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Been ages since I gamed on a PC, and even then, it wasn't on games that exactly required up to date hardware! Anyway...
Have just upgraded the GF's lad's GFX card from a GTX750 to a GTX1060 as an early christmas present. He says it's made a fair difference, and "will do for now" in his words...
Looked at the specs of his system, wasn't exactly all that high spec for when it was put together (3 years ago), I'm thinking I may be best off to upgrade CPU and RAM now so that it doesn't bottleneck in the future and lasts him at least another 3-4 years, or certainly until he's old enough to be buying his own kit at least (he's 15 now). Specs are...
H97 Gigabyte Motherboard
i5 4440 processor
GTX1060 (was GTX750)
8GB RAM
Seems to me that the 8GB of RAM could/should be upped to 16Gb to make a difference, is it worth going for even more though (4 RAM slots, will take max of 8GB per slot according to MoBo specs)?
What about the processor? Doesn't seem like it was all that amazing to begin with, the GTX750 was an obvious bottleneck for the games he's playing, but I've seen 2nd hand i7 4770's and 4790's for £120-130 on ebay or local classifieds that would give a 50% boost in CPU performance according to the benchmarks. Would he notice it gaming?
Or just save the money (bearing in mind I'd sell the old components on on ebay to recoup some of the investment), and wait til a new(er) platform is cheap enough to invest in?
Ive been considering upgrades also. i've got a kaby lake mobo so can only use intel 6/7 gen. The price of an upgrade CPU about £150 (second hand) makes it worth buying a new ryzen Am4 mobo and processor which will cost not much more just an intel cpu.
Ive got 8gb Ram and have never used all of it. But apparently using dual channel will make a small difference. so worth another 8gb stick? but i think for gaming 32gb is mostly pointless.
A 1060 is probably the minimum to play new games in decent resolution with good fps.
RAM might make a bit of difference. Processor, a faster MHZ will make some. Also an SSD as the main drive will seem like a huge upgrade.
My son has an I7 4790 4.4ghz, with a 970 GTX and 16GB - it plays everything in 1080/3 screens
If you do decide to upgrade the ram, I currently have this for sale:
https://www.avforums.com/threads/corsair-ddr3-ram-16gb-4x4gb.2206414/
Are you using a SSD as a boot drive? If not that would definitely be the first step. A 500GB MX500 is £62 on Amazon.
With a 1060, I doubt the 4440 is holding it back much if at all. Use something like MSI afterburner and turn on OSD (on screen display) to look at CPU and GPU usage to find the limiting factor.
Also an SSD as the main drive will seem like a huge upgrade.
Should have said, he already has an SSD Boot Drive
I've found a guy selling a MoBo bundle not too far away... Z87 ASUS MoBo, i7 4770k processor, 16GB Corsair 1600MHz RAM (2x8GB sticks), a half decent air cooler and a case (basically everything except PSU, HD and graphics card) for £250... My thoughts are swap his i5 4440 out for the i7 4770k, swap his 2xGB sticks out for the 2x8GB RAM sticks, and then bung the Z87 ASUS board, his i5 4440 processor and 8GB RAM back on ebay as a bundle for £150ish... That way it's only cost £100 to upgrade from i5 to i7 and from 8GB to 16GB RAM... Seem sensible?
Same here , the CPU won't be holding it back - not at 1080. PS kids are a bit a pain in wanting more FPS, where the human eye can't detect more than 30. If the PC isn't bogging down at times at much less than that, then it's fine.
If you do decide to upgrade the ram, I currently have this for sale:
https://www.avforums.com/threads/corsair-ddr3-ram-16gb-4x4gb.2206414/
/blockquote>Cheers, his MoBo specs only support up to 1600MHz DDR3 though apparently...
PS kids are a bit a pain in wanting more FPS, where the human eye can’t detect more than 30.
I get that, this is more about making sure he has nothing to complain about for the next 3 years and any subsequent games he might play...
Should be good. We've never overclocked the 4790 even with water cooling.
Give it a few months....
It's still a capable cpu.
If he's gaming at HD resolution (1080) it will be fine with that graphics card too.. . It will start to creek with a higher resolution monitors though.
Some games are beginning to use more than 8gbv ram if it's available.
I'd personally put an extra 8gb in, it might not run in duel channel mode though of its not a matched pair of sticks. That said duel channel doesn't make a monumental difference.
I'd also put an SSD in too.. It won't make a huge difference in game, but for game load and boot times and general system responsiveness it's very worth while.
An i5 4440 to 4790 might only give 25% at best. Most games don't use all cores, even now, so mhz is the fastest.
Your jump from a 750 to 1060 is good BTW.
We also have 4th gen i7 laptop with a 740GTX which is nowhere near the desktop - the CPU in the desktop is a 33% quicker, but it's the full sized 970 in the desktop that kills the GTX graphics from the laptop.
Something something console something...
(-:
Exactly.
My daughter has realised she plays one PC game, that doesn't need a gaming machine. She does a bit on her PS4 but wants a Switch. Given up on the cost of a gaming PC.
My son play's SIMs - Forza etc, which is PC - and steering wheel stuff.
Same here , the CPU won’t be holding it back – not at 1080. PS kids are a bit a pain in wanting more FPS, where the human eye can’t detect more than 30.
That's a myth. And 30 to 60fps is night and day. Personally I play on a 144Hz monitor and typically have 100-144FPS in games, I can certainly notice the difference between 60 and 100+ FPS but it's more subtle than 30 to 60. 30 to 60 is more like 30 is so obvious it's detracts from the gameplay and immersion whereas 60 to 100+ is more just 100+ is smoother but 60 is still generally fine unless you've been playing at 100+ for a while and it suddenly jumps down to 60. There's a reason pro players often run only 1080 resolution but have FPS (and monitors) in the 200+ range
Yup, if you ever experience framerate cuts it is VERY obvious when you start dropping below 60fps.
That i5 isn't the worst, I'm still on a QX6850!
from my recent resarch about upgrading the higher the resolution the less load is put on the CPU. my system is a 3570k CPU(overclocked at 4.2) and had a GTX970 with a 1440 monitor.
decided to wait on the CPU side of things untill the new ryzen are out and got a vega 64 graphics card for now. decent improvement for now even though the CPU will be holding it back a bit.
if your wanting something to last a few years i would wait for the new ryzen and maybe try and get a good deal on one of the previous gen CPU's.
Update
Bought the bundle kit I mentioned above... He now has the following specs...
Gigabyte H97 MoBo
Intel Core i7 4770K Processor
16GB Crucial 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
GTX 1060 Ti Graphics Card
1TB SSD
The upgrades (incuding gfx card) cost me just shy of £400, but I've got an Asus Z87 MoBo, an i5 4440 processor, 8GB of RAM, a GTX 750 Ti card and a few other bits and pieces to sell on (I reckon that lot's worth about £180-200 going by ebay prices) or perhaps make a Hackintosh out of... So I should only be out of pocket by £200 or so once all is said and done.
In terms of performance, the GFX card obviously made a huge difference, but upping the RAM to 16 also made a noticeable difference. The Processor has made a difference, but not as much in games as I suspect it might elsewhere. Long and the short of it is now on the games he plays, he gets no glitches and consistent 60fps or higher, which he's ecstatic about!
seeing as that CPU is a k get a decent cooler and get it overclocked, actual speed of it will be the best thing for games. especially if the monitor is 1080.
Looks like you got a great deal there and a happy kid to boot is always a bonus!