Need Upgrade Help

AndyLanderdahl · June 16, 2018

Earlier this year I upgraded from my GTX 970 to a GTX 1080, as it was a gift. Lately I've had some extra cash and thought I'd address the very noticeable bottleneck this has created.

AMD F6350
GTX 1080 (MSI Seahawk)

16GB of DDR3 (Two different brands of 2x4GB)

I think that's really all the relevant parts, but just ask if you need more. The CPU has basically stuck the GPU at 30% max usage in games like Destiny 2 at 4k. I have about $400 to do the upgrade, which is obviously tough considering I have to buy a new logic board and likely some DDR4. Based off performance benchmarks I've looked at to get $400 worth of improvement I basically am stuck with a Ryzen 7 or i7, both of which when added to the board and RAM far exceed my budget. If anyone can recommend a cheaper CPU that will still give a decent upgrade to the F6350 that'd be great. I mostly use the system for Steam Streaming, so I was particularly interested in a modern architecture that better supports the streaming, but it's not as important as relieving that bottle neck. I also use the system for CAD and audio editing, so in an ideal world I can keep with DDR3 so I can afford a larger amount of RAM, but again, not as important.

Lurick · June 16, 2018

You could easily do it with something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($174.69 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($64.39 @ OutletPC)
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $324.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-06-16 13:53 EDT-0400

or

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - X470 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.99 @ B&H)
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $404.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-06-16 13:55 EDT-0400

Taf the Ghost · June 16, 2018

18 minutes ago, AndyLanderdahl said:

Earlier this year I upgraded from my GTX 970 to a GTX 1080, as it was a gift. Lately I've had some extra cash and thought I'd address the very noticeable bottleneck this has created.

AMD F6350
GTX 1080 (MSI Seahawk)

16GB of DDR3 (Two different brands of 2x4GB)

I think that's really all the relevant parts, but just ask if you need more. The CPU has basically stuck the GPU at 30% max usage in games like Destiny 2 at 4k. I have about $400 to do the upgrade, which is obviously tough considering I have to buy a new logic board and likely some DDR4. Based off performance benchmarks I've looked at to get $400 worth of improvement I basically am stuck with a Ryzen 7 or i7, both of which when added to the board and RAM far exceed my budget. If anyone can recommend a cheaper CPU that will still give a decent upgrade to the F6350 that'd be great. I mostly use the system for Steam Streaming, so I was particularly interested in a modern architecture that better supports the streaming, but it's not as important as relieving that bottle neck. I also use the system for CAD and audio editing, so in an ideal world I can keep with DDR3 so I can afford a larger amount of RAM, but again, not as important.

With the way Intel segmented the market and AMD's bottlenecks on DDR3 platforms, it's worth it to just go to a DDR4 platform, unless you can land an epic deal on a 6700k or 7700k in the used market.

The question becomes about how you want to proceed. $400 is obviously a little tight, but you can really choose 1 of 2 directions:

6c + 8 Gb of Memory
4c + 16 Gb of Memory

Whichever you feel would be more useful to you is the way to go. Both CPU & RAM can be upgraded later, though RAM is cheaper to upgrade than CPU.

AndyLanderdahl · June 16, 2018

Much appreciated, guys. After doing a quick look at the benchmarks I definitely think the 2600 or 2600x is defiantly the best way to go. RAM and CPU can definitely be upgraded latter, but RAM makes much more sense to upgrade later, given memory prices will be going down and it's expandable rather than replaceable. Admittedly, I hadn't looked at the 2nd Gen R5 and I'm much happier with the upgrade to 2nd Gen than I was with the 1st Gen R5s.