The eternal question to upgrade or start again?

[Pokewood]

Budget (including currency): ~$1k

Country: Australia

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Primarily a gaming PC: Current Games Planetside 2 and CS GO but hopes of playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

So my dilemma is my current gaming PC runs the games I currently play decent on medium settings 1080p 60 fps
but I've managed to save some money during quarantine which is burning a bit of a hole in my pocket right now.
 

I play mainly Planetside 2 and CS GO but I've been excited to checkout the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 when it releases
in a casual capacity not hardcore sim mode which my current system doesnt even meet the minimum system requirements for.
 

MSFS 2020 System requirements: https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/microsoft-flight-simulator/19451

Could I get by with a ram and GPU upgrade maybe increase the over clock on the CPU or are these components simply to passed their usefulness?
I'm happy with my current single monitor 1080p setup and care more about performance than high graphical fidelity. I'm not interested in VR or upgrading to 4k gaming
 

Current System:
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz

GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 660

RAM: 2 * 4gb DDR3 1600

MOBO: AsRock Z77 Extreme4-m

Cooler: Corsair single radiator all in one CPU cooler

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

[jtmoseley]

7 minutes ago, Pokewood said:

Budget (including currency): ~$1k

Country: Australia

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Primarily a gaming PC: Current Games Planetside 2 and CS GO but hopes of playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

So my dilemma is my current gaming PC runs the games I currently play decent on medium settings 1080p 60 fps
but I've managed to save some money during quarantine which is burning a bit of a hole in my pocket right now.
 

I play mainly Planetside 2 and CS GO but I've been excited to checkout the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 when it releases
in a casual capacity not hardcore sim mode which my current system doesnt even meet the minimum system requirements for.
 

MSFS 2020 System requirements: https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/microsoft-flight-simulator/19451

Could I get by with a ram and GPU upgrade maybe increase the over clock on the CPU or are these components simply to passed their usefulness?
I'm happy with my current single monitor 1080p setup and care more about performance than high graphical fidelity. I'm not interested in VR or upgrading to 4k gaming
 

Current System:
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz

GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 660

RAM: 2 * 4gb DDR3 1600

MOBO: AsRock Z77 Extreme4-m

Cooler: Corsair single radiator all in one CPU cooler

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

Honestly I would just get upgrade platforms altogether and sell what you have. A ryzen 3300x will outperform that 3rd gen i5 pretty handily. The 660 is also not very good and is matched by the ryzen 3400g's integrated graphics.

[UpTheDons]

PCPartPicker Part List: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/FN99Dx

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($169.00 @ Centre Com) 
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($204.70 @ Device Deal) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($108.78 @ Amazon Australia) 
Storage: Kingston A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($49.00 @ Shopping Express) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($89.00 @ Shopping Express) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card  ($424.60 @ Newegg Australia) 
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P300 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Power Supply: Corsair CXM (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($107.00 @ I-Tech) 
Total: $1251.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-30 19:09 AEST+1000

 

Honestly i think you should just sell it and build a new system. Im not sure how much you could fetch for that system where you are (depends on the used market) But i put together a budget rig that will be able to play those games very comfortably. I would recommend waiting a bit for some more money and going for a slightly better cpu (like a 3600) But this will definitely be good for your use case. Prices there are pretty weird so i would suggest waiting again for things to die down. Or wait for new releases. Up to you.

[Pokewood]

Thanks for you suggestions.

I think I'll wait a couple of months and build a new system as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 doesn't even have a release date and prices for components and avaiability isn't the best right now.

[YT_DomDaBomb20]

16 hours ago, Pokewood said:

Thanks for you suggestions.

I think I'll wait a couple of months and build a new system as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 doesn't even have a release date and prices for components and avaiability isn't the best right now.

I agree with the suggestions, but really, your ram is at the recommended, your cpu can be overclocked with adequate cooling, and all you need to do if you wanted is sell your 660 for an rx 580 or better gpu