Which part to upgrade next?

Y

yohanio

New Member
Hello,

I just upgraded my video card not too long ago (HD 7970 to an R9 390) but I'm still having trouble playing some games smoothly, namely the division. I was wondering what should I upgrade next to get the biggest boost? I'm guessing it's my CPU but would I need to upgrade my Motherboard as well? Or would adding more RAM help?

This is what I currently have

RAM : 2x4gb G-SKILL
CPU : i5-2500k 3.3GHz
MOBO : Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3

Thanks.
 
Your system should perform pretty well! Have you got an SSD? If not I'd say get one of those.

Have you tried reinstalling Windows? That could fix performance issues. Or, I wonder if your power supply is on its way out.
 
I do have two SSDs and I reinstalled windows not too long ago (in December). How would I check if my PSU is on its way out? And would an i7 be a huge upgrade?
 
I'd probably say CPU in this instance if the Division is that heavily multithreaded. The minimum requirement is an i5 2400 which is only a couple hundred MHz behind your 2500K. You can see if it performs any better with a mild overclock to verify.

Alternatively I'd give a fresh install of Windows a shot. Also you can determine if you need more RAM by your average utilization when doing intensive tasks, if you see somewhere in the realm of 85%+ utilization then you'll likely see a decent benefit with additional RAM.
 
Never really overclocked my CPU, is there an up-to-date guide somewhere that I can check?

Also, would it damage my CPU if I'm using the stock heatsink?
 
The best i7 you could have would be a 3770K and that's with a BIOS update, otherwise the 2600K or the 2700K. It would be an upgrade, yes, but it might not improve your gaming performance and these CPUs are old but they're still quite expensive to buy second hand and sometimes hard to find because people, like me, are hanging onto them because they're still very good.

You'll need aftermarket cooling to overclock. Luckily, you have a good motherboard and one of the, if not THE, best overclocking CPU in history. i5 2500Ks were a breeze to overclock if you had a good board and cooling - I had mine for 3 years. It might be worth checking this out: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18338090 as you can see from the guide, most people could quite happily get to the likes of 4.7 or 4.8GHz with them if they had decent cooling and a stable motherboard.
 
yohanio said:
Would I need a new cooling if I want to just overclock it a bit?
Click to expand...
Yeah I wouldn't recommend overclocking at all on the stock cooler.

Happily though CPU coolers that fit the 1155 socket your i5 2500K uses will also fit newer sockets too, so it doesn't matter if you buy a cooler, overclock your 2500K and decide you want to move to a new Intel system, your cooler will still fit the latest 1151 sockets.
 
On ebay you can get a 2600K for about 100 bucks and this will provide 8 threads instead of 4 which in today's games will probably be a much better improvement than what it was when it came out.
 
Ok, so I formatted my PC and downloaded CoreTemp and RealTemp and it seems that my CPU is reaching the 95C mark and that is without really doing anything. I'm guessing that isn't so good and should probably replace the thermal paste or something.
 
yohanio said:
Ok, so I formatted my PC and downloaded CoreTemp and RealTemp and it seems that my CPU is reaching the 95C mark and that is without really doing anything. I'm guessing that isn't so good and should probably replace the thermal paste or something.
Click to expand...
That's an enormous problem and needs to be addressed immediately.
 
Yes this is probably down to one or more of three things:

- Cooler not installed properly
- Cooler and/or case clogged with dust
- Need to reapply thermal paste
 
I just wanted to say thanks guys! It seems that the thermal paste needed to be replaced. After I replaced it, the division (and other games) are running 10x smoother. Wouldn't have thought to check it if you guys didn't mention overclocking.

Just wanted to share as well. Was using 3D mark to benchmark my PC's performance and before it was at 5933, now it's at 9271. Thanks again!
 
yohanio said:
I just wanted to say thanks guys! It seems that the thermal paste needed to be replaced. After I replaced it, the division (and other games) are running 10x smoother. Wouldn't have thought to check it if you guys didn't mention overclocking.

Just wanted to share as well. Was using 3D mark to benchmark my PC's performance and before it was at 5933, now it's at 9271. Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Great! Pleased we could help and all is working for you! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top