upgrade from i3 530

[hodgenutts]

Hello. I'm looking to upgrade my CPU, I realize for what I'm looking at, I will also need to upgrade my mobo. I'm upgrading because I would like better frame rates in video games. I play WoW, knights of the old republic, Star Craft 2, Disblo 3 and Tera. I currently have an ATI 5850, 16 gigs of gskill rip jaw 1333 RAM 4gig x 4 sticks, and an OCZ 750 watt mod xstream psu. I have my my i3 530 o.c.ed to 3.3 ghz and I'm pretty sure the processor is my bottleneck.

I'm looking at an i5 2500K, i5 3570k because its only $10 more. Also Im looking at an i5 2300, I know its not as power ful but I can get a new one for only $140, and I could spend that extra $80 on a new 1155 mobo. Just wondering if an i5 2300 would be good enough for those games.

Also looking at these 2 mobos:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157253

But I can get

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-13188097-L09B

For $40 cheaper after rebate.

Even though the i5 2300 has locked multipliers, would the evga board still be able to o.c. it via the bus? If so I could have the pc/mobo both replaced for $200 with a sandy bridge set up. Or is the 2500K or 3570k much better considering how cheap I can get the 2300. Is the 2300 sufficent for the games I play. Thanks everyone in advance for the help. Sorry for all the questions.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Live near Microcenter? And remember 3570K got PCie 3.0 plus its around 5% faster clock for clock. Plus 100Mhz more.

 

[Durvelle27]

what's your budget ?

 

[AtenRa]

I would OC the i3 530 to 4GHz first and see if you get any performance gains in the games you play, if not then upgrade the GPU.

 

[hodgenutts]

LoL I made a post in regards to upgrading my GPU, the 5850 to possibly a 660 ti, in the vid card forum as I was wondering if it would be a big improvement from my 5850, and they told me to upgrade the processor.

With my current mobo, 3.3 ghz is the farthest I can take my i3 530 without getting b.s.o.d.

 

[Blastman]

Have you tested to see if you’re CPU limited in the games you play? You might try lowering your graphics settings for these games and/or lower the resolution and see if your frame rates go up. If your frame rates stay about the same with the lower load on your graphics card, then you’re CPU limited.

 

[hodgenutts]

Blastman thank you very much for the advice. I will try that

 

[hodgenutts]

budget is 200 to 300, but just becaust I would like to get the job accomplished foras cheap as I can. School tuition is kicking my butt lol

 

[Concillian]

I run an i3-530 OCed to 4GHz and have zero FPS issues in those games. I stopped playing WoW a couple months ago, so haven't played it on Pandaria, but I bet it proves to offer no issues. Tera is something I've never played, but the others are fine on an OCed 530.

Where specifically are you seeing FPS issues? Is it causing issues with un-smooth gameplay?

Otherwise, I'm currently testing my new 3570k + ASRockZ75 board. Z75 is plenty capable at mild OCing, and for $85 can't be beat, that ends up around $300.

I think an OCed 530 is STILL the best budget gaming CPU option after however many years it's been. Nothing comes close for the ~$150 for Mobo + CPU you can get these for used. Need to pay about double for better gaming performance by moving to 3570k. No OCing on SB and IB i3s means there's nothing competitive for games like you listed that are still not very good with multithreading so that they only really use 2 cores well. That pretty much rules out anything AMD as a decent upgrade option.

 

[ShadowVVL]

The 530 is a nice chip except the igpu is crap and bad for open gl.

I think ocing it like most have suggested is a better idea. even at stock clock its great in sc2 and diablo 3.

 

[hodgenutts]

Here's a link to the current MOBO I have. As I stated I can only get an O.C. to about 3.3 without a B.S.O.D. maybe I just don't know what I'm doing lol

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131604

I am curious though can the i5 2300 be overclocked via the bus even though it's multiplier is locked?

 

[Blastman]

Here's a link to the current MOBO I have. As I stated I can only get an O.C. to about 3.3 without a B.S.O.D. maybe I just don't know what I'm doing lol

That ASUS is a good 1156 MB, you should have no trouble overclocking to 4.0Ghz. i3-530’s (all Clarkdales) run 4.0Ghz pretty easy.

When you overclock, your memory speed is probably holding you back – that’s why you’re stuck at 3.3Ghz. You need to adjust your memory multiplier so your memory is not running too fast. I can’t get past 3.3 either unless I adjust my memory to run slower.

When you raise the BCLK frequency past 133 your memory speed increases also. The default memory multiplier is 10x so your memory at default is running 10x133 = 1333Mhz. When you raise the BCLK to 150 to get your CPU running 150x22 = 3.300Ghz your memory is running 150x10 = 1500Mhz. My cheap memory (Kingston) will not run that fast, so I have to drop the memory multiplier to 8x which gives 150x8 = 1200Mhz which your memory will run easily.

When overclocking drop your memory multiplier to 8x.

At a BCLK of 182 …. x 22 you get 4.0Ghz
With a 8x memory setting you get 182 x 8 = 1456Mhz.

Most ram, even my cheap Kingston will run that fast. But if I try to go past 4.0Ghz, I will need to drop the memory multiplier even further – to the 6x setting, to keep it below 1500Mhz.

 

[hodgenutts]

Blastman thank you very much for the directions. I get off work in 4 hours and will try that as soon as I get home. Thank you so much