Assistance with upgrading GPU

[musakahero]

Hi everyone,

 

I am new to the forum, so please bear with me. I am planning on upgrading my current Desktop (built quite a while ago, around 2012) mainly for gaming purposes. The thing is - my budget is rather tight, so I am going for middle tier components. I am also considering upgrading the components one by one, as I currently don't have the ability to buy in bundles. My main question / issue is whether buying a GPU like   SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5 would be a bad idea, given that I have a fairly old AMD FX processor. I'm concerned that it may bottleneck the performance of the card to a large extent. I would wish to know if it's even worth upgrading the card if I'm not going to get anything out of it by having my current processor, or whether with the current AMD FX it will be alright. Unfortunately my knowledge when it comes to desktop components and their specifications is rather scarce, so I kind of need an advice on it, I will be thankful if someone may provide some guidance here. 

Here are the current specs I have:
Processor:

AMD FX™-4100 Quad-Core Processor

Threading - 1 CPU - 4 Core - 4 Threads
Frequency - 3591.43 MHz (18 * 199.52 MHz) - Uncore: 1995.2 MHz
Motherboard: 
ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0
Memory (RAM):

Size: 8 GB

Type: Single Channel (64 bit) DDR3-SDRAM

Storage (HDD) (if it matters):
Western Digital 1TB
Current GPU (if it matters):
AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series @ 800 MHz, 2 GB RAM

 

I'll be happy to provide more info on the build if required. Thanks in advance! 

[David Yu]

18 minutes ago, musakahero said:

Hi everyone,

 

I am new to the forum, so please bear with me. I am planning on upgrading my current Desktop (built quite a while ago, around 2012) mainly for gaming purposes. The thing is - my budget is rather tight, so I am going for middle tier components. I am also considering upgrading the components one by one, as I currently don't have the ability to buy in bundles. My main question / issue is whether buying a GPU like   SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5 would be a bad idea, given that I have a fairly old AMD FX processor. I'm concerned that it may bottleneck the performance of the card to a large extent. I would wish to know if it's even worth upgrading the card if I'm not going to get anything out of it by having my current processor, or whether with the current AMD FX it will be alright. Unfortunately my knowledge when it comes to desktop components and their specifications is rather scarce, so I kind of need an advice on it, I will be thankful if someone may provide some guidance here. 

Here are the current specs I have:
Processor:

AMD FX™-4100 Quad-Core Processor

Threading - 1 CPU - 4 Core - 4 Threads
Frequency - 3591.43 MHz (18 * 199.52 MHz) - Uncore: 1995.2 MHz
Motherboard: 
ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0
Memory (RAM):

Size: 8 GB

Type: Single Channel (64 bit) DDR3-SDRAM

Storage (HDD) (if it matters):
Western Digital 1TB
Current GPU (if it matters):
AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series @ 800 MHz, 2 GB RAM

 

I'll be happy to provide more info on the build if required. Thanks in advance! 

Hey,
Don't quote me but using an older CPU and a new GPU like the RX580 is prone to bottleneck. I don't know your current situation, but I would suggest saving up for a newer motherboard, CPU and GPU. For this, any B450 Motherboard should do with a Ryzen 5 2600 and a RX580.
Good Luck!

[Sychic]

Just like @David Yu mentioned, upgrade your cpu mobo and ram. Also, it's probably a better idea now to wait for Ryzen 3000 with the much higher IPC and pcie4

[trevb0t]

It may bottleneck, but you'll see gains either way. 

It may be more beneficial to invest in a new CPU/MOBO/RAM first, since those parts will all have to be upgraded together.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor	$117.85 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$75.61 @ OutletPC
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$69.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$283.45
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$263.45
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-05-29 07:41 EDT-0400

Here is a no compromise at low budget setup:

The Ryzen 5 1600 will provide a stable base to add a GPU upgrade to in the future

The Pro4 will work fine for stock or OCed use on a Ryzen 5

16GB DDR4 at 3000mhz (Ryzen needs dual channel, and throttles hard with slower speeds. This is the ideal setup.)

 

3rd gen Ryzen will be worth waiting for as well, but the prices certainly will be higher than this first gen.

[musakahero]

On 5/29/2019 at 2:43 PM, trevb0t said:

It may bottleneck, but you'll see gains either way. 

It may be more beneficial to invest in a new CPU/MOBO/RAM first, since those parts will all have to be upgraded together.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor	$117.85 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$75.61 @ OutletPC
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$69.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$283.45
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$263.45
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-05-29 07:41 EDT-0400

Here is a no compromise at low budget setup:

The Ryzen 5 1600 will provide a stable base to add a GPU upgrade to in the future

The Pro4 will work fine for stock or OCed use on a Ryzen 5

16GB DDR4 at 3000mhz (Ryzen needs dual channel, and throttles hard with slower speeds. This is the ideal setup.)

 

3rd gen Ryzen will be worth waiting for as well, but the prices certainly will be higher than this first gen.

 

Thank you very much for the quick replies! I will certainly think twice before making the first purchase. I did expect some bottleneck to occur obviously, as it's a processor from 2012. I was just not aware how big of a difference the processor makes in the whole picture. 
I am truly thankful for the part list, this definitely helps me out at knowing what I'm aiming for in terms of upgrading the rest of the components! Appreciated the help, fellas!