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Worth upgrading old FX4300 for Intel Core i5 3570K CPU for AAA Gaming?

First, I'll establish that Linus has grown on me over time. His videos kept coming up while I was doing computer research and I'm thinking this is one kookie Canuck with a voice I hate more than my own (definitely not baritone). Next thing I know, I'm like, "If I'm ever in Vancouver, I'll have to look Linus up...he seems like cool guy." I have no idea how this happened... 

 

Anyway, so I've made my kids a couple of gaming systems that may "upgrade" on the cheap. I have a FX-9590 with a AMD R9 270 that works just fine, though consuming quite a bit of power for what it does.  The other system I have have is an FX-4300 with some entry-level GT 730. My kids mostly play Fornite and Overwatch. The AMD FX-9590 works well enough but the FX-4300 is barely cutting it and as such it's limited to mid settings on Fortnite. Is it worth upgrading old FX-4300 for Intel Core i5 3570K CPU and MOBO (plenty of low-cost options on eBay? Or just upgrading the GPU to say an RX 570 or GTX 1060 for the same money? I don't want to replace RAM or the Power Supply and the system is in a MicroATX case, which is ideal for the location it's in. The PSU is 550 watts so lower-power is preferred. My main concern is that I'm CPU limited. I'm not looking to break the bank or ready to go Ryzen at this point. 

 

Specs:

FX-4300 (overclocked to 4100 Ghz)

MSI micro-ATX (middle of the road mobo with marginal power modulation) 

8 GB DDR3 RAM @ 1600 Mhz 

GeForce GT 730, 2 GB VRAM 

90 GB SATA3 SSD 

550 WATT PSU 

Corsair AIO (H60 I think) 

 

 

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Get something like MSI Afterburner or HWMonitor, and if your CPU is over ~80% usage, upgrade that. If not, you have room to upgrade your GPU. However don't expect much from the 4300. My cousin had one and he had some major bottlenecking from it paired with a GTX 970.

My Build, v2.1 --- CPU: i7-8700K @ 5.2GHz/1.288v || MoBo: Asus ROG STRIX Z390-E Gaming || RAM: 4x4GB G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 2666 14-14-14-33 || Cooler: Custom Loop || GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 Ti SC Black, on water || PSU: EVGA G2 850W || Case: Corsair 450D || SSD: 850 Evo 250GB, Intel 660p 2TB || Storage: WD Blue 2TB || G502 & Glorious PCGR Fully Custom 80% Keyboard || MX34VQ, PG278Q, PB278Q

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The Experiment --- CPU: i5-3570K @ 4.0 GHz || MoBo: Asus P8Z77-V LK || RAM: 16GB Corsair 1600 4x4 || Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Evo || GPUs: Asus GTX 750 Ti, || PSU: Corsair TX750M Gold || Case: Thermaltake Core G21 TG || SSD: 840 Pro 128GB || HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB

 

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It's definitely going to be a huge upgrade, but it will still bottleneck in a few games with a RX580 class of GPU, quad cores are dying, my 2500k @4.5GHz would bottleneck my 970 in a few games. I would suggest going with an i7, but it depends on the price, if the difference is considerable, go for it and invest in the rest of the build.

CPU: i7 2600K 4.4GHz@1.3V | Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Pro | CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212x | RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4x4GB @1600MHz CL9

GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1070 Ti G1 Gaming @2GHz | Storage: Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Barracuda 2TB  | PSU: Corsair TX550M | Monitor: LG 29UM69G

Keyboard: Corsair K70 LUX MX Red | Mouse: Corsair M65 Pro RGB | Case: Corsair Carbide 400C | Headphone: Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro | Microphone: Blusmart Lapel

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24 minutes ago, BlueThumb said:

 The other system I have have is an FX-4300 with some entry-level GT 730. My kids mostly play Fornite and Overwatch. The AMD FX-9590 works well enough but the FX-4300 is barely cutting it and as such it's limited to mid settings on Fortnite. Is it worth upgrading old FX-4300 for Intel Core i5 3570K CPU and MOBO (plenty of low-cost options on eBay? Or just upgrading the GPU to say an RX 570 or GTX 1060 for the same money? I don't want to replace RAM or the Power Supply and the system is in a MicroATX case

How much would you be spending on a 3570k CPU + mATX z77 Mobo 2nd hand from eBay? A quick look on eBay puts it at around $100 for the CPU and $150 for a mATX motherboard... Though I'm not sure if there are any cheaper deals near you on craigslists or whatnot...

You could get a brand new Ryzen 2200G + mATX Mobo + 8GB DDR4 for around $250. The integrated graphics in the 2200G will perform a lot better than the GT 730. If you want, you might be able to re-use the existing 8GB of DDR3 from that system in your other system to give it 16GB of DDR3, so that won't go to waste either.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
Type Item Price
CPU AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor $98.49 @ SuperBiiz
Motherboard ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $79.61 @ OutletPC
Memory G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory $63.99 @ Newegg
  Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts  
  Total (before mail-in rebates) $262.09
  Mail-in rebates -$20.00
  Total $242.09
  Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-31 00:07 EDT-0400  

 

CPU: Intel i7 6700k  | Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170x Gaming 5 | RAM: 2x16GB 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX | GPU: Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080ti | PSU: Corsair RM750x (2018) | Case: BeQuiet SilentBase 800 | Cooler: Arctic Freezer 34 eSports | SSD: Samsung 970 Evo 500GB + Samsung 840 500GB + Crucial MX500 2TB | Monitor: Acer Predator XB271HU + Samsung BX2450

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Thanks guys. Very solid info. I'll check the CPU usage but I'm almost certain it's topping out. I can't even clock it higher as the MOBO won't hold voltage constant under load. I'm thinking I'll go Ryzen 3 as suggested in a year. I'm not an AMD Fanboy but cheaper is better for me as they are systems kids play. 

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