Looking for an upgrade

gh0st233

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Nov 7, 2014
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Hello gamers,

I have recently upgraded my system with a new graphics card, the R9 270x, but it's not working as it should. It's almost three times as powerful as my old one, but I am not really seeing such a big improvement. The improvement is there, but it's not as good as it should be. For example, Witcher 2 and Dragon Age Inquisition aren't as smooth as they should be. I believe this is due to my CPU bottle-necking. Here are my specs:

CPU: Quad Core Q9400 @ 2.66GHz
GPU: ATI R9 270x (Used to be HD 4850)
RAM: 4 GB DDR3 G. Skill (very low frequency, like 400-800)
HDD: 1 TB (no idea which)

I also believe I should upgrade my RAM to 8 GB, because 4 is low for today's standards and when doing a check in one of those programs like CPU-z and AIDA, it showed my RAM frequency to be, I think, only 400 MHz which is very low. Since most of today's RAM memories work at around 1600-2400 MHz.

Any help? Friend wants to get himself a new CPU and he'll give me his one most likely, which is an I5-2400 I think. Is that any good, and am I going to need a new motherboard for it? Current motherboard is Asus P51GT4-M LX3.

All help is welcome!
 
Yes, you will need a new motherboard. Your old one - and your CPU - is extremely old and you should have upgraded that first, tbh. i5 have a different socket from yours.
 
Yes you will need a new motherboard. Your current processor uses an LGA 775 socket while the i5-2400 uses a LGA 1155 socket. If you plan to overclock, I recommend you use a Z97 motherboard. Most of the Z97 boards are decent quality.

The bottleneck should actually not be too severe since it is only a 270x. What frame rates are you currently getting? Don't use the preset settings. Instead, you need to find out which settings in game are CPU intensive, and turn those down. Your graphics should still be able to provide you with about 70% of its usual capacity.

Also, what PSU do you have? Insufficient power can be another cause of your 270x throttling.

You definitely should upgrade to 8GB RAM. But make sure you pair your RAM. Get two sticks of the same speed and manufacturer.
 
You could do a slight upgrade, go to newegg, get yourself a new MB and a proccesor, with 200-250, you can do a good upgrade.
 
Good advice from the posters above. You will need a new mobo. Pick out something that is capable of triple channeling your RAM. Increase RAM to 12 gb (it's not that expensive). 12/3=4 so that's 4gb per channel.

Also I recommend buying at least an i5 3rd-4th gen. or maybe i7, but i5 is enough I think. I have an i5 3450 because I don't condone overclocking, but if you want to, go for a processor that can do it well.

If you're still seeing underperformance, update all drivers. Make sure your mobo and GPU is not only compatible, but plays well together, and also with your processor.

That's it, good luck.