upgrade time.

unit 1

Hi, with great help from here I built my sons pc some years ago, but his cpu is starting to bottleneck, (modern warfare 2019), so its time for some upgrading.

No problem in adding bits and if overclocking is required then we are willing to give it a go. Ideally would hope a newer cpu/cooler would give a reasonable improvement, budget reasonably flexible, current setup below, thanks in advance.

asus z170 pro gaming
i5 6500
rx 580 gpu
corsair 550w psu
ssds
large zalman case with plenty of fans
full hd monitor
16g ddr4 1499mhz
So, any cpu value/recommendations, or should I sell/trade and do newer build for with 4k in mind for future proofing, thanks.

Homelander

Is your DDR4 ram 3000mhz? If so, keep that and get a B450M + Ryzen 3600.

Your platform is effectively dead-end, you can upgrade to an i7-6700 2nd hand but it would cost about €150 and it's very inferior to a Ryzen 3600 which is about €180.

Probably get €120 for the Z170 + 6500.

unit 1

yep got my figures wrong ram is 3000mhz, so hold onto psu and gpu, would it be a signifigant upgrade, and if I go for a 4k monitor would that have an impact on your recommendation.

K.O.Kiki

Forget CPU for now, upgrade the GPU.

The RX 580 should easily fetch 85-100 on Adverts.ie

Trade-up to RX 5600 XT and you should see a 35-50% boost in performance.

Homelander

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Forget CPU for now, upgrade the GPU.

The RX 580 should easily fetch 85-100 on Adverts.ie

Trade-up to RX 5600 XT and you should see a 35-50% boost in performance.

The i5-6500 is a major bottleneck. He even said it himself, in COD:MW you will get 100% all core, which he is.

Ryzen 3600 + RX580 = 1080p ultra 60fps.
i5-6500 + 5600XT = 1080P ultra 60fps stuttering/hitching

You can't out-GPU a hard bottleneck

K.O.Kiki

Ultra settings are stupid.

Turn to high.
Get a better GPU.

Homelander

That's not the point. The point is that you can't out-upgrade a CPU bottleneck.

The i5-6500 is too slow for the latest games. An RX580 + Ryzen 3600 (or 1600AF) is a way better combination than an i5-6500 and a 5600XT, unless you don't mind playing under 60fps.

Assassins Creed is a good example. Using the same processor but limiting cores, you can see 4/4 is light years behind 6/12 with the same GPU.

It's the same story with a lot of games these days and it's only going to get worse as time goes on, so getting a new graphics card now and sticking with an i5-6500 doesn't make sense, not when he already has a perfectly decent RX580.

unit 1

Well there is a 5 3600 and strix B450f for €300 on adverts, which looks tempting unless I'm missing somehting, and I think my psu would also be ok, any thoughts?

Homelander

That's more than it would cost new!

You can get the 3600 and a decent B450M motherboard on Amazon for about £220.

PSU is fine. CPU's are using less rather than more power. Despite being significantly more powerful, the 3600 won't use any more power.

unit 1

I've had a look and am struggling to find that combination for that price, cheapest bundle is £309, and cheapest cpu is £155 with mobo £66. Anyway thank you for your input.

Apologies your figures are right 155+66=221, guess I'm getting off to a bad start today.

Homelander

You can also get the 1600AF + A320M for just £150 or so, still a huge upgrade on the i5-6500 and a very decent CPU. Like the Ryzen 3600 it's 6 core 12 thread, so well positioned for the next few years.

Example, A320M + 1600AF

Keeping in mind someone will probably pay decent money for the Z170 motherboard (maybe 70/80), and about 40/50 for the i5-6500.

K.O.Kiki

Homelander would you stop spouting bad info without good links.

SP's tech lab did actually take a look at i5-6500 late last year.

Link to his performance charts:
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?redir_token=HBpn9CSvP9U0LRp-c3q6c5rvZ5h8MTU4OTI4NjQ2MkAxNTg5MjAwMDYy&q=https%3A%2F%2F1drv.ms%2Fx%2Fs%21AlwEC1tWdi2m1CxT98fT6B2RHMO7&event=video_description&v=BK8LTt_XOnw

He paired it with a Vega 64 (a substantially more powerful GPU than OP's) yet in many games the i5-6500 did as well as a 2600 (+/- a few frames).

OP is GPU bottlenecked.
The better upgrade is GPU first, then CPU later.

Homelander

It's not bad info. You are picking videos that are playing games that aren't CPU heavy.

What happens when the person plays CPU heavy games? I literally posted a link to that EXACT thing above with Assassins Creed.

I could post links all day to games like Battlefield 1 online (from 2016), Battlefield V, Assassins Creed, and so on, where the i5-6500 just performs badly because the game engines demand more cores/threads.

Anyone on this forum with an i5-6 or i5-7 gen processor who had played anything CPU heavy will tell you that.

In fact, the OP himself is literally telling you that the i5-6500 can't cut it in Modern Warfare but you are also ignoring that.

Check out a video here with the i5-7400. Good average framerate but in some maps there are 1% lows of like 30fps and 0.1% lows of single digit FPS.

Not what you want when playing COD. Edit: And that's just normal MP. It would be more noticeable and frequent in Ground War as I'm sure the OP can confirm.

I can assure you the OP is 100% CPU bottlenecked in COD Modern Warfare. He knows this, he has even posted it himself but you ignoring it.

Buying a 2080Ti would not solve his problem, but ignore away.

SweetCaliber

Id say switching to a 3600 and a new mobo would be a good start. The 3600 with the RX580 would get you easily past 60fps on ultra or high settings in MW 19.

If you want to do 4k down the line then swap the 580 for a 5700XT or 2070 super.

Also Modern Warfare 2019 is a CPU hog, keeping the i5 5600 and changing the graphics card would gain you a couple frames but wont get rid of the 100% cpu usage, I can guarantee that.

BloodBath

Op need both really. Those pesky min frame rates are the killer on 4 core cpu's though in some games.

Those lower fps spikes are the most infuriating thing in a first person shooter.

You really want a stable constant fps to get your aim consistent. Averages don't mean much.

Forget about 4k. You're trading too much in the FPS department for higher resolution. 2560x1440/144Hz is the sweet spot for high end gaming.

unit 1

Thanks for the help guys, will digest and do further research but it looks very much like a switch to team red, and a budget rethink, cheers.