CPU Bottleneck: Skylake Upgrade?

[bcirka]

So, playing the Star Wars Battlefront beta reminded me that my CPU is a huge bottleneck on my system--subsequent load monitoring proved the point.

Goal:
CPU Upgrade (Thinking of going Skylake)
MB Upgrade
RAM Upgrade (If I'm able to use my current RAM with the new MB, I'm happy to do that too)

Use:
Primarily gaming, some productivity work
Wouldn't mind overclocking once parts age in a few years

Budget:
<$500

Current Build:
CPU: Intel Core2 Q6600
MB: Gigabyte EP43T-UD3l
RAM: 8GB Kingston DDR3 PC3-10700
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 7800

Appreciate all the help! Thank you!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Your budget is plenty. If you're just looking to slot in a platform upgrade with your existing build, this would work:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/s7WWqs

If you can easily swing the extra cash for DDR4, I'd do this:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YgCMkL

But I'm afraid it won't be nearly as big a deal as it would be if you put that same extra money towards a new GPU instead.

Or an SSD if you don't have one. They don't help framerates, but they make the computer a lot more fun to use.

 

[Shmee]

I would go with the 6600k if possible, plus a new GPU and SSD. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/B2ZTcf

This includes a new GPU, a Sapphire 390, and a 250 GB SSD from Samsung. I chose the Z170 platform for possible OC to go with the K model CPU.

If you already have a SSD, or don't need that good a GPU, you could adjust, as I know it is a bit over budget, but then you could make up some money by selling old parts.

Also, what resolution do you play at and what is your current PSU? This helps us know how much GPU power is needed, and if your power supply is up to the task of our recommendation.

 

[Spydermag68]

If you have a Microcenter near you the 6600K is $220.

Here is a link to CPU motherboard bundles:
http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/intel-processor-bundles.aspx

 

[frozentundra123456]

Is your cpu overclocked, and is the gpu HD7850 or HD7870? If the cpu is not overclocked, the first thing I would try is doing that. Also what is your power supply, and how old is it?


Edit: You are kind of in limbo between upgrading and and needing a total system rebuild. If you upgrade the cpu, ram, and motherboard that will pretty much use your entire budget, and then your gpu will be a weak link. At least if you are gpu limited, you can lower settings or resolution to compensate. I dont think you can use your ram with skylake, but probably can if you upgrade to Haswell instead.

 

[Termie]

Just to be clear, you don't need to go with Skylake to fix this problem. Buying a 4690K, which is 95% as fast as the 6600K, will work too, and it will save you a lot in platform costs (decent Z97 boards are around $100, and you could use your slow 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, at least temporarily). And it's not hard to find in stock. You'd be all in for $350 instead of $475, and get practically all of the same benefits.

You don't need a new video card to play Battlefront. Save that upgrade for later, after you've tried the new CPU.

 

[bcirka]

All - Great feedback so far, and thank you so much.

My plan right now is to pick up a 4690K (with a Hyper 212 to keep it cool), a Gigabyte Gaming 7 mobo, and a Samsung 850 EVO SSD and slide in right under the $500 budget.

I'll use my current RAM for the time being until I can upgrade, and if I start seeing a bottleneck from the GPU, I'll overclock it until I can upgrade that as well!