Specs and Speed

[m0rgh]

Hello, I've had my PC for a bit over a year and a half now, and I was wondering, what would be some specs to upgrade? I am pretty displeased with what I got, as the fans are really loud, and I can only run old games like CSGO and L4D2 at over 60 frames. As an example, Evolve Stage 2, a newer game, can only run at around 50-60 at medium to low settings. However I'm pretty unintelligent when it comes to hardware and specs, so I have no idea what to upgrade, and what to get. I'd like to maybe get better fans and maybe get a better video card, but not sure. Any advice or anything would help, here's my specs:
XFX Core Edition R9-270A-CNFC Radeon R9 270 2GB GD
ASUS CROSSBLADE RANGER FM2+ AMD A88X (Bolton D4) 8
Rosewill Stealth - ATX Mid Tower Gaming Computer C
AMD Athlon X4 860K Quad-Core 3.7GHz Socket FM2+ 95
Rosewill Glacier-500M, Glacier Series 500W Modular
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR
Costed about $600 to build. When I talk to my friends on how much I spent, they said I should easily be able to run newer games for the price and specs. Plus it was my first time building so idk if I screwed anything up. Any help and advice is welcomed, thanks

[SundownKid]

Well, preferably you should start from scratch. Reuse your case if you want and sell everything else on Ebay. It was a low end PC when you built it and its off the bottom end today.

Depending on your current budget and how much you make from selling your parts, I'd go with an i5-6500 or i5-6600k, and a Nvidia GTX 1060 6gb for modern games at 1080p 60 fps. Couple that with a quality PSU like EVGA, Antec, Seasonic etc. and 16gb DDR4 RAM.

[Andrius227]

Your pc is pretty bad. Should just build a new one. Or if you cannot afford it all at once, you could first get a new gpu. Such as a gtx1060. It would most likely get bottlenecked by your cpu, but it's not the end of the world, it's not like it would damage anything. And you could later reuse your gpu in a new build whenever you can afford it. You would not even need to replace everything, just the motherboard, cpu and ram.

Also you said your fans run loud. You might want to check if something is overheating and upgrade cooling if needed.

[Diff_1]

I'd also suggest starting by upgrading your GPU (graphics card) to something like a GTX 1060 as was suggest and as Andrius227 suggested you can upgrade just the motherboard, CPU and memory at a later time if that is not in the budget right now. The video card will help some even in your current system. AMD cpu's just are not made for gaming.

I'm a little worried about that Rosewill Glacier power supply. I was not able to find any reviews on it, most I could find is it produces 37A & 444W which should just be fine for a GTX 1060 which calls for a 400w or greater PSU whereas your R9 270 calls for a 500w minimum. If you are not having issues with random reboots or blue screens I'd think it would be fine as I said.

Assuming your system would not have any major bottlenecks which your CPU will be for now the GTX 1060 would give you over twice the performance you are getting now.
Nearest comparison I could find is against a R9 280 http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1751?vs=1771

Oh and if you do get a GTX 1060 get one with 6GB of video memory (Vram) the 3GB versions just will not cut it with newer games coming out. If you need suggestions just ask.

[m0rgh]

Messaggio originale di Diff_1:

I'd also suggest starting by upgrading your GPU (graphics card) to something like a GTX 1060 as was suggest and as Andrius227 suggested you can upgrade just the motherboard, CPU and memory at a later time if that is not in the budget right now. The video card will help some even in your current system. AMD cpu's just are not made for gaming.

I'm a little worried about that Rosewill Glacier power supply. I was not able to find any reviews on it, most I could find is it produces 37A & 444W which should just be fine for a GTX 1060 which calls for a 400w or greater PSU whereas your R9 270 calls for a 500w minimum. If you are not having issues with random reboots or blue screens I'd think it would be fine as I said.

Assuming your system would not have any major bottlenecks which your CPU will be for now the GTX 1060 would give you over twice the performance you are getting now.
Nearest comparison I could find is against a R9 280 http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1751?vs=1771

Oh and if you do get a GTX 1060 get one with 6GB of video memory (Vram) the 3GB versions just will not cut it with newer games coming out. If you need suggestions just ask.

Thank you and everyone else who responded. Is this what you are talking about? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814487269 Thanks again, sorry I'm pretty bad with this stuff, don't have much experience. Also, what is ACX? And why would 3 gb be too small?

[Rove]

EDIT: added link to Noctua fan since I forgot it somehow in original post.

EDIT 2: you personally need to make sure any of the coolers I recommended will fit your case since I can't find data on it's clearance size for CPU coolers. The liquid cooler WILL fit but I can't promise the aircollers will, only "probably" and you should check yourself.

My sugegstions:

CUSTOM CPU COOLER
(unless you have one already) choose one of 2 air or 1 liquid coolers:

Air:

Reeven Justice 82.1 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/pGPzK8/reeven-justice-821-cfm-sleeve-bearing-cpu-cooler-rc-1204
Newegg Marketplace $42.50 +FREE s/h In stock $42.50

Deepcool LUCIFER V2 81.3 CFM CPU Cooler
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/NZ2rxr/deepcool-lucifer-v2-813-cfm-cpu-cooler-lucifer-v2
SuperBiiz $42.99 +FREE s/h $42.99

Liquid:

Enermax Liqmax II 120 96.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/GGGj4D/enermax-cpu-cooler-elclmr120sbs
PCM $52.99 +$4.99 s/h $57.98
Newegg $59.99 +FREE s/h In stock $59.99

You motherboard is great for overclocking so a high performance cooler like one of these could help you achieve a nice and high overclock that is also cool and stable. I would not advise a CPU upgrade at this time. At least wait a few months for AMD Ryzen / Zen to come out in Q1 2017 and also their new AM4 motherboards with DDR4 support.

NEW CASE FANS
for silence and power, either add to empty slots or even replace old fans, choose from these 2 options based on needs:

High performance 74 CFM air flow at maximum 0.3 Sone (22.5~24.5 dbA) with 6 year warranty. This fan has PWM variable speed control from 600-1350 RPM so the noise probably drops by at least 1/2 at the lowest RPM and similarly the airflow drops proportionate to speed:
ARCTIC Arctic F12 PWM CO 74.0 CFM 120mm Fan
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/KzQypg/arctic-cooling-case-fan-afaco120pcgba01
OutletPC $9.98 $9.98+
SuperBiiz $9.99 +FREE s/h $9.99

Extremely low noise at 6.8 dbA with mainstream 33.5 CFM airflow with 6 year warranty. This fan has no PWM or other means of speed control and will run at constant 700~ RPM.
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/6r9KHx/noctua-case-fan-nfs12bredux700
Noctua NF-S12B redux-700 33.5 CFM 120mm Fan
OutletPC $16.88 $16.88+
Newegg $16.94 +FREE s/h In stock $16.94

Personally I'd suggest the Arctic high performance one here cause the noise is probably almost as low as the Noctua on the lowest PWM setting and the airflow probably also similar but there is also the potential for higher performance if it's ever needed. Still if noise is the top concern you may want to look into the Noctua further. Both are pretty silent though.

You could also try overclocking your GPU. I might recommend this as a first step alternative before upgrading. However do be aware of the risk of breaking it if you overheat it or otherwise stress it out too much. If you are afraid to try overclocking your GPU or have tried and are unsatisfied then I suppose a graphics upgrade is also possible, though costly. Personally I'm not ready to recommend doing more than overclocking but I will make a suggestion for a upgrade in case you want to go that way. I just advise you to try and be happy with what you've got so far in the graphics department, even if you need to overclock it.

This graphics card would fit your case and PSU:
Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 8GB G1 Gaming Video Card
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/W34NnQ/gigabyte-radeon-rx-480-8gb-g1-gaming-video-card-gv-rx480g1-gaming-8gd
SuperBiiz $239.99 $239.99+
B&H $239.99 +$9.07 s/h In stock $249.06


I don't think you actually need that yet though and would be better to save your money.

Here's a guy with a 4.5 GHz overclocked AMD CPU and a R9 270 who says he gets 75 FPS constant when not recording but unfortunately does not list his settings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3lWZRbvw4M

Still overclocking your CPU and GPU might be enough for now.

Specially with AMD Zen / Ryzen and Vega coming up next year it's a good time to wait.

[Diff_1]

ACX is just the cooling system the EVGA video cards use it stands for Active Cooling Xtreme.

Well what type of games do you play, mostly what you listed or others as well? If you only play those types of games and your resolution is 1920 x 1080 or less then a 3GB model may be alright. I was thinking of future proofing as games are using more and more high resolution textures that use up that memory. That being said most games available today will not use up 3GB of onboard video memory unless you go over the said resolution and/or crank up the anti-aliasing settings in a games video options.
For example I'm playing Mafia 3 right now at 1920 x 1080 resolution with anitaliasing at high and the game is using about 2.8GB of video memory.
Assassin's creed Rogue as another example is only using about 1.4GB at about the same settings.
We are the dwarves uses about 1.4GB and Tropico 5 uses about 1GB.

So basically if a 3GB card will work for you is what type of games you'll be playing now and in the future and what settings and resolutions you'll be wanting to use. Is a higher resolution or 4k monitor in your future?

[m0rgh]

Messaggio originale di Diff_1:

ACX is just the cooling system the EVGA video cards use it stands for Active Cooling Xtreme.

Well what type of games do you play, mostly what you listed or others as well? If you only play those types of games and your resolution is 1920 x 1080 or less then a 3GB model may be alright. I was thinking of future proofing as games are using more and more high resolution textures that use up that memory. That being said most games available today will not use up 3GB of onboard video memory unless you go over the said resolution and/or crank up the anti-aliasing settings in a games video options.
For example I'm playing Mafia 3 right now at 1920 x 1080 resolution with anitaliasing at high and the game is using about 2.8GB of video memory.
Assassin's creed Rogue as another example is only using about 1.4GB at about the same settings.
We are the dwarves uses about 1.4GB and Tropico 5 uses about 1GB.

So basically if a 3GB card will work for you is what type of games you'll be playing now and in the future and what settings and resolutions you'll be wanting to use. Is a higher resolution or 4k monitor in your future?

Maybe, but for know I'm using a standard 1080p monitor. Here's the card I'm thinking about right now, https://www.amazon.com/GeForce-STRIX-Ready-Graphic-STRIX-GTX1060-O6G-GAMING/dp/B01JHQT1SE?th=1 . Probably won't be playing many too demanding games, so I might get 3 gb. But how's that card? And also someone told me if I were to get one liike that, my CPU would bottleneck it (I think that's the term that was used) What does that mean exactly and should that be a concern?

[Diff_1]

@Rove a Radeon RX 480 performs worse then a GTX 1060 in most games for about the same price.
Overclocking may give a small boost in performance but I'd suspect not more then maybe 15fps. And that overclocking puts more stress on the sytem and on a power supply that is close to border line now for what they have.

[Rove]

Nah he's got at least like 150~ watts headroom for overclocking I think. You can also "overclock" most good PSUs a little though this reduces their rated efficiency. They can output more than their maximum, though only the better quality ones can.

The RX 480 8GB has way higher stats than the GTX 1060 6GB, compare on Wikipedia:
GeForce 10 series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_10_series
RX 400 series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units#Arctic_Islands_.284xx.29_Series

The RX 480 8GB is closer to the GTX 1070 in stats than to the GTX 1060 6GB.

How individual games favor one card over another doesn't tell the raw power, just the software.

[Diff_1]

Messaggio originale di StrikerMPH:

Maybe, but for know I'm using a standard 1080p monitor. Here's the card I'm thinking about right now, https://www.amazon.com/GeForce-STRIX-Ready-Graphic-STRIX-GTX1060-O6G-GAMING/dp/B01JHQT1SE?th=1 . Probably won't be playing many too demanding games, so I might get 3 gb. But how's that card? And also someone told me if I were to get one liike that, my CPU would bottleneck it (I think that's the term that was used) What does that mean exactly and should that be a concern?

That card is a good deal and with a rebate as well and the 3GB model may work just fine for you which is around $50 cheaper. Either one should work fine if you are not planning to play much more graphic intensive games then you are now for the foreseeable future.

The CPU being a bottleneck means the video card will be slowed down/held back some from it's full potential, the CPU is slowing it down because the CPU can not handle all the info/data the video card is throwing at it and doing all the other computations it needs to do fast enough thus slowing down the flow of data.

Easy way to tell if your CPU is a bottleneck is test the game at an extremely low resolution. If your framerates improve, then CPU bottleneck is not your issue. If framerates stay the same, then CPU bottleneck could be your issue.

[Clique Bait]

CPU: AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi, OR-B2 (Orochi))
3600 MHz (18.00x200.0) @ 3611 MHz (18.00x200.7)
Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair V Formula
Chipset: AMD 990FX (RD990) + SB920/SB950
Memory: 8192 MBytes @ 802 MHz, 8.0-8-8-24
- 4096 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - Corsair CMP8GX3M2A1600C8
- 4096 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - Corsair CMP8GX3M2A1600C8
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7970
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 7970, 3072 MB GDDR5 SDRAM
Drive: Corsair Force GT, 117.2 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s
Drive: WDC WD2003FZEX-00Z4SA0, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s
Drive: WDC WD2003FZEX-00Z4SA0, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s
Drive: SAMSUNG HD103UJ, Disk drive
Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST a, DVD+R DL
Sound: ATI/AMD Tahiti - High Definition Audio Controller
Sound: IC Ensemble M Audio Audiophile
Network: Intel 82583V Gigabit Network Connection
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) Build 7601

sombody said i had a wooden pc

[m0rgh]

Messaggio originale di Diff_1:

That card is a good deal and with a rebate as well and the 3GB model may work just fine for you which is around $50 cheaper. Either one should work fine if you are not planning to play much more graphic intensive games then you are now for the foreseeable future.

The CPU being a bottleneck means the video card will be slowed down/held back some from it's full potential, the CPU is slowing it down because the CPU can not handle all the info/data the video card is throwing at it and doing all the other computations as well fast enough thus slowing down the flow of data.

Easy way to tell if your CPU is a bottleneck is test the game at an extremely low resolution. If your framerates improve, then CPU bottleneck is not your issue. If framerates stay the same, then CPU bottleneck could be your issue.

Thank you! Will probably get the 3gb sometime soon in ther future, if not for Christmas. Might want to replace my fans too, as they can get currently really loud. Do you think replacing the video card would have any change on the fan and pc noise? I'm assuming not much, but just want to make sure

[Rove]

Messaggio originale di FREAKAZOID:

CPU: AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi, OR-B2 (Orochi))
3600 MHz (18.00x200.0) @ 3611 MHz (18.00x200.7)
Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair V Formula
Chipset: AMD 990FX (RD990) + SB920/SB950
Memory: 8192 MBytes @ 802 MHz, 8.0-8-8-24
- 4096 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - Corsair CMP8GX3M2A1600C8
- 4096 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - Corsair CMP8GX3M2A1600C8
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7970
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 7970, 3072 MB GDDR5 SDRAM
Drive: Corsair Force GT, 117.2 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s
Drive: WDC WD2003FZEX-00Z4SA0, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s
Drive: WDC WD2003FZEX-00Z4SA0, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s
Drive: SAMSUNG HD103UJ, Disk drive
Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST a, DVD+R DL
Sound: ATI/AMD Tahiti - High Definition Audio Controller
Sound: IC Ensemble M Audio Audiophile
Network: Intel 82583V Gigabit Network Connection
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) Build 7601

sombody said i had a wooden pc

That's a bit off topic but the PC is still good. Only thing I'd recommend right now is a RAM upgrade. Go get 2*8GB DDR3-1600 CAS 9 RAM, 9,9,9,24 timings @ 1.5V (or faster if it's the same price and still only 1.5V) with good heatspreaders and pop it into the system for a total 24GB RAM. I'd recommend something like Patriot Viper 3 DDR3-1600 CAS 9 1.5V for example.

Of course same RAM as you already have would be most compatible, just get 2*8GB sticks.

[Diff_1]

Messaggio originale di FREAKAZOID:

CPU: AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi, OR-B2 (Orochi))
3600 MHz (18.00x200.0) @ 3611 MHz (18.00x200.7)
Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair V Formula
Chipset: AMD 990FX (RD990) + SB920/SB950
Memory: 8192 MBytes @ 802 MHz, 8.0-8-8-24
- 4096 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - Corsair CMP8GX3M2A1600C8
- 4096 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - Corsair CMP8GX3M2A1600C8
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7970
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 7970, 3072 MB GDDR5 SDRAM
Drive: Corsair Force GT, 117.2 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s
Drive: WDC WD2003FZEX-00Z4SA0, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s
Drive: WDC WD2003FZEX-00Z4SA0, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s
Drive: SAMSUNG HD103UJ, Disk drive
Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST a, DVD+R DL
Sound: ATI/AMD Tahiti - High Definition Audio Controller
Sound: IC Ensemble M Audio Audiophile
Network: Intel 82583V Gigabit Network Connection
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) Build 7601

sombody said i had a wooden pc

That's not too bad, the Radeon 7970 is one of the last good GPU's that AMD made that beat it's Nvidia counterpart. Their products in the last few years have sadly just been on a downhill trend.
What games are you playing?

[Diff_1]

Messaggio originale di StrikerMPH:

Thank you! Will probably get the 3gb sometime soon in ther future, if not for Christmas. Might want to replace my fans too, as they can get currently really loud. Do you think replacing the video card would have any change on the fan and pc noise? I'm assuming not much, but just want to make sure

Well that depends on if the R9 270 fans are making most of that noise. Is it noisy just say being on the internet or just the noise ramps up when gaming?