CPU Upgrade Advice

Hey everyone,

I've got this old setup I'm thinking about bumping up—just looking at a CPU swap, maybe a newer i5 if it works. Does anyone think this actually makes sense?

Intel Core i3 4360
Motherboard: ASUS H81M-S2V (SOCKET 0)
8.00GB Single-Channel DDR3
Nvidia GeForce GTX 950

Thanks!

What exactly made you decide on an upgrade? Because just swapping in an i5 isn't going to give you much of a boost in gaming performance; your GPU is a bigger bottleneck than the processor right now.

The GTX 950 isn't actually a bad graphics card. 😉

Look, that Intel Core i3 4360 isn't actually a bad processor 🙂

That's why I'm saying the build is perfectly fine for decent gaming. That’s exactly why I was wondering what specifically pushed him to swap out the CPU. Even though the Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 is still holding its own, that card is going to be the bottleneck in most games long before the CPU becomes an issue. And when I say "issue," I don't mean it won't run anything—I just mean he'll be dropping settings from high to medium way sooner than he would with a different processor.

I’m not so sure about that. XD When I look at these newer titles like FIFA 18 and the Ryzen 6/12, I just don't see much appeal. I have a strong feeling that the GTX950 could actually still pull them off.

It’s been acting up a bit. The last thing I noticed was with PUBG—it stutters sometimes, and then my whole system just crawls for a few minutes after I close the game. I guess I'm not really sure what the main issue is.

Ugh, PUBG is pretty poorly optimized. Your CPU might actually be the bottleneck here.

Try dropping your settings all the way to low—resolution too if you have to—and see if the issue persists. If it’s still stuttering after that, it’s likely the processor. Check your CPU and GPU usage while you're playing.

Otherwise, if you're looking at an upgrade path for your CPUa, I'd aim for an i7. It'll give you some peace of mind for much longer. An i5 feels like a halfway house at this point since it's already hitting its limits in certain games.

The processor isn't an issue at all. As my colleague pointed out, you either dial back the settings or upgrade your graphics card; that i3 still has plenty of muscle for gaming.

It seems like the view distance is the biggest bottleneck—if you turn that down, you can probably bump up the other settings a bit and still have a playable experience.
Thanks for the input, I guess I'll just hang tight for now and maybe look into a serious upgrade down the road.👍

mellowtiger83 said:The processor isn't an issue at all. As my colleague pointed out, you either dial back the settings or upgrade your graphics card; that i3 still has plenty of muscle for gaming.

Wait, which game? PUBG is heavy on the CPU and notoriously poorly optimized.

But since we're talking about a GTX 950, the card is likely the bottleneck, especially regarding VRAM capacity.

That's why you need to run tests on the lowest possible settings first.

My bet? Texture settings are too high and there just isn't enough power or memory to pull it off.

rowdydriver5 said:It seems like the view distance is the biggest bottleneck—if you turn that down, you can probably bump up the other settings a bit and still have a playable experience.
Thanks for the input, I guess I'll just hang tight for now and maybe look into a serious upgrade down the road.👍

View distance eats up VRAM and hammers the CPU at the same time. Try optimizing it that way. Otherwise, the rig is pretty balanced right now; wouldn't bother upgrading anything unless you're planning on swapping out the GPU.

I mean, they should probably just grab a used i5. A quad-core is a quad-core, after all. If the game actually requires four cores to run smoothly, it’s going to feel significantly better than anything an i3 could offer.

Amy Vaughn12 said:I mean, they should probably just grab a used i5. A quad-core is a quad-core, after all. If the game actually requires four cores to run smoothly, it’s going to feel significantly better than anything an i3 could offer.

Depends on where the bottleneck is. If it's the GPU power or VRAM, a better graphics card won't fix a weak processor.

The GTX 950 isn't actually a bad card by any means, but you're definitely hitting that i3 bottleneck. Honestly, these days, there just aren't many new games out there that can run smoothly on a dual-core setup without running into major issues.

The i3 4360 is roughly on par with a G4560... and honestly, the GTX 950 feels a bit slower than an RX 560. You might want to look into a bottleneck.
They'd probably see more benefit from a better GPU, but the game itself is stuttering just because that's how it is right now. Even an 8700K struggles with it, just slightly less so. As for the PC slowing down for a few minutes after closing the game, I guess that’s a separate issue entirely.

crimsonstag84 said:The i3 4360 is roughly on par with a G4560... and honestly, the GTX 950 feels a bit slower than an RX 560. You might want to look into a bottleneck.
They'd probably see more benefit from a better GPU, but the game itself is stuttering just because that's how it is right now. Even an 8700K struggles with it, just slightly less so. As for the PC slowing down for a few minutes after closing the game, I guess that’s a separate issue entirely.

It's hitting the virtual memory. The RAM is being maxed out. They really need to optimize their memory management!