Should I upgrade soon? Suggestions?

GrubbsGrady

Hey folks, been a while since I stopped by. Back in 2014 I got some advice on parts to build a PC with and its been great. I have a bonus coming from my job next month and was thinking about upgrading some stuff if it would be worth it. I don't have issues running things, but sometime have problems when trying to stream and play.

Mostly I play Archeage, but there are some FPS games I tinker in. Will be getting into Crowfall once it releases (just for an idea of the type of game I'll be playing). 

The stuff I have in the computer currently are:

Case: Antec GX500
Motherboard: MSI Z97-Gaming 3 LGA 1150
GPU: ASUS Radeon R9 290x 4GB
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon Quad 3.5GHz
RAM: HyperX FURY 8gb (2x4gb)
Cooler: Enermax ETS-N30 HE Twister
Additional Case Fans: 2x NMoctua NF-P12 120mm

I use two 27 inch 1440p monitors also.


Any thoughts for what I should be looking to upgrade? All advice and tips are appreciated!

Quizzical

If you don't already have an SSD, getting one is a worthy upgrade.  If you built what most of the regulars here would have told you to build on a budget suited to the parts you list, you've presumably already got a good SSD.

Other than that, you're pretty much set until you run into some particular situation where what you have isn't good enough.  I generally don't stream games, so I haven't had a good look at what hardware gets stressed by that, but if it's Internet bandwidth, upgrading your computer won't help.

You might someday need to upgrade the memory from 8 GB to 16 GB, but probably not yet unless you like to multi-box.  There's little sense in a CPU upgrade unless you're doing something where four cores just isn't enough.  There are faster video cards out now than there were when you bought the computer, but a Radeon R9 290X offers performance in the ballpark of a modern Radeon RX 480 or GeForce GTX 1060, and I'd advise against upgrading from there to anything less than a GeForce GTX 1080, as small upgrades are a waste of money.  And, of course, any component can break and need to be replaced, but it sounds like that hasn't happened.

Ridelynn

I agree with Quiz.

SSD for sure if you don't already have one.

Apart from that, I'd probably think monitors and peripherals before anything else, and then maybe GPU past that if you are looking to spend a good deal of money.

TheDarkrayne

I agree with Quiz. Getting a GTX 1080 is the only thing I'd consider upgrading to. Unless you are thinking about changing to latest motherboard, cpu and memory.. but that would basically be a brand new system and you probably don't need it yet. 1080 is a solid upgrade and easily carries over if you do change to quad channel in the future.

TheDarkrayne

If you are having streaming problems then you might want to consider getting a capture card to take most of the strain off the CPU. You'd have to do your research on what would work for you though, some capture cards can makes things worse, some can do almost all the encoding on their own.

Elgato HD60 Pro seems to be a popular choice though.

laxie

Agree with all of the above.
Unless you find a game that's not performing, you should be all set. My friend recently bought a configuration similar to yours, as a brand new computer. It's still very relevant.

If you have excess money and want to make yourself happy, perhaps a new keyboard or mouse? Those always last a good amount of time, regardless of how technology progresses.

GrubbsGrady

Thanks for the input everyone! I do already have an SSD and it makes life so much better. 

I mostly started thinking about it when hearing some folks in my Archeage guild talking about how they were getting 160fps on ultra settings and I'm stuck around the 90 park just on very high. Everyone said its a CPU intensive game so I didn't know if what I had was dated maybe.

I appreciate the feedback from everyone- your time means a lot to me :pleased:

Octagon7711

I usually know it's time to upgrade when I get a game I really like that my system can't handle.  Lately if running out of harddrive space get an SSD.  Problem with graphics then upgrade the card.  If everything is running ok then it usually pays to wait because you can get something nice for a better price the longer you wait.  

Quizzical

GrubbsGrady said:

Thanks for the input everyone! I do already have an SSD and it makes life so much better. 

I mostly started thinking about it when hearing some folks in my Archeage guild talking about how they were getting 160fps on ultra settings and I'm stuck around the 90 park just on very high. Everyone said its a CPU intensive game so I didn't know if what I had was dated maybe.

I appreciate the feedback from everyone- your time means a lot to me :pleased:

If they're playing at a lower monitor resolution than you, that could be the difference in frame rates right there.

Regardless, a steady 90 frames per second is a good thing, not a bad thing.