CPU or GPU upgrade? Help needed

[Sunny33]

Hello all, thanks for stopping by.

 

Location: North Queensland, Australia

All currency mentioned is in AUD

 

I have a (rough) $350 budget for my next upgrade on my PC.

Current specs:

CPU: Intel i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual Core

Motherboard: ASRock H170M Pro4

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 2133MHz DDR4

GPU: Sapphire Radeon R7 360 2GB Nitro

PSU: Silverstone 600W 80+ Silver

SSD: Intel 535 Series 120GB (Boot drive)

HDD: Western Digital Green 1.5TB 5400rpm (Storage drive)

Case: Corsair Carbide 88R Mid Tower mATX

Case Cooling: 4 x 120mm CoolerMaster Sickflow X Non-LED fans

CPU Cooling: Stock Intel Cooler

Monitor: BenQ EW2440 24in 1080p

 

I wanted to run the games Arma 3 and Rust better, i understand rust is a very poorly optimised game and while Arma 3 isnt as badly optimised, its CPU reliant.

I currently run Arma 3 (Altis Life) at about 25fps in main cities, and 45 outside of cities, Breaking Point and Exile run about the same, Exile might run about 5fps less at the most because of its nature.

I currently run Rust at about 30fps-55fps depending on the situation

Arma 3 runs on Standard, and Rust runs on fairly low settings all round.

Both games run at 1080p.

 

What would be better to upgrade? both the CPU and GPU are pretty poor, i just wanted to know what would give the biggest fps boost.

I had the i5-6500 or the Xeon E3 1220 V5 in mind, because they fit my current socket type, and are in my budget (the 6600k is in budget, but i dont have an OC Motherboard)

on the other hand, i was going to see about the XFX Radeon RX 480 Core 8GB as the GPU upgrade

 

Im open to suggestions, i just want to know what would benefit the most. Thanks,

 

Sunny

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can't run a xeon on your board(and even if you could don't get a 1220).

 

Id probably get a rx 480 and a i5 6400.

[Sunny33]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can't run a xeon on your board(and even if you could don't get a 1220).

 

Id probably get a rx 480 and a i5 6400.

I cant? i was under the impression the 1220 V5 was socket 1151

 

The RX 480 alone is $379 currently, i mentioned at the top that this was AUD. Australian import tax is insane

with that in mind, the RX 480 is the best option?

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Sunny33 said:

I cant? i was under the impression the 1220 V5 was socket 1151

 

The RX 480 alone is $379 currently, i mentioned at the top that this was AUD. Australian import tax is insane

with that in mind, the RX 480 is the best option?

Yea thats waht id get. Sorry for not reading that.

 

The xeon 1220 is the same as the i5 and isn't hyperthreaded. Even though its the same socket, intel has made it so that it won't work in the comsumer chipsets(h170, h110, z170, b150) and will only work in the c series chipsets.

[Sunny33]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea thats waht id get. Sorry for not reading that.

 

The xeon 1220 is the same as the i5 and isn't hyperthreaded. Even though its the same socket, intel has made it so that it won't work in the comsumer chipsets(h170, h110, z170, b150) and will only work in the c series chipsets.

Okay, thanks for your help  Any idea how much it would help?

I understand that the CPU then might be a bottleneck badly, and if thats the case i would rather wait to get both an RX 480 and an i5-6500

 

Thats silly, this is only for the 1151 socket isnt it? I've seen numerous builds that include a Xeon in older build guides, why the change for 1151?

[Zyndo]

Here is a list of all CPU's supported by your motherboard according to ASRock's site:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H170M Pro4/index.us.asp?cat=CPU

 

3 minutes ago, Sunny33 said:

I understand that the CPU then might be a bottleneck badly, and if that's the case i would rather wait to get both an RX 480 and an i5-6500

That would probably be your best move. but there is also no real reason you shouldn't get the GPU now. upgrading your GPU would give you dramatically better FPS in GPU bound games. And the i3 6100 will bottleneck your GPU a bit in some more CPU bound games, but even an RX 480 running at 80% would be SIGNIFICANTLY better than the r7 360. Just because your CPU results in bottlnecking your GPU, doesn't mean that you wouldn't benefit severely from just having a better GPU. All it means is that you're leaving some performance on the table. Its really not as bad as people believe it to be.

 

Get an RX 480 now (or wait for prices to balance out). You could also pick up a 970, or maybe even used 970 for a more reasonable price where you live. its basically the same performance, and could potentially be more affordable than the 480 where you live at this moment in time. Get the GPU now, and then upgrade to the CPU when you can afford it. You may even be able to buy Kaby Lake i5 and put it in your board (if you get a supported BIOS update) at that point. Or if you want for the release of Kaby Lake, the skylake CPU's will likely get slightly cheaper, and you may see used 6500's appearing on the market.

[Sunny33]

2 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

Here is a list of all CPU's supported by your motherboard according to ASRock's site:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H170M Pro4/index.us.asp?cat=CPU

 

That would probably be your best move. but there is also no real reason you shouldn't get the GPU now. upgrading your GPU would give you dramatically better FPS in GPU bound games. And the i3 6100 will bottleneck your GPU a bit in some more CPU bound games, but even an RX 480 running at 80% would be SIGNIFICANTLY better than the r7 360. Just because your CPU results in bottlnecking your GPU, doesn't mean that you wouldn't benefit severely from just having a better GPU. All it means is that you're leaving some performance on the table. Its really not as bad as people believe it to be.

 

Get an RX 480 now (or wait for prices to balance out). You could also pick up a 970, or maybe even used 970 for a more reasonable price where you live. its basically the same performance, and could potentially be more affordable than the 480 where you live at this moment in time. Get the GPU now, and then upgrade to the CPU when you can afford it. You may even be able to buy Kaby Lake i5 and put it in your board (if you get a supported BIOS update) at that point. Or if you want for the release of Kaby Lake, the skylake CPU's will likely get slightly cheaper, and you may see used 6500's appearing on the market.

Thank you for that, very informative.

You're right there, its silly but i love being punched in the face with the wow factor of "how much faster my pc runs", know what i mean?

I think if i wait for cash for the both (equates to $710 with shipping) then it could even be less by then, because prices may have dropped.

 

I dont like to buy used components in my area, people charge insane prices, or will sell broken products and not tell you its broken.

I prefer to buy from PCCaseGear.com, best Aussie retailer with decent prices. A part on PCCG will be $60 or so cheaper (shipping included) than the same part locally almost every time.