builder.

 

[Oussebon]

What is your full current spec and what do you use the system for?

 

[dylanw]

What is your full current spec and what do you use the system for?

my current spec is an intel i3 6100, Nvidia gtx 1050ti and 8gb ram. I mainly use my pc for gaming however I have noticed performance drops recently which has led me to upgrading

 

[Oussebon]

tbh I'd have recommended sticking it out and saving up for a more robust upgrade down the line. Because it won't be long until you notice the quad core giving you performance drops too - there are plenty of games already out there where that will be the case.

Though in most cases you'll be GPU-limited in which case neither CPU will make much, if any, of a difference.

If you'd been given it for free, sure, why not, but if you spent £50 on it that's still money that could go towards something that isn't already obsolete. A Ryzen R5 3600 and relevant motherboard would have been a safer investment I think.

If you're stuck with this CPU now, you should be able to install it yourself, just make sure to read up carefully and watch video guides so you don't damage it or the motherboard, and make sure the motherboard's BIOS is updated to support Kaby Lake CPUs. Any of this will void the warranty from PCS, though you may be out of warranty anyway due to the age of the system.

 

[dylanw]

Ok thanks for the advice Oussebon! Would you be able to give me estimates for how much it would cost PCS to either, upgrade my CPU (i5 Gen 7 for example), or replace my whole motherboard and CPU in replacement for something like the Ryzen that you mentioned?
I enjoy playing many open world games, and the performance of these in particular are suffering, because of what I believe is my i3.

 

[Oussebon]

I can't provide estimates because as with all volunteer moderators I don't work for them, but as far as I know it's not a service they provide.

It's not something we can give detailed guidance on the forums about either, as it's essentially self build project. But you can find extensive material online about how to go about it, and if you ever used Lego, it's ultimately the same kind of thing.

Open World covers a lot of games. For instance, Witcher 3 probably won't suffer much due to an i3 CPU. Maybe in Novigrad a bit, but in general you'd be GPU limited. Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Origins might suffer with an i3. But they'd also see performance drops with an i5 too most likely.

 

[Oussebon]

Ryzen 5 3600 vs. 3600X: Which should you buy?

We were among the first to review the Ryzen 5 3600 and at $200 we found the 6-core, 12-thread processor a crankin' good deal. In short, it...

www.techspot.com

Note that this is with a better GPU. In your case, you may see drops in performance due to the CPU, but you will almost always be limited by the entry-level GPU you have in gaming (instead / as well).

Like I say, it's an option you will want to look into and one we can't help with. But make sure it's actually a CPU limit before you embark on a big DIY project only to find out actually a new CPU doesn't bring much extra performance (because your GPU was the limit, or something else was causing performance drops).

 

[dylanw]

Thank you so much for all this! I’ll do some tests to see what’s the bottleneck is. If it is the CPU that is the issue, I will probably look into replacing the whole mb, and switch over to AMD as it seems to be much better value for money. If the GPU is the problem, maybe I’ll look into upgrading into something like the 1070, as I do quite like Nvidia GPUs.

 

[Oussebon]

For tests, I would download MSI Afterburner and run the on screen display (via the included Rivatuner Statistics Server). Have it display the load on each CPU thread (all 4 of them) as well as GPU load. If all of the following is true you may have a CPU bottleneck:
1) You are below your target framerate (I assume 60fps on a 60hz monitor)
2) your CPU threads or some threads are consistently loaded to around 100%
3) your GPU load is under 100%

If your GPU load is 50% but you are getting 60fps, that's probably not a CPU bottleneck, that's probably just you hitting the vsync limit and the GPU is not bothering to render extra frames your monitor doesn't need. If you're at (e.g.) 35 frames per second, GPU load is at 60%, and the CPU or some of its threads are at 100% load, that's probably a CPU bottleneck.

Of course, you could have low FPS, low GPU load, and low CPU load, because there is a problem with your system (GPU drivers, various system settings, for instance). Or because the game engine just doesn't run that well.

Some games, often open world survival games from relatively small studios, do just stutter or have bad FPS drops no matter what you do.

To show you what MSI afterburner with the display looks like, see below. I have a 4 core, 8 thread CPU, so that's 8 virtual cores, each listed as you can see. You'd have 4. I'm monitoring the load on each, the framerate, and for the GPU, the temperature, the load, and the frequency. And in a separate line the VRAM allocation (note - your VRAM is almost guaranteed to not be the issue). And below that a graph of frame time.

I have a 75hz monitor with freesync, and am running this game capped to 70fps.

Image 1:

99% GPU load, framerate below 70, so I'm GPU-limited. Because the GPU is working as hard as it can and still not producing my target framerate. Although that's fine in my case, because Freesync. Anything over 50 is more than fine for me.


Image 2:

70fps, only 86% GPU load. No CPU or GPU bottleneck). Although the GPU isn't running as fast as it can, that's because it's meeting my target framerate, not because something is holding it back.

 

[Oussebon]

Re the GTX 1070 specifically, that's obsolete. There are newer and more efficient GPUs out there, available for a lower price. The 1660 Super is pretty much equivalent to a 1070 in performance, but costs less. Ofc there's the 2nd hand market, but that involves decisions about buying GPUs that have been treated who knows how with no warranty.

And don't necessarily limit yourself to Nvidia GPUs. If you decide top buy a GPU, it may well be that an Nvidia GPU for the performance and price you're after is the best fit, but keep all options on the table