Question:
Recommendations to upgrade my current setup with a budget of $300?
vashaar105
2018-08-26 07:21:59 UTC
Motherboard : Asrock AB350 Pro4
CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 2600
GPU : Asus Radeon RX 580 Dual OC
4GB
RAM : G.Skill Ripjaw V 8GB (2 x 4GB
DDR4)
SSD : WD Blue M.2 SATA SSD +
Samsung Evo 250GB M.2 NVME +
250 Samsung SATA SSD
HDD : Toshiba 1TB 7200 RPM

With a budget of around $300, I would like to upgrade my current gaming rig. What would be some good upgrades that are worth getting.

Bonus question : Would I be able to crossfire my GPU if I buy another exact model?
Seven answers:
m8xpayne
2018-08-26 16:29:37 UTC
IMO, I don't see much you could upgrade because your system is very good for 1080p 60hz gaming. Whatever upgrades you make should be based on whatever kind of monitor you are going to use. Perhaps saving the $300 then waiting until next spring would be more beneficial because there should be new and better hardware out by then.



The only thing you didn't mention was your monitor, which is one of the most important aspects to consider when you're making upgrades.



For example, if you upgraded to a 1080p 144hz monitor then upgrading the RAM to a DDR4-3200 cl14 kit such as the G.Skill Flare series along with giving the CPU a modest overclock would be beneficial. You would need to overclock in a manner that matches what Precision Boost 2 does on an x470 chipset motherboard, which would involve having a couple cores reaching 4.3ghz while increasing the base speed a little, if possible.



If you upgraded the monitor to a 60hz 2160p or 1440p then you wouldn't need to worry about overclocking because the Ryzen 5 2600 is more than enough. You need more CPU power when you're trying to push your framerates beyond 80-90fps.



As a general rule of thumb, you choose your GPU for the settings you want and you choose your CPU for the FPS you want.



Having the CPU's Warranty get voided by overclocking would only happen if you did something blatant such as overvolting the CPU. When a CPU is overclocked within specifications the chip degrades a little bit faster than normal. A CPU at stock speeds can last well beyond 20 years. If you're going to overclock then you need to read a few guides and figure out what the voltage limits are and how to make sure the CPU is stable. You can't just bump up the multiplier and then expect magic to happen and I've actually seen people fry hardware this way.



Crossfire????, you might be able to *** a 2nd card for Crossfire but there aren't that many games that do a good job of supporting Crossfire or SLI. I'm not quite certain how you would run Crossfire since you already have an NVMe drive that's occupying 4x PCI-E lanes. According to what I've read so far about your Pro4 board, it wont work because of the NVMe drive. Also, you would need a beefy power supply to run Crossfire, in the 750w range. Crossfire for you would probably lead to a lot of headaches.



A GTX 1080ti would give you better performance than trying to Crossfire 2 of those cards. A single GTX 1080 would only be weaker than an RX 580 crossfire setup in a certain handful of games. The GTX 1070 would be an upgrade but I don't think it's a good enough upgrade to justify. If you're getting 45fps with the RX 580 then typically the GTX 1070 would bring you close to 60fps, since the GTX 1070 is 33% faster than the RX 580 in gaming.



On the upside, mining isn't quite dead yet. Right now miners are buying RX 580, 580, 570 and 470 cards people who are giving up on mining. A used 4gb RX 580 is worth about $150. You could sell that card to help pay for a GTX 1080. You could always buy an EVGA card then use the Step Up program to upgrade to an RTX 20 series card if you do it within the 90 day window. The only downside is you have 14 days to register your card with EVGA in order to take advantage of the step up program. 30-days if you're willing to buy an extended warranty. The RTX cards aren't cheap, as the RTX 2080 is $750 at the cheapest, and it looks like Nvidia is going to push back the release of the RTX 2070 for as long as they possibly can.
Andy T
2018-08-27 02:38:46 UTC
Bump the RAM up? It is decent rig so I wouldn't bother.
?
2018-08-26 23:11:24 UTC
If you don't already have a 144 Hz monitor, buy one. This would be a good option: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/LXMwrH/acer-xfa240-bmjdpr-240-1920x1080-144hz-monitor-xfa240-bmjdpr



It also wouldn't hurt to upgrade to 16GB RAM. It's not absolutely necessary, but it would be nice to have. To ensure you don't have any compatibility issues with your current RAM, buy another copy of the exact kit you have now. If you can't find it, match as many of the specs as you can.
anonymous
2018-08-26 13:41:35 UTC
Crossfire and SLI have almost as much chance of reducing the performance of your games as it does in increasing them. Most games don't support these technologies.



Your existing setup is already pretty uptodate, and I'm not sure what additional performance you're looking for. The only possible upgrade you can do is upgrade the GPU. Within the AMD lineup, there are only two upgrade paths, Vega 56 or 64. More likely your upgrade path is GTX 1070 through to 1080 Ti.
?
2018-08-26 13:07:38 UTC
You need at least 8 GB more memory. Get two more sticks of the exact memory you have if you can. That way your PC won't have to go to disk as much.



If you can get another of the same graphics card and crossfire, that would probably help a lot as well, depending on your games and performance now.
Spock (rhp)
2018-08-26 13:02:53 UTC
are you already overclocking the Ryzen 5 2600 cpu? if not, consider doing so -- possibly with a superior aftermarket cooler.



sure, it voids the warranty ... and if it does crisp the cpu, you can then afford to buy the 2600x version [if mobo will support, possibly with BIOS upgrade] or whatever is then current when that happens.
?
2018-08-26 07:59:28 UTC
Yes the Asus Radeon RX 580 supports Crossfire

Your current rig is already pretty decent. You may benefit slightly from increasing the RAM to 16GB. Other than that I think you will have to increase your budget to get a significant improvement and get a better graphics card

You could buy another 580 GPU and run crossfire, a major downside of CrossFire is that it works only in fullscreen mode, requiring extrinsic support for software or games when run in borderless/windowed mode, you can also get microstuttering, The effects and degree of micro stuttering varies depending on the application and driver optimizations.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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