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Which upgrade path

Psycrow
By Psycrow
in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
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Posted

Guys,

 

I think its time to upgrade my old system. Current specs are:

Phenom ii x4 965

Gigabyte AM3 Mobo

8 GB DDR3 1600 (2x4gb)

XFX 7950 Black 3GB Graphics

WD 750 + 1TB 7200 HDDs

 

At first I was thinking of moving to a new AM3+ and a FX 8350 ( MSI 970 Krait)So I could reuse my ram and Water AIO. Cost - $336.97 CAD

But if i invest in a dead end socket I could get more Gaming performance from a Haswell 4690K (MSI z97)setup and still keep my ram. Cost - $513.98 CAD

However is it worth it at this point to go Skylake.. say a 6600k (MSI z170a) and pony up for DDR4 (16GB ) Cost - $684.97 CAD

 

My machine is used for 1080p gaming and websurfing only ( no streaming or video encoding) and "Bang for Buck" is paramount as upgrading my Graphincs card is the next step. Would the performance of an 8350 or Haswell over my Phenom ii be big enough to justify the cost of the upgrade? Should I invest in a new GPU now and then start saving for a Skylake or AM4 setup in 2016 and if I did this would the x4 965 be a bottleneck for say a r380 or 970? ( some of my reading says "yes" some "no").

 

Please only helpfull responses... no fanboy stuff I have happily used both AMD/intel/nvidia products over the years and like them all.

 

Psy

 

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Posted

Guys,

 

I thi

your processor would definetly bottleneck a 970 r equivalent i honestly think you should keep what you have and wait because pascal isnt to far away and amd has zen coming up so, if i were you i would hang in there for a little longer and wait until pascal and zen come out cause it is literally not far away maxwell is over a year old now

My Cheap But Good Rig: I7-3770s, Intel Motherboard (actually made by intel), 16gb DDR3, Nvidia Gtx 1070, 250gb Samsung 850 EVO SSD, 750gb HDD, Evga 500 BR power supply

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Thanks for the Reply Paul! Anyone else have any advise? Btw is pascal the code name for AMD's next GPU?

Psy

Pascal is nvidia's next big thing.

I'd go with the 4690k personally for your needs it's perfect. An FX series won't yield a huge boost over your Phenom other than in multilthreaded situations.

For us Canadians I think Skylake is way too overpriced for us right now compared to the outgoing Haswell, especially considering the marginal increase. Just my point of view.

The New Machine: Intel 11700K / Strix Z590-A WIFI II / Patriot Viper Steel 4400MHz 2x8GB / Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC w/ Bykski WB / x4 1TB SSDs (x2 M.2, x2 2.5) / Corsair 5000D Airflow White / EVGA G6 1000W / Custom Loop CPU & GPU

 

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Get a new cpu and motherboard and reuse the rest of your gear. i5 Haswell is still very good and you should be able to find good deals on them. Skylake also has motherboards that support ddr3. Then sometime next year upgrade your gpu if you feel the need to

PC Audio Setup = Beyerdynamic DT 770 pro 80 ohm and Sennheiser pc37x (also for xbox) hooked up to Schiit Fulla 3

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save up more for a platform change

 

you still can get the GTX970 and use it on the current system

 

the Haswell i5 4690K is still a great CPU for gaming

Budget? Uses? Currency? Location? Operating System? Peripherals? Monitor? Use PCPartPicker wherever possible. 

Quote whom you're replying to, and set option to follow your topics. Or Else we can't see your reply.

 

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