upgrade or new PC?

lincsman

Member
Hi there folks. I should be getting a job soon and when I do I plan to work on my computer, or get a new one. The specs should be in my signature but I'll put it on here too. I have an AMD fx-6300 processor oc'd to 3.8 ghz seated in an ASUS m5A97 R2.0 motherboard. I have 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and a GTX 770 2GB video card, along with a 128GB SSD with a 1TB HDD. What I was thinking of if I upgraded would be an FX-8350 processor, another 8GB of RAM, and a GTX 1070 video card. I'm concerned though that this might be a waste of money as apposed to a new rig because I think an 8350 might just bottleneck with the 1070. I have a 700W power supply so I doubt I'll have to upgrade that. So, what would the verdict be? I know that a new computer would of course be more future proof, but if these upgrades last a few years than I could use the GTX 1070 in the new one and maybe sell the old computer with the GTX 770. Thanks for the help.
 
What specific PSU is it out of curiosity?

I'd throw the GPU in there first and see how it fares, you should get acceptable performance out of just about everything with just a GPU upgrade.
 
The jump from the 6300 to an 8320/8350 is negligible in most circumstances and not remotely worth the money unless you can get a free trade.

I'd save for a while and wait and see what AMD and Intel bring to the table by the end of this year. Summit Ridge (Zen) CPU's are promising if the marketing hype is to be believed and if not Intel's option will be a huge upgrade for you either way. Your build should still serve you well for a little while. You can also just upgrade the GPU now and hold out for new CPU's over the next year.
 
Intel's Kabylake is coming out in around September which is basically a Skylake refresh (ie. more pci-e lanes). Cannondale is the next big thing for Intel and that's scheduled to be in 2017 as that will be the replacement to the aging broadwell-E lineup on the X99 chipset. So yes, the Cannondale release will also bring a replacement to the X99.
 
thanks all. Come to think of it my 6300 can be stable at 4 ghz if I get a better cooling fan/heat sink which apart from the additional 2 cores of an 8350 makes it about the same. My PSU is a Cool Master RS-700-PCAA-E3.
 
In the future you'll want to think about moving away from AM3+ and towards AM4 or 1151 so I'd say get the GTX 1070 and use it with the FX-6300 for a bit and see how it goes, then in the future you can think about changing the CPU/board/RAM but keep the 1070.

Don't get an FX-8350. If you're thinking of doing that you might as well just get a new CPU/board/RAM because the 8350 is outdated.
 
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