What is the smartest upgrade for a fx amd system?

[the_jonas]

I currently have a desktop pc, with an amd fx-8320 "eight-core" processor 3.50GHz, 16GB of DDR3 ram, and a rx 480. Furthermore I have a 2TB hdd and a 500gb samsung sata ssd. I use an 4k 60hz monitor.

 

I play games like Battlefront 2 and Anthem at 1080p. While other older or less graphic intense games at 4k. I also use my pc for coding and sadly am not able to run a few emulators due to my older amd processor. 

 

I might want to be able to play games like Battlefront 2 and Anthem at 4k with around 60-70fps. 

 

Some ideas I had for upgrading my pc are to change the motherboard and cpu to something like a ryzen 5 or 7 and later on upgrade my graphics card. Do you think that is a smart idea? Is there anything I should watch out for? Is there maybe a better upgrade path? Does my cpu bottleneck my graphics card?

 

Thank you! I really appreciate your help! 

[GzeroD]

You might want to mention your budget. Are you looking at only brand new or is used an option your interested in? Probably a lot of 2000 an 1000 series zen about to end up going fairly discounted in a couple weeks with the launch of 3000. Is productivity the primary focus or is gaming?

Also what settings are you looking to run anthem at; 4k will beat up even the most expensive cards on ultra.

 

 

[Boinbo]

Wait till ryzen 3000, and see if something there piques your interest, or buy a 1st/2nd gen ryzen chip afterwards, as price will drop. And if you do, your Rx 480 should be fine for 1080p 60hz.

[the_jonas]

I am looking for brand new with warranty (experienced a broken gpu before, not fun). I would say gaming is the primary focus and I am sure that my other productivity will work on any decent pc. Settings wise I was looking to run games like anthem at around mid to high. Next, my budget varies depending on when I have to upgrade again. But I definitely want to spend less than $800.

[KarathKasun]

Cheapest upgrade is to get a used i7-3770k and Z77 board.  Uses same memory but gives much better single thread performance for games and low thread count tasks.  Single thread performance will climb by ~50% while 8 thread performance will go up by ~10%.

 

The 3770k can generally hit 4.5ghz as well.

 

Beyond that, R5 2600 will nearly double your "full load" performance.  R5 3600 adds another 15% or so on top of that.

[GzeroD]

Are you near a Fries or Micro center or are we looking at online deals only? 

[AngryBeaver]

I think I would say wait another few weeks for the ryzen 3000 launch. You can probably land a great deal on some 2000 line cpus with a 4xx series motherboard.

 

Then I would probably also pick up a 580 for around 120-150 atm.

 

So with a case, ram, psu, and the above components with a deal going on I would think you could stay under 600

 

[Boinbo]

2 minutes ago, the_jonas said:

I am looking for brand new with warranty (experienced a broken gpu before, not fun). I would say gaming is the primary focus and I am sure that my other productivity will work on any decent pc. Settings wise I was looking to run games like anthem at around mid to high. Next, my budget varies depending on when I have to upgrade again. But I definitely want to spend less than $800.

You have $800 for upgrades? Oh man oh man do I have a build for you

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3 GHz 8-Core Processor	$159.99 @ Newegg Business
Motherboard	ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$59.99 @ Newegg
Memory	Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$59.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial - BX500 120 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$19.95 @ Amazon
Storage	Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$42.80 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte - Radeon RX VEGA 64 8 GB Video Card	$360.00
Case	Cougar - MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case	$39.90 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair - CX (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$49.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$817.61
	Mail-in rebates	-$25.00
	Total	$792.61
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-25 21:06 EDT-0400

Vega 64 is on Amazon used

[the_jonas]

We are looking at international deals. I am going to move to Germany soon (from the USA), that is also why I am looking at my options. Do you think purchasing a cpu and motherboard new and then moving out of the country is smart or should I bite into the sour apple and pay the slightly higher prices in Germany?

[Boinbo]

2 minutes ago, the_jonas said:

We are looking at international deals. I am going to move to Germany soon (from the USA), that is also why I am looking at my options. Do you think purchasing a cpu and motherboard new and then moving out of the country is smart or should I bite into the sour apple and pay the slightly higher prices in Germany?

Get as many things as possible here, and the rest over there.

[the_jonas]

7 minutes ago, GzeroD said:

Are you near a Fries or Micro center or are we looking at online deals only? 

I currently live near a micro center, yes. By the way, thank you to everyone! I really appreciate your help!

[Boinbo]

Just now, the_jonas said:

I currently live near a micro center, yes. By the way, thank you to everyone! I really appreciate your help!

No problem! Also, what do you think about my above build? Will you consider it?

[GzeroD]

1 minute ago, AngryBeaver said:

Then I would probably also pick up a 580 for around 120-150 atm.

580 Vs 480 I wouldn't put my budget there single digit performance difference.

 

4 minutes ago, the_jonas said:

We are looking at international deals. I am going to move to Germany soon (from the USA), that is also why I am looking at my options. Do you think purchasing a cpu and motherboard new and then moving out of the country is smart or should I bite into the sour apple and pay the slightly higher prices in Germany?

 

Germany will slap VAT on it along with generally higher prices

 

 

Are you going to overclock or just let the auto overclocking on the CPU do it's thing?

[the_jonas]

I never overclocked a pc the hardest thing I did hardware wise was to change a gpu . 

2 minutes ago, GzeroD said:

Are you going to overclock or just let the auto overclocking on the CPU do it's thing?

 

[the_jonas]

3 minutes ago, GzeroD said:

580 Vs 480 I wouldn't put my budget there single digit performance difference.

 

 

Germany will slap VAT on it along with generally higher prices

 

 

Are you going to overclock or just let the auto overclocking on the CPU do it's thing?

Do you think losing the warranty is worth the savings? My current Pc is a cyberpower pc, which had a defective gpu after a few months, so I was glad to have a warranty. 

[the_jonas]

I have another question, will a better cpu help much with running games? 

For example, let's say that I buy a ryzen 5 or 7. Am I going to be able to run games at a higher resolution? If not, would it make sense to only upgrade the gpu?

[Boinbo]

Just now, the_jonas said:

I have another question, will a better cpu help much with running games? 

For example, let's say that I buy a ryzen 5 or 7. Am I going to be able to run games at a higher resolution? If not, would it make sense to only upgrade the gpu?

The CPU is not as important for higher frames, but it's better for the frames you have to be smoother, iirc.

[KarathKasun]

3 minutes ago, the_jonas said:

I have another question, will a better cpu help much with running games? 

For example, let's say that I buy a ryzen 5 or 7. Am I going to be able to run games at a higher resolution? If not, would it make sense to only upgrade the gpu?

When it comes to FX... YES.

 

FX single core performance is Core 2 Duo/Quad level.

 

Resolution will not go up, that is GPU.  But minimum FPS/hitching will be greatly improved.

[GzeroD]

1 minute ago, the_jonas said:

I never overclocked a pc the hardest thing I did hardware wise was to change a gpu . 

 

If you just not going to OC I would stick with a 2000 or 3000 series and a medium quality board. (I just loath low quality motherboards) and let PBO do it's thing, that said if your willing to move a slider or two similar performance can be had for a decent savings, since you would be looking at an x series.

 

1 minute ago, the_jonas said:

I have another question, will a better cpu help much with running games? 

For example, let's say that I buy a ryzen 5 or 7. Am I going to be able to run games at a higher resolution? If not, would it make sense to only upgrade the gpu?

Do Not only upgrade your CPU, that AM3 CPU is well past it's best buy date. I ran one for years and had a nice jump in performance when I swapped out to my 3570k

the IPC on them is just too low, even if the threads are getting used now with modern games.

[the_jonas]

Great, thank you! I think I will upgrade my motherboard and cpu when the new ryzen launches and maybe later on my gpu. Just one more thing, do I have to upgrade my ram?

[Boinbo]

Just now, the_jonas said:

Great, thank you! I think I will upgrade my motherboard and cpu when the new ryzen launches and maybe later on my gpu. Just one more thing, do I have to upgrade my ram?

Upgrade to 16gb ddr4 at least 3000MHz

[GzeroD]

3 minutes ago, the_jonas said:

Great, thank you! I think I will upgrade my motherboard and cpu when the new ryzen launches and maybe later on my gpu. Just one more thing, do I have to upgrade my ram?

yes. Rule of thumb go for 3000+ don't spend more to get higher that 3200 as the diminishing return on price vs performance does not make it worth look for CL 14 to 16 avoid high CL ram as it is generally lower quality and Ryzen likes it's ram snappy.

 

Edit: this applies to 1000 series and 2000 series. 3000 might be different but we will need to wait for reviews.

[Boinbo]

Just now, GzeroD said:

yes. Rule of thumb go for 3000+ don't spend more to get higher that 3200 as the diminishing return on price vs performance does not make it worth look for CL 14 to 16 avoid high CL ram as it is generally lower quality and Ryzen likes it ram snappy.

Does only the CAS latency in the timings part matter for Ryzen? I would think the tRas (last number, and highest) would also matter.

[fluxdeity]

1 hour ago, the_jonas said:

I currently have a desktop pc, with an amd fx-8320 "eight-core" processor 3.50GHz, 16GB of DDR3 ram, and a rx 480. Furthermore I have a 2TB hdd and a 500gb samsung sata ssd. I use an 4k 60hz monitor.

 

I play games like Battlefront 2 and Anthem at 1080p. While other older or less graphic intense games at 4k. I also use my pc for coding and sadly am not able to run a few emulators due to my older amd processor. 

 

I might want to be able to play games like Battlefront 2 and Anthem at 4k with around 60-70fps. 

 

Some ideas I had for upgrading my pc are to change the motherboard and cpu to something like a ryzen 5 or 7 and later on upgrade my graphics card. Do you think that is a smart idea? Is there anything I should watch out for? Is there maybe a better upgrade path? Does my cpu bottleneck my graphics card?

 

Thank you! I really appreciate your help! 

Well unfortunately for you you can't upgrade much on FX/DDR3. Wait for Zen 2 to launch and you can find some used Zen/Zen+ chips as well as cheap used mobo's from people upgrading to x570.

 

I recommend the RAM I have listed in my siggy for Ryzen as it's fairly cheap, and the 3733 kit is Samsung B-die. On Zen you should see 2933mhz and Zen+ you can get up to 3600mhz.

 

A lot of people will say Samsung B-die doesn't matter but if you want to get low timings then it clocks a lot better than SK or Micron

[GzeroD]

Just now, Boinbo said:

Does only the CAS latency in the timings part matter for Ryzen? I would think the tRas (last number, and highest) would also matter.

It does but I don't see someone not willing to overclock going into the bios to change those settings and XMP has not been really reliable for AM4 so far so assuming it will apply in default XMP is not guaranteed.