Bottlenecks & Recommendations

[DivideByZero]

Hey all, I built my pc around 3 years ago and I'm now looking to increase performance (which was already pretty good), considering upcoming games like Cyberpunk 2077 and the ever increasing minimum requirements.
Currently I use:

RAM: D3 8GB 1600-10 Fury Black IDIF77EF
CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3600 1150
GPU: Asus4GB D5 x GTX970-DCMOC
Motherboard: Asro Z97 Pro4

I've seen from experience the CPU often being maxed out, while also RAM occassionally spikes. The PC-Builder site mentioned that I have a bottleneck at the GPU-side of 46%, which is a lot. Therefore I have the following questions:
1. Would upgrading my CPU give a significant performance boost? Seeing the bottleneck I'd assume this is the case.
2. When can the motherboard be a limiting factor, I have never heard of this but wanted to check.

3. What are good new CPU's? The site itself recommends AMD FX-8350 or Intel Core i7-3770, but is this an exact match to my GPU? I'd rather overshoot my CPU a bit and have the bottleneck then ofc in the GPU. 
4. Can I install AMD CPU's in this motherboard? I really don't know what to look for
5. Currently I have access to 8GB dual RAM, and the recommended amount is 8GB of RAM, so would it be wise to upgrade a bit?

Sorry if I asked foolish questions, but I am terribly inexperienced in both PC-building and the English language, therefore my apologies for any mistakes. Thanks for any help given.

 

PC-Build calculator:

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i3-4160/GeForce_GTX_970/0Bn0LElu/8/

[rares495]

You should upgrade to a Ryzen 3600. You will need new CPU + motherboard + RAM.

 

The GTX 970 will probably be able to run Cyberpunk on low-medium settings but not if it's paired with that i3. And you can upgrade the graphics card later as well, of course.

[JoostinOnline]

5 minutes ago, rares495 said:

You should upgrade to a Ryzen 3600. You will need new CPU + motherboard + RAM.

 

The GTX 970 will probably be able to run Cyberpunk on low-medium settings but not if it's paired with that i3. And you can upgrade the graphics card later as well, of course.

Or he could save a crap ton of money by getting a used i5-4670k on eBay for about $50. Pairing it with a decent cooler would mean he could overclock and have an enormous performance boost.

 

@DivideByZero Don't use those calculator sites, they're generally terrible. You will eventually have to upgrade your whole rig, but switching from a dual core CPU to a quad core will make an enormous difference for now without costing too much. Again, I recommend a used i5-4670k.  An i7-4770k would be a bit better, but they still cost over $100, and it won't give you double the performance. What country do you live in?

[rares495]

3 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

Or he could save a crap ton of money by getting a used i5-4670k on eBay for about $50. Pairing it with a decent cooler would mean he could overclock and have an enormous performance boost.

 

@DivideByZero Don't use those calculator sites, they're generally terrible. You will eventually have to upgrade your whole rig, but switching from a dual core CPU to a quad core will make an enormous difference for now without costing too much. Again, I recommend a used i5-4670k.  An i7-4770k would be a bit better, but they still cost over $100, and it won't give you double the performance. What country do you live in?

 

No. Why would he invest in that dead platform? So that he will have to upgrade again in like a year? Makes no sense.

[JoostinOnline]

Just now, rares495 said:

 

No. Why would he invest in that dead platform? Just so that he will have to upgrade in like a year? Makes no sense.

He's already on that platform. And if he can wait a year or so, he'll likely end up saving a lot of money.

[DivideByZero]

Thanks for the swift respones.

I prefer a more long-term solution (at least 2 years), so I'd rather buy a good CPU now. I live in the Netherlands and I'm prepared to spend up to €150/200. And is it really necessary to upgrade the entire rig? Or is just upgrading CPU, and GPU later enough?

[rares495]

2 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

He's already on that platform. And if he can wait a year or so, he'll likely end up saving a lot of money.

No point. He wants to play the most demanding of games by the looks of it, which is something that Haswell will not be suited for. It's better to just upgrade now and be done with it for a few years.

[JoostinOnline]

Just now, rares495 said:

No point. He wants to play the most demanding of games by the looks of it, which is something that Haswell will not be suited for. It's better to just upgrade now and be done with it for a few years.

How do you know? You're also underestimating Haswell. Keep in mind that Haswell was still better than first gen Ryzen. Of course a 3600 beats it, but having to switch to an entirely new platform, one that only has another year before it's replaced, will cost several hundred dollars at least.

 

Let's just wait to find out more information. This discussion is pointless until we know a budget and country.

[rares495]

3 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

How do you know? You're also underestimating Haswell. Keep in mind that Haswell was still better than first gen Ryzen. Of course a 3600 beats it, but having to switch to an entirely new platform, one that only has another year before it's replaced, will cost several hundred dollars at least.

 

Let's just wait to find out more information. This discussion is pointless until we know a budget and country.

I know because my previous processor was an i5 4460. I'm not underestimating anything.

 

His budget is around 200 eur and that could get him at least a Ryzen 2600, which is like a thousand times better than any Haswell i7.

[Mateyyy]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

How do you know? You're also underestimating Haswell. Keep in mind that Haswell was still better than first gen Ryzen. Of course a 3600 beats it, but having to switch to an entirely new platform, one that only has another year before it's replaced, will cost several hundred dollars at least.

From personal experience I can say that the 4670K, even when overclocked, gets hammered in newer AAA titles, and I wouldn't expect any less of that with Cyberpunk, considering its massive world and tons of NPCs all around it. Sure, it would be an improvement over the i3, but it's not hard to improve on that.

If OP decides to go this route, I would strongly recommend going for a i7-4770/4790 instead, as hyper-threading will help either chip pull ahead significantly of the i5 in modern CPU intensive titles.

[JoostinOnline]

1 hour ago, rares495 said:

a Ryzen 2600, which is like a thousand times better than any Haswell i7.

< content removed >

 

Here are some benchmarks

 

Edited February 7, 2020 by LogicalDrm

[Rancidpunk]

5 minutes ago, rares495 said:

I know because my previous processor was an i5 4460. I'm not underestimating anything.

 

His budget is around 200 eur and that could get him at least a Ryzen 2600, which is like a thousand times better than any Haswell i7.

I don't think his budget would cover a complete upgrade to another platform, even the cheapest 2600 + mobo + ram comes in way over his budget.

[JoostinOnline]

3 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

From personal experience I can say that the 4670K, even when overclocked, gets hammered in newer AAA titles, and I wouldn't expect any less of that with Cyberpunk, considering its massive world and tons of NPCs all around it. Sure, it would be an improvement over the i3, but it's not hard to improve on that.

If OP decides to go this route, I would strongly recommend going for a i7-4770/4790 instead, as hyper-threading will help either chip pull ahead significantly of the i5 in modern CPU intensive titles.

It almost definitely will, and that's why I threw out the possibility of a 4770k if it was in his budget. I just want to consider all options.

 

PS: Because he already had a Z97 motherboard, a 4770k would be much better than a regular 4770.

[rares495]

1 hour ago, JoostinOnline said:

Here are some benchmarks

 

< content removed >

 

Great video you posted btw. Take a look at the 1% lows in every game.

Edited February 7, 2020 by LogicalDrm

[JoostinOnline]

1 hour ago, rares495 said:

Great video you posted. Take a look at the 1% lows in every game.

And how do those represent anything close to "a thousand times better"? It's a few frames at most, and zero frames different on average.

Edited February 7, 2020 by LogicalDrm

[rares495]

< content removed >

 

It is pointless investing in an old platform that could MAYBE POSSIBLY run Cyberpunk when you can just buy a Ryzen platform(110-130 for CPU new, 50 for the mobo, 30-50 for ram) and enjoy some other features as well, such as NVME support, better audio quality, more faster cores which will make day to day use better as well and have the ability to upgrade on the same socket down the line.

Edited February 7, 2020 by LogicalDrm

[Rancidpunk]

1 minute ago, rares495 said:

It is useless investing in an old platform that could MAYBE POSSIBLY run Cyberpunk when you can just buy a Ryzen platform(110-130 for CPU new, 50 for the mobo, 30-50 for ram) and enjoy some other features as well, such as NVME support, better audio quality, more faster cores and the ability to upgrade on the same socket down the line.

He lives in the Netherlands and the prices you give are unrealistic. 

[rares495]

5 minutes ago, Rancidpunk said:

He lives in the Netherlands and the prices you give are unrealistic. 

 

https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/1166767/amd-ryzen-5-2600-wraith-boxed.html

 

https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/1210569/gigabyte-b450m-ds3h.html

 

https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/1159401/corsair-vengeance-lpx-cmk8gx4m1d3000c16.html

 

A little over his budget. You can choose a cheaper mobo and not go over budget. Definitely doable and much better than paying 100 euro for a used 4790k.

[Rancidpunk]

2 minutes ago, rares495 said:

 

https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/1166767/amd-ryzen-5-2600-wraith-boxed.html

 

https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/1210569/gigabyte-b450m-ds3h.html

 

https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/1159401/corsair-vengeance-lpx-cmk8gx4m1d3000c16.html

 

A little over his budget. You can choose a cheaper mobo and not go over budget. Definitely doable.

8gb of RAM? Surely you wouldn't recommend that? 

 

I understand and agree that an upgrade to a 2600 would be great for him but so would a lot of builds that are way over his budget. It's not really helping the OP if he hasn't got the money to spend. What would you recommend for him within his budget?

[JoostinOnline]

42 minutes ago, DivideByZero said:

Thanks for the swift respones.

I prefer a more long-term solution (at least 2 years), so I'd rather buy a good CPU now. I live in the Netherlands and I'm prepared to spend up to €150/200. And is it really necessary to upgrade the entire rig? Or is just upgrading CPU, and GPU later enough?

I'm sorry, I only just saw this. I don't get notifications unless you quote or tag me.

 

I checked the Netherlands eBay and an i7-4770k is a bit more expensive, but still within budget. You'd also be able to afford a better air cooler for it so you could overclock.

 

Upgrading your entire system might be better in the long run, but it's not something you can do in the budget you've given.

[rares495]

4 minutes ago, Rancidpunk said:

8gb of RAM? Surely you wouldn't recommend that? 

 

I understand and agree that an upgrade to a 2600 would be great for him but so would a lot of builds that are way over his budget. It's not really helping the OP if he hasn't got the money to spend. What would you recommend for him within his budget?

It is all within or a little bit over his 200 eur budget. An extra 8 GB of ram can easily be purchased at the next paycheck. Cyberpunk's release is at least 6 months away.

[JoostinOnline]

1 minute ago, rares495 said:

An extra 8 GB of ram can easily be purchased at the next paycheck.

You're making more assumptions.

9 minutes ago, rares495 said:

Definitely doable and much better than paying 100 euro for a used 4790k.

No, it's slightly better but at double the cost.

[rares495]

2 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

You're making more assumptions.

No, it's slightly better but at double the cost.

You're not seeing the bigger picture. My plan costs 200-220 eur now, yours costs 100 eur right now + 200-300 eur for the next upgrade in a year when the 4790 will be useless because it's only a quad core after all and the general trend is towards more cores = better.

[JoostinOnline]

Just now, rares495 said:

You're not seeing the bigger picture. My plan costs 200-220 eur now, yours costs 100 euro right now + 200-300 euro for the next upgrade in a year when the 4790 will be useless because it's only a quad core after all.

There's no reason to suspect that it will be useless in a year. Quad cores still dominate the market.

[191x7]

1 hour ago, DivideByZero said:

Hey all, I built my pc around 3 years ago ...

Haswell is a lot older than 3 years. You've built that at least 5 years ago, probably 6 to 7. 

 

You, pretty much, need a completely new platform.