So I’ve been using this machine for a little over 10 years now and making upgrades as nessesary. I don’t care much for graphic quality so it’s mostly been fine. However, my FPS on certain games has started to become pretty frustrating so I’m trying to come up with inexpensive options to upgrade.
In particular I’m trying to play Nuclear Option online and am having a lot of trouble late in the match. I’m guessing this is due to the high amount of smoke effects but I’m not an expert in any way.
I’m getting 10~20 FPS regardless of graphic settings. I’ve also checked on my GPU and it maxes out at around 50% utilization so I’m guessing the processor is my limitation
The best CPU my motherboard can take is a i7-4790k (please correct me if I’m wrong) and I think I can get one for $100ish but I’m not sure if that would make enough of a difference. It also seems like DDR3 era board/CPU combos are a little more expensive but fairly affordable on ebay. However, I’m not really sure what would be a good value and worth the investment performance-wise.
Any advice you could give is appreciated. Thanks
In THIS economy ?
Don’t upgrade unless you’re going for motherboard, RAM and CPU upgrade.
Buying RAM today is pricey so I’m not sure if it’s possible to upgrade on a lean budget. A used combo of the three might be available though at a decent price.
You can look for a second hand office pc with a newer socket, so you can comfortably upgrade the CPU without having to buy new motherboard and ram, but that would still leave you with an old GPU.
Maybe look for a second hand server/workstation on eBay. The CPU might not be the best for gaming, but you might upgrade that later, and you would get an upgraded gpu. Or you could just delay the GPU upgrade
At this point just get a new PC, you cant really upgrade the CPU significantly enough to make a difference
Your specs aren’t too far outside of the recommended specs on the steam page, for you to only get 10-20fps. Are you sure your monitor is connected to the GPU?
Definitely. The game runs okay in single player. I just think it’s too much for my system when there’s a lot going on on-screen
Maybe a network issue like ping if it’s only multiplayer
4790k is about 15-20% faster than 4690k, but it’s still outdated compared to modern cpus.
You will need a new motherboard, cpu and ram (ddr4 or ddr5 depending on cpu generation) if you want a meaningful upgrade.
Oh no, not RAM.
DDR5 will require OP to sell at least three kidneys in this economy.
I see RAM at somewhat high but reasonable-ish prices on Facebook Marketplace all the time. Might not be the case elsewhere, but it’s an option.
Maybe look at old office PCs for sale. Some of them aren’t THAT old and you could get a good CPU upgrade from one of them. Slot your graphics card in and that could be a significant improvement.
Actually this might be a great idea. Before the current PC I used an $80 refurb I got from Microcenter. I slapped a video card in there and that lasted me a few years before I had to upgrade again.
I will take a look at the old office pc market and see what I can find in my budget. Thanks
Edit: old office PC 's don’t seem to be as good of a deal as they used to be
Just be careful with those - they often have weak-ass power supplies that won’t be able to drive a beefier GPU, or may not be able to physically fit said GPU in their cases depending on form factor. They often also have non-standard power supplies that you can’t just easily swap out with an off the shelf ATX PSU. (I’M LOOKING AT YOU, DELL)
Dell optiplexes regularly sell on ebay for like $50-60, and they often have 6th-gen intel i5s inside
I don’t think there’s anything you can upgrade that will make a meaningful difference. My advice would be to save up for when the rampocalypse is over and build something that will give you a much better bang for you buck.
The RAMpocalypse is going to only get worse by the sounds of it.
I’m getting 10~20 FPS regardless of graphic settings. I’ve also checked on my GPU and it maxes out at around 50% utilization so I’m guessing the processor is my limitation
Yep that’s a CPU bottleneck. 4790k will be a good improvement for sure. IDK if it’s worth $100 but maybe, considering any other upgrade would require buying RAM.
It is really not worth it. Having 12 to 24 instead of 10 to 20 FPS is not really better. Spending that much money on that relict, that I used up until I updated in 2025, is not good advice.
You would need to detail your usecase more (what games do you play, what settings & resolutions?), but I don’t think your CPU, RAM, or GPU are the main bottleneck - it’s the GRAM (the one on you 1060) & the resolution you play on. You can test this by lowering in game resolution to 1280×720.
My first advice would be to look for a used PC in the range of minimum of 300(~500?) monies prioritising GPU (any Intel 10th or AMD Zen2+ will do).
Short of that about the same start but in two parts - go used gfx card hunting & find a good deal (it’s the biggest bottleneck atm & you can switch the rest of the parts later).
If games run slow even on low it’s the GRAM (not GPU) vs your resolution … and playing at 720p is just too retro :).Perhaps you could get lucky getting like a 6600 or maybe 3070 (prob the price of two 6600?) for a good price? It really depends on the local market what would be the best option available to you.
Maybe think about a gaming-only monitor too (1920×1080, so inferior to your 1440, but vastly less GRAM hungry), if upscaling doesn’t work for you (tho it got better over generations).With a new gfx card make sure you have a decent PSU.
I wouldn’t bother upgrading your CPU on that mobo unless you get one for free, the prices are always too high - but think about overclocking the current CPU (your CPU & mobo support that).
Is that a 4th gen i5?
That may be your problem:
Intel® Core™ i5-7600K CPU or similarThe game lists this as the minimum. It looks like a rock and a hard place though as far as your situation goes.
Yeah the minimim recommened cpu doesnt even have the same socket as your motherboard so I’d just grab that 100 dollar cpu and hope for the best.
Will that socket into my motherboard? I thought I was capped at the i7-4790k
No, the 6000 series and higher use DDR4 RAM
But I think the 4790k would be faster than the 7600k in most games (except for very old single threaded games which run fine on both anyways)
4000 series can do AVX2 (same as the 7600k), so it has all the commonly required modern instructions
There are actually some rare mainboards for 6000/7000 series that still use DDR3.
That one might work. It still would be bad but definitely more playable.
I think RAM is going to be your biggest bottleneck here, and replacing that would be terribly expensive, so I would recommend to keep saving.
@Glifted There is also the option of using #GeForceNOW until #RAM prices cool down.
