Should I upgrade from FX-6300

[BMH1965]

I built a gaming PC for my son about three (3) years ago.
Basic system with AMD FX-6300 CPU, 8GB RAM, AMD R9-270X GPU, 600w PSU, and Windows 8.
Last year I upgarde the GPU to an MSI GeForce 1080.
Is it time to upgrade the CPU/motherboard/OS?
If yes, is something like the Intel Core i5-8400 the best option, or is there another solution?

[Chickat]

https://ark.intel.com/products/12668...Cache-3_60-GHz would be fantastic and really cheap. Much better than what he currently has. And I think Windows 10 is a free upgrade from 8 unless they got rid of that.

[Moozart]

I built a gaming PC for my son about three (3) years ago.
Basic system with AMD FX-6300 CPU, 8GB RAM, AMD R9-270X GPU, 600w PSU, and Windows 8.
Last year I upgarde the GPU to an MSI GeForce 1080.
Is it time to upgrade the CPU/motherboard/OS?
If yes, is something like the Intel Core i5-8400 the best option, or is there another solution?

as Chickat said an I3-8100 is even a big step up from what you have CPU wise, You wouldn't go wrong with the I5 variant either. That cpu you have currently is holding that GTX 1080 back more than you know. If I had to make a guess without having it in front of me to test id say that you would get roughly the same FPS with a 6gb 1060 as you are with the 1080 because of the bottle necking.

If you are going to get current gen hardware then absolutely upgrade the OS to windows 10 so that it can take advantage of DX 12 as more and more games use it and the 1080's love it.

You are in a great situation however since you already have the expensive part out of the way so the new cpu/ram/mobo will be easy peasy

[loadedaxe]

whoa whoa whoa...

These two respondents are funny.
@Moozart and @Chickat You guys didn't even ask any questions from the OP, just plop out a generic answer and move on...

OP, what monitor are you using, is it 1080p, 1440?

What games do you and your son play and what else is done with the PC?

Most people don't realize the bottleneck on their system is the monitor.

Getting more fps than your monitor can put out is overlooked by 99% of this community. "Just get the most expensive Nvidia card and dont look back" smh

[Deleted]

Personally I'd either get at least an 8600k/z270 or look for a secondhand intel i7k platform to make use of the ram you have. You don't state what he plays, or what monitor he has, but he has a nice gpu and some games will use the additional physical cores. A 6 physical core system overclocked will take next gen gpu's without capping too hard, and I'd find value in this.

As Moozart states, a 1080 and an fx6300 is severely imba, you'll be amazed by the improvement either way

[Miyagie]

I built a gaming PC for my son about three (3) years ago.
Basic system with AMD FX-6300 CPU, 8GB RAM, AMD R9-270X GPU, 600w PSU, and Windows 8.
Last year I upgarde the GPU to an MSI GeForce 1080.
Is it time to upgrade the CPU/motherboard/OS?
If yes, is something like the Intel Core i5-8400 the best option, or is there another solution?

With a GTX 1080 i would upgrade and the i5 8400 is a solid upgrade that will get you a big performance boost.
Since the GTX 1080 is a great 1440p GPU maybe switch to a screen with that resolution if you dont have one already since the GTX 1080 is overkill for fullhd.

[Deleted]

Most games are gpu limited, what games are being played and whats the current performance like? if the performance is below 60 fps constantly even at mid settings, then upgrade.

Some people upgrade for no reason other then its new and shiny, if this was for a new build then a better cpu is something I would recommend but a working machine that still could be running well.

Resolution won't hit the cpu hard, thats just the gpu mainly so evening getting a nicer monitor shouldn't be affected.

The FX-6300 isn't a great CPU if you want to maintain 144 FPS, but 60 FPS it will be fine for now if thats what you are hitting solidly, (why am I assuming the game most played by your son is Rocket League).

[Alexeht]

Most people don't realize the bottleneck on their system is the monitor.

Nah. More fps = less input lag, so even if I see 60fps, I still rather have v-sync off so I have more fps and more fluid gameplay.

[adamzz]

https://ark.intel.com/products/12668...Cache-3_60-GHz would be fantastic and really cheap. Much better than what he currently has. And I think Windows 10 is a free upgrade from 8 unless they got rid of that.

I wouldn't recommend an i3-8100 to go with a Gtx 1080 tbh.

The free w10 upgrade was removed last summer I think

[T3ramos]

I wouldn't recommend an i3-8100 to go with a Gtx 1080 tbh.

The free w10 upgrade was removed last summer I think

nope this would be like putting a ferrari engine inside a vw beetle..

the free win10 upgrade however still works, officially it was cancelled but works nonetheless

[adamzz]

whoa whoa whoa...

These two respondents are funny.
@Moozart and @Chickat You guys didn't even ask any questions from the OP, just plop out a generic answer and move on...

OP, what monitor are you using, is it 1080p, 1440?

What games do you and your son play and what else is done with the PC?

Most people don't realize the bottleneck on their system is the monitor.

Getting more fps than your monitor can put out is overlooked by 99% of this community. "Just get the most expensive Nvidia card and dont look back" smh

The thing is OP has a GTX 1080 paired with a FX6300. The CPU is a huge bottleneck and he should upgrade that before even thinking about a new monitor.

Ryzen 1600x or better or any current gen i5 or i7 is what he should be looking at.

- - - Updated - - -

nope this would be like putting a ferrari engine inside a vw beetle..

the free win10 upgrade however still works, officially it was cancelled but works nonetheless

Never tried upgrading since they removed it, good to know though.

[loadedaxe]

The thing is OP has a GTX 1080 paired with a FX6300. The CPU is a huge bottleneck and he should upgrade that before even thinking about a new monitor.

Ryzen 1600x, ryzen 1700 or any current gen i5 or i7 is what he should be looking at.

I agree, we dont know his budget or games his son plays though.

I would wait until the new Intel or AM4 chips come out in a few months, right now the Coffeelakes are grossly overpriced and memory is insane, $100 bucks for 8GB is ridiculous.

If I had to upgrade currently, I would get a R5 1600.

[Deleted]

The thing is OP has a GTX 1080 paired with a FX6300. The CPU is a huge bottleneck and he should upgrade that before even thinking about a new monitor.

Ryzen 1600x or better or any current gen i5 or i7 is what he should be looking at.

- - - Updated - - -



Never tried upgrading since they removed it, good to know though.

Bottleneck to what? Bottleneck only exist if the performance in a game is lower then expected, the OP has never mentioned about what games are played alongside what performance they are currently getting.

If they are maintaining 60 FPS in every game they play, are they being bottlenecked?

[adamzz]

Bottleneck to what? Bottleneck only exist if the performance in a game is lower then expected, the OP has never mentioned about what games are played alongside what performance they are currently getting.

If they are maintaining 60 FPS in every game they play, are they being bottlenecked?

A bottleneck is when one component is weaker than the the other. I can tell from experience that a FX6300 won't maintain 60FPS on high-ultra settings in most games, sure if all you play is browser games it doesn't matter but that doesn't change the fact that the CPU is a bottleneck.

Let's say he's around 60FPS, but his CPU is around 100 % usage all the time while his GPU is only at 30%, that's a clear bottleneck even if his FPS is fine. With a FX6300 and 1080 that huge a disparity is something I can see being the case in many games at 1080p.

When I upgraded to a Fury X and still had my FX6300 I couldn't run GTA5 on high settings because I would get drops in CPU intensive moments and my CPU would pretty much always be at 100% while the GPU was only around 50%.

In a perfect world the utilization on both would be around 100% at all times with 0 drops in FPS but that doesn't happen and will never happen. You will always have a bottleneck, it's up to you to decide when it's too much of a difference between the components. In this particular case I can't ever recommend keeping the FX6300, and I especially can't recommend getting a better monitor.

Let's say you stick with 1080p but want 144Hz, good luck keeping 144 FPS with a FX6300. If you get a higher resolution monitor but keep it at 60hz you will lower the gap slightly since the GPU needs to work more. But you most likely will need to turn down shadows, particles, rendering distance, foliage density etc as those are CPU intensive. Good luck playing MMOs in a 20-30man raid scenario with a FX6300 even with all settings on low, you will drop to 20ish or so when all animations and spell effects start.

[loadedaxe]

looks like typical computer threads on MMO-C. Lets all argue about what the OP needs, especially since no one has all the info.

until OP comes back and states what his sons PC needs are, its all speculation. I dont think anyone is arguing that a FX6300 is a dog. No one knows what to recommend and thats the 1 million dollar question.

[Moozart]

whoa whoa whoa...

These two respondents are funny.
@Moozart and @Chickat You guys didn't even ask any questions from the OP, just plop out a generic answer and move on...

OP, what monitor are you using, is it 1080p, 1440?

What games do you and your son play and what else is done with the PC?

Most people don't realize the bottleneck on their system is the monitor.

Getting more fps than your monitor can put out is overlooked by 99% of this community. "Just get the most expensive Nvidia card and dont look back" smh

He gave the info we needed for the most part. He already has a gtx 1080, that is the constant. With a 1080 he can do fine on 1080p or 1440 with a cpu upgrade, 1440p 120hz wouldnt even be a problem with that i3 and a gtx 1080. The CPU that @Chickat recommended ( I3 8100) is equal to or outperforms a 7th Gen I5 in most games, the I5 he asked about would do even better
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJP8ZqKIvfc and would again have no issues with 1080p or 1440.

"Getting more fps than your monitor can put out is overlooked by 99% of this community. "Just get the most expensive Nvidia card and dont look back" smh"

Again.. he already has the GTX 1080.

You are overthinking it instead of working with the good information he provided.

So if you didnt see the answer to your questions I will help

OP, what monitor are you using, is it 1080p, 1440? - With a gtx 1080 already in hand a CPU upgrade to one of the ones listed he can play both with no problems so it works either way.

What games do you and your son play and what else is done with the PC? With a gtx 1080 already in hand a CPU upgrade to one of the ones listed he can play pretty much anything he wants at high or above graphic settings.

[Chickat]

With a GTX 1080 i would upgrade and the i5 8400 is a solid upgrade that will get you a big performance boost.
Since the GTX 1080 is a great 1440p GPU maybe switch to a screen with that resolution if you dont have one already since the GTX 1080 is overkill for fullhd.

Unless you get a 144hz monitor.

[BMH1965]

Thanks for all the input - and I even understood most of it! FYI: The monitor is a 27" AOC monitor with Freesync and 144mHz. My son has started to play CoD and similar games with a limited number of his friends. If I remember correctly (he is vacation now) the fps are about 90-120.
However, from the digesting the comments, I understand that most current Intel and Ryzen CPU's will result in a big step up in performance - especially with multicore games. My way forward is to buy the i5-8400 as the rise in price for the 8600k is too high for the relatively small increase in performance, and it is the same price as a Ryzen 5 1600 where I live. He does not need an i7 as no multi-tasking is needed. I will (probably) pair the CPU with an MSI Z370-A-Pro board. Since will need a new OS the question of upgrading the Windows 8 to 10 is mute.

[Deleted]

Thanks for all the input - and I even understood most of it! FYI: The monitor is a 27" AOC monitor with Freesync and 144mHz. My son has started to play CoD and similar games with a limited number of his friends. If I remember correctly (he is vacation now) the fps are about 90-120.
However, from the digesting the comments, I understand that most current Intel and Ryzen CPU's will result in a big step up in performance - especially with multicore games. My way forward is to buy the i5-8400 as the rise in price for the 8600k is too high for the relatively small increase in performance, and it is the same price as a Ryzen 5 1600 where I live. He does not need an i7 as no multi-tasking is needed. I will (probably) pair the CPU with an MSI Z370-A-Pro board. Since will need a new OS the question of upgrading the Windows 8 to 10 is mute.

If you feel the upgrade is worth the extra 50 FPS from what is already a high frame rate, also I am now laughing at people who said the FX 6300 wouldn't hold 60 FPS yet the OP provides a strong FPS number.

It is really upto you, prices are high right now for parts, for DDR4 ram, I suggest looking at used ones, RAM is really really hard to fuck up but they are cheaper non the less and will function all the same.

[BMH1965]

I am not too concerned with present performance as the FX-6300 has it has very good single core results. My main concern is the release of games that now operate best (need) multi-core processing - which is where the FX-6300 fails compared to something like the i5-8400.