Recommendations for upgrading this PC (CPU?)

Gould-Digger · December 30, 2016

Hi All,

I built a PC a couple of years ago for my sister, I had an incredibly tight budget so here are the current specs...

CPU - Intel Pentium G3258 CPU (Dual Core 3.20GHz, Socket H3 LGA-1150).

GPU - ASUS AMD Radeon R9 270 2GB Graphics Card.

RAM - Crucial Sport 8GB Kit (4GBx2), DDR3.

MOBO - MSI H81M-P33 Socket 1150, mATX Motherboard.

HDD - Seagate 1TB, 7200RPM.

PSU - EVGA 500W

She currently plays alot of GTA5 which runs just fine on this system at 1080p, medium settings. However she wants to play some more modern titles like Mafia 3 (Runs smoothly on missions, but during open world gameplay when there's more AI, cars etc. or a cop chase, car crash etc. the frame rate becomes choppy. She also wants to play Watchdogs 2, but that straight out refuses to run on a dual core apparently.

From my knowledge, I believe it's the CPU that needs desperately upgrading to a quad core for modern game titles?

I don't keep up to date with latest generations or when new components are due to be released, is now a even a good time to upgrade? My sister currently has some funds to upgrade it herself (Around £200/$250).

Ideally I want to keep to the lower end of the budget and aim for the Best performance per dollar ratio, if possible. Any help is appreciated.

Kind regards, Nathan