New CPU and GPU, or just a full system upgrade?

Hey everyone 🙂 I figured I’d reach out to the whole community here because every time I try to get advice from the "experts" in my immediate circle, I just end up getting a bunch of conflicting opinions.

It looks like it’s finally time for me to upgrade my rig, and since things are a little tight financially right now—nothing catastrophic, mind you, but definitely enough to make me think twice—I’m weighing two different paths.

My current setup consists of an AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE, 8 GB of G-Skill Ripjaws RAM running at 1666 MHz (I think, anyway), an MSI GTX 570 TwinFrozr III, and a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3, rev 1.1 motherboard.

Option 1 would be to go with an Intel Core i5-4590, a fresh motherboard, and an NVIDIA GTX 970.

Option 2 involves grabbing an AMD FX X8 8350 along with an NVIDIA GTX 970.

As for my power supply, I’m assuming my Corsair 650W 80+ unit should be more than enough to handle the jump. My main goal for this upgrade is simply being able to actually run modern games properly. 😬 Personally,
option 2 seems a bit more appealing to me, mainly because I already have this motherboard and its CPU support, though the one little catch is that it only supports PCI-E 2.0—not that I've seen much online suggesting that's going to be a massive dealbreaker.
For the graphics card, I’ve been looking mostly at the NVIDIA GTX 970 WF3 (or just a standard NVIDIA GTX 970🤷), but I keep stumbling across all sorts of comments regarding issues with those specific cards. As a potential alternative that sits in a similar price bracket, I saw this mentioned in another thread and it caught my eye: AMD Radeon R9 390🤷 (though I'm not entirely sure if I'll ever actually need 8 GB of VRAM if I'm not playing anything in 4K).

Thanks in advance to everyone for any suggestions or advice you can toss my way! 👍

You've got a solid motherboard there, which means you won't have any trouble upgrading to a more powerful processor down the road.

As for the difference between PCI-E 2.0 and 3.0—honestly, don't sweat it too much; you're fine either way.

Personally, I'm running an NVIDIA GTX 970, and I haven't run into a single issue playing games at 1080p resolution.

Look, if I were you, I'd just grab a new GPU and leave the rest alone for now to see how it holds up. Honestly, dropping $1,500 on an AMD FX isn't exactly a smart move in my book. It’s barely a step up from that 955BE you're running now, which—let's be real—can actually pull decent overclocking numbers if you just slap a decent aftermarket cooler on it. Plus, you can reuse that cooler whenever you eventually upgrade to a totally different platform later on.

If you end up hating the results, then you can start thinking about a full platform swap. That’s where the real money goes, since you'll have to overhaul the motherboard, CPU, and RAM all at once... But what you've got right now? It's actually not half bad.

For what it's worth, your motherboard is solid enough for overclocking, and your power supply is fine too, so you don't need to stress about those.

I guess you might as well grab an AMD FX since you've already got such a solid motherboard. Just skip the AMD FX-8350 because it's probably not worth the cash; maybe look into the AMD FX-8300 instead. Throw a decent cooler on there if you don't have one yet and you should be good to go.

darkowl72 said:Look, if I were you, I’d just grab a new GPU first and see how things hold up. Dropping $1,500 on an AMD FX processor doesn't seem like a smart move to me; it isn't much of an upgrade over that 955BE you're running now. Honestly, if you slap a decent aftermarket cooler on what you have—something you can reuse for future builds anyway—you could probably get some solid overclocking out of it...

If you end up hating the performance, then look into a full platform swap. That's where the real money goes since you'll need a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM all at once. What you've got right now isn't even that bad...

Your current motherboard and power supply should handle overclocking fine, so don't sweat those...

Nah, darkowl72, that Phenom is going to be a massive bottleneck here... especially when paired with an NVIDIA GTX 970, even if it's overclocked...
An AMD Radeon R9 280 might actually work okay with that setup.

I’m leaning towards the AMD FX-8300 + NVIDIA GTX 970 combo, plus a cooler if you don't have one.

I’m currently running a Cooler Master CNPS10X Perform cooler, and honestly, looking at the exact same CPU bottleneck issue you just mentioned, I think it’s probably time for me to swap out both my processor and my graphics card. My MSI GTX 570 TwinFrozr III is such a little workhorse that it still manages to push through almost everything I throw at it, but it’s really hitting a wall lately because that 1280 MB of VRAM just can't keep up with modern titles anymore. Those two factors—the bottleneck and the limited memory—are pretty much the main reasons why I'd be pulling the trigger on an upgrade.

Personally, I'm leaning more toward an NVIDIA GTX setup 😬 since I'm looking for better performance and a much more efficient power draw.

Yeah, that's just the NVIDIA GTX 970... my bad...

Zachary Barrett4 said:I'm running a Cooler Master CNPS10X Perform. Honestly, just like you pointed out regarding the CPU bottleneck, I’d swap both the processor and the GPU. My 570 handles basically anything I throw at it, but it's hitting a wall with modern titles because of that 1280 MB VRAM limit. Those are my two main reasons for upgrading.

I'm leaning towards an NVIDIA GTX too, 😬 mostly for the performance boost and better power efficiency.

Look, man, just grab an AMD FX-8300—it's the fastest way to go—they have them at Best Buy for $338, pair it with a decent NVIDIA GTX, and you'll be able to play whatever you want. 😳
1 x AMD FX-Series X8 8300 3.3GHz, 16MB, 125W, AM3+, FD8300WMHK
1 x Inno3D NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB DDR5 256 bit

$1307

First off, make sure you update your BIOS unless you've already done it. That AMD FX-8300 needs at least version F9 to behave...

What do you mean, changing platforms? Why would that even cross your mind in the first place? 😲 That’s a killer motherboard that supports AMD FX series, yet you're looking at swapping out the entire setup. Like the guys already mentioned, just grab an AMD FX-8300 and the GPU you were already eyeing, and you'll be totally fine. 🙂 I might even consider an AMD Radeon R9 290; you can snag one at Best Buy for around $250, which is an absolute steal. Since you've got a solid power supply, you don't even need to sweat the power draw.

I’m voting for the AMD FX-8300 plus a solid cooler (if yours is doing the job, even better)—push it to 4GHz if you can handle it...
Honestly, if I hadn't snagged an Intel Core i5-4590 for a steal, I would've gone that route myself. Only catch was having to swap out my whole motherboard because of the DDR2 issue...

If you aren't in an absolute rush—since the AMD FX-8300 shouldn't suddenly vanish from shelves—I’d suggest holding off just a bit. We are practically days away from new AMD graphics hitting the market, and if you're eyeing the NVIDIA GTX 970, there's a good chance prices might dip slightly then too. I caught wind of a rumor that stores are running low on the NVIDIA GTX 960 because domestic distributors are waiting to bundle everything, including NVIDIA cards, in one big shipment once the new AMD stuff arrives. If that turns out to be true, even if prices don't drop, you'll have much better availability for the NVIDIA GTX 970 (for instance, there was a Gigabyte NVIDIA GTX 970 listed at Best Buy for just over $967 a few days ago)

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Man, just grab an AMD FX-8300 as soon as you can—it's available at Best Buy for $338—pair it with a decent GPU, and you'll be able to play pretty much anything you throw at it. 😳
1 x AMD FX-Series X8 8300 3.3GHz, 16MB, 125W, AM3+, FD8300WMHK
1 x Inno3D NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB DDR5 256 bit

$1307

That sounds great. 😬 I think I'll take some more time to look into the specifics and see how everything fits together, and then maybe I can offset some of the costs by selling off these old parts I have lying around.

Bryan Evans77 said:Personally, I’d vote for the AMD FX-8300 plus a solid cooler—if yours is still doing the job, then even better—because if you can push it up to 4GHz, you'll be flying.

Well, if the air cooler can't handle the heat, I suppose I could just tighten my belt and switch over to liquid cooling and see where that takes me! 😁

Adam Moore3 said:Why on earth would you consider changing the whole platform? Why did that even cross your mind? 😲 You've got a great motherboard that supports the FX series, so why go through the trouble of replacing the entire setup? Like the guys were saying, just getting an AMD FX-8300 and the GPU you already have your eye on should be more than enough. 🙂 I might even suggest looking at an AMD Radeon R9 290; they're sitting at a total steal at Micro Center right now, and since you already have a high-quality power supply, you won't have to worry about the power draw.

I don't know, it's just that I'm surrounded by people who swear by Intel and they seem genuinely thrilled with the performance, whereas I don't really notice much of a difference myself, unless you count the fact that Intel chips might run slightly cooler. 🤷

darkowl72 said:First things first, make sure you update your BIOS unless you've already done it. That AMD FX-8300 needs at least version F9 to work properly...

Actually, I think there might even be an F10 beta out there somewhere.😬

Thanks to everyone for all the helpful advice, I think I'll spend some time browsing what's available online these days, maybe take a look at an AMD FX-8300 paired with an NVIDIA GTX 970, or potentially an AMD Radeon R9 290 (though if I go that route, I'd probably have to aim for the X version because, let's face it, I can be a bit of a hardware snob 😛 ), or perhaps I should just hang tight and see how the prices settle for the 390. 👍

If you're looking at an AMD card—just grab the AMD Radeon R9 290 for $2500$867, honestly, don't waste your money paying extra for an X model😁

Zachary Barrett4 said:I don't know, I'm surrounded by people using Intel who swear by them, though I don't really see much difference myself, maybe they just run a bit cooler 🤷

That's probably because when people buy Intel, they think they’ve achieved something huge, so they can't stop talking about it. 😁

For home users, Intel and AMD are pretty much on level ground. You aren't going to notice a massive gap between an Intel Core i5-4590 and an AMD FX-8350—you really won't.

I guess the i5 has a slightly lower TDP, so it stays a bit cooler, whereas the AMD FX-8350 pulls more power and runs hotter. On the flip side, you can undervolt the AMD FX-8350 to keep temps down, or even overclock it, which you can't really do with a standard i5.

Thread Update:

I finally got my hands on an AMD FX-8350 and an NVIDIA GTX 970 G1 and dropped them into my rig today, and honestly, everything is running absolutely flawlessly, just like I hoped it would. 😬 👋

Why pick the 8350 over an 8300 or maybe an 8320E?

They need way less voltage to hit the same clock speeds, they run cooler, plus you can probably squeeze out another 300--$133 😛

Zachary Barrett4 said:Thread Update:

Just dropped the AMD FX-8350 and the NVIDIA GTX 970 G1 into my rig today. Everything is running perfectly.😬 👋

That's awesome, Vera! 🙂 You didn't actually need to jump all the way up to the AMD FX-8350; you could have just grabbed an AMD FX-8300. It's basically the exact same chip, just clocked a bit lower. If you get the 8300 and tweak a few settings in the BIOS, you've essentially got an 8350. Plus, you would've saved about 40 or 50 bucks.🙂

crimsonstag84 said:Why go with an AMD FX-8350 when you could just grab an AMD FX-8300 or even an 8320E?

They pull way less voltage to hit the same clock speeds and they don't run nearly as hot + you save like 300 bucks--$133 😛

What's the actual difference between an AMD FX-8300 and an AMD FX-8370E? On paper, the frequencies look identical to me.
Is the AMD FX-8370E actually a better chip or built with higher quality since it draws less power at the same speed? Is there some kind of build quality gap here?

Price 😬

The 8370E draws just a bit less power since the voltages are lower, and I guess it has slightly better overclocking potential than the AMD FX-8300, though they're basically identical otherwise. You could grab an FX 8320E for $380 at AMD... honestly, the 8370E just doesn't seem worth it.