Looking to upgrade my CPU, have around $100 budget.

[Preso]

My rig:

B450M Mortar MAX

Ryzen 5 3400G

Radeon RX 5700 MECH OC

Corsair VENGANCE 2x8 3600MHz, (currently running at 3466MHz)

Corsair CV650 PSU

 

I used it mainly for gaming (with programs running in the background like spotify and discord) , sometimes streaming (stuff like League since it lags the least), editing videos and watching youtube / streaming shows.

 

I also have questions like:

Is the CPU the thing needing an upgrade here, or would a GPU upgrade be better?

If I upgrade to lets say a R5 3600 or R7 3700x, would that create a bottleneck?

Also which one of these two ^ ^ ^ is better for me? Yeah I'm pretty clueless, so I'd really appreciate any advice.

[MiszS]

this is a pretty balanced combo, so imo you should upgrade the gpu, and then cpu. There will be a bottleneck if you upgrade the gpu to something good, but then you can upgrade the cpu, the specific parts all depend on your budget, but for 100$ i don't think it's worth upgrading right now

[Dedayog]

14 minutes ago, Preso said:

My rig:

B450M Mortar MAX

Ryzen 5 3400G

Radeon RX 5700 MECH OC

Corsair VENGANCE 2x8 3600MHz, (currently running at 3466MHz)

Corsair CV650 PSU

 

I used it mainly for gaming (with programs running in the background like spotify and discord) , sometimes streaming (stuff like League since it lags the least), editing videos and watching youtube / streaming shows.

 

I also have questions like:

Is the CPU the thing needing an upgrade here, or would a GPU upgrade be better?

If I upgrade to lets say a R5 3600 or R7 3700x, would that create a bottleneck?

Also which one of these two ^ ^ ^ is better for me? Yeah I'm pretty clueless, so I'd really appreciate any advice.

Get a used 5600 instead.  Much better and a good stop gap for the upcoming x3d chips if you want.

 

Or it'll handle any GPU upgrade later too.

[dizmo]

I agree with @Dedayog, grab a used 5600/x. You might even be able to grab a 5700x/5800x if you wait until after Christmas and are crafty with bidding on eBay, or can spend a little more for a motherboard/CPU combo kit and then sell the board with your current CPU.

 

8 minutes ago, MiszS said:

this is a pretty balanced combo, so imo you should upgrade the gpu, and then cpu. There will be a bottleneck if you upgrade the gpu to something good, but then you can upgrade the cpu, the specific parts all depend on your budget, but for 100$ i don't think it's worth upgrading right now

Ehhh I don't really agree. The G series CPUs are usually weaker than the non G, and this is third gen which is even weaker.

[josefah]

I recommend doing some performance monitoring while you're playing the game before spending money on new parts. Lag can be caused by a number of things. 

I'd start running task manager while you're gaming to see if anything is spiking to 100% (except the GPU which is normal) but if CPU, memory or disk are running high then that will cause lag. Also test your internet latency with a speed test. 

 

Also,

Make sure all your drivers are up to date, especially your GPU. 

Try turning your settings/resolution down.

Close any unnecessary apps that are running in the background.  Like internet 

 

 

[NumLock21]

Ryzen 5 3400G is a quad core processor with support for SMT, so it's a 4 cores / 8 threads CPU.  Some of the things you're using the PC for, your current setup is fine, if you don't mind waiting a bit longer for your projects to finish. But a CPU upgrade will sure help speed things up faster.

Slight over the $100, here is a Ryzen 5 5500

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($109.99 @ B&H)
Total: $109.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-12-05 14:04 EST-0500

[Preso]

38 minutes ago, josefah said:

I recommend doing some performance monitoring while you're playing the game before spending money on new parts. Lag can be caused by a number of things. 

I'd start running task manager while you're gaming to see if anything is spiking to 100% (except the GPU which is normal) but if CPU, memory or disk are running high then that will cause lag. Also test your internet latency with a speed test. 

 

Also,

Make sure all your drivers are up to date, especially your GPU. 

Try turning your settings/resolution down.

Close any unnecessary apps that are running in the background.  Like internet 

 

 

My pc usually lags when playing CPU intensive games like Fortnite, R6 Siege, and League (yeah even in league, it runs smooth but will sometimes stutter)

I also mentioned that I'd like to have some apps running like my music or discord.

[Preso]

52 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Get a used 5600 instead.  Much better and a good stop gap for the upcoming x3d chips if you want.

 

Or it'll handle any GPU upgrade later too.

Thank you for this. I'm really just looking for a CPU that will be a nice upgrade for my current machine, not bottle necking a ton and will also be able to handle future GPU upgrades.

 

What GPU's would you recommend?

[josefah]

8 minutes ago, Preso said:

My pc usually lags when playing CPU intensive games like Fortnite, R6 Siege, and League (yeah even in league, it runs smooth but will sometimes stutter)

I also mentioned that I'd like to have some apps running like my music or discord.

That's fair but it's still better just to verify. it sucks spending money on new parts to find out that you didn't need to. 

 

If your CPU is running at 100% then upgrade that first so a new GPU won't bottleneck it.  

[Preso]

7 minutes ago, josefah said:

That's fair but it's still better just to verify. it sucks spending money on new parts to find out that you didn't need to. 

 

If your CPU is running at 100% then upgrade that first so a new GPU won't bottleneck it.  

I just did some testing on R6 Siege, my CPU is at a minimum at 70%, going up to 85+, while my GPU rarely gets above 60%.

[Dedayog]

42 minutes ago, Preso said:

Thank you for this. I'm really just looking for a CPU that will be a nice upgrade for my current machine, not bottle necking a ton and will also be able to handle future GPU upgrades.

 

What GPU's would you recommend?

I wouldn't really.  The 5700XTis a good 1080p card and only a 6700XT or better would be an upgrade, at $300+ for the GPU alone.

 

So I think a 5600 + 5700XT will last a good while.

[Preso]

4 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

I wouldn't really.  The 5700XTis a good 1080p card and only a 6700XT or better would be an upgrade, at $300+ for the GPU alone.

 

So I think a 5600 + 5700XT will last a good while.

I only have a 5700, not XT. Would it be worth to sell this one and upgrade to the XT version?

[Dedayog]

18 minutes ago, Preso said:

I only have a 5700, not XT. Would it be worth to sell this one and upgrade to the XT version?

God no.

 

If you're going to, at least move up to a 6650XT.

 

But the 5700 is still a decent 1080p card, so I'd keep it.

[Preso]

2 hours ago, Dedayog said:

God no.

 

If you're going to, at least move up to a 6650XT.

 

But the 5700 is still a decent 1080p card, so I'd keep it.

What would be an NVIDIA equivalent of that?

I've only ever used AMD since I got this PC as a prebuilt and have changed parts here and there but the GPU has stayed the same.

Over the years I've had many issues with the GPU: sometimes not booting (giving VRAM error) and a lot with the drivers, so I'm wondering if the NVIDIA expirience will be smoother.