Upgrading a 2013 PC?

KpsCowley

Hi guys,

I have an old gaming/video editing/mining PC (2013). It's struggling to run the new COD game, so I'm looking for some advice on how to upgrade it at a low budget.

My budget for the upgrade is €300. I hope that sticking in a new GPU will do the job (I was looking at getting the GTX 1660 super 6GB). I'm asking for advice as I'm not sure if the entire system needs to be upgraded to DDR4, or if the GPU is the bottle neck.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

My current set up is as below:
Processor: i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz, LGA1150
Video Card: 2 x AMD Radeon HD 7950 4GB (crossfire)
MB: ASRock Z87 Extreme4, Sockel 1150, ATX
RAM: 24GB G.Skill PC3 DDR3
PSU: Corsair Professional Series HX850 80PLUS Gold 850W
OS: Windows 7
Monitor: 27" 1440p

K.O.Kiki

I'd advise an RX 5600 XT, it's a whole tier above.

https://skinflint.co.uk/?cmp=2211700&cmp=2211877

Also regarding your RAM:
If you're on 24Gb, that means you're either running 3x 8Gb, or 2x8Gb + 2x4Gb.
This means you're not running in dual-channel mode, which will cause performance degradation in games.
RAM should be installed in matching pairs/quads.

Homelander

The GPU is the massive bottleneck. The 4770K is still an OK CPU especially for something like COD.

There are two problems here - Crossfire is complete crap these days, and your RAM configuration is a bit wonky which isn't helping.

Crossfire doesn't even work in most games anymore. So really, you're running on a single HD7950. I would say 1080p or 900p low settings would be as good as the card would manage at a fairly stable 60fps in MW2019.

Samuel T. Cogley

Upgrade to Windows 10 to take full advantage of a new GPU and avoid security risks. Check the GPU you upgrade to has the right port for your monitor.

KpsCowley

Hi K.O.Kiki, Homelander & Samuel T. Cogley,

I really appreciate your replies, thank you all for your help.
I never knew RAM pairing was so important, I thought I could just put in an extra stick. (currently 3 x 8GB sticks, I've now removed one and paired them as priority 1 from the manual)

I'm in the process of upgrading to Windows 10 which is far from straight forward.

I've ordered the recommended card RX 5600 XT.

One last question: Would there be any benefit in using the RX 5600 XT, but also having one of the HD 7950's installed? (or is that nuts?)

Homelander

None whatsoever. Doesn't work that way.

Even putting that aside, even if you had dual 5600XTs, none of the latest games really support dual cards anymore anyway so it's a total waste of time.

Make sure your RAM is in matching banks so it is running in dual channel mode, eg, in Bank 0 + 2 or 1+3.