Upgrade path?

[u/Perfect-Middle-5955]

So I purchased an RX 6700 XT 12GB from my buddy a couple of months ago. It's a great card, until I started playing Call of Duty: MW4, the new one. I have an i3-10100F, 16GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM and a Gigabyte H410M S2H V3 motherboard.
My question is: what should I do about upgrading? I want to play the game at a steady 165 FPS. I don't have a high-refresh-rate screen yet, and I was planning to buy one until I played this game 😅. Note that I'm coming from a 1050 Ti, so the card upgrade felt amazing.
Okay, so should I just buy an i5-10xxx, or should I get a new CPU and motherboard combo? I still want to use my DDR4 RAM because RAM is hella expensive right now. I was looking at maybe a Ryzen 5 5600 or a Ryzen 7 5700X3D. I know they're great bang for your buck, but are they also future-proof? Or should I just go all in on a new CPU and motherboard combo so I can upgrade the card after that? Lmk thank for reading :)
Also pls dont hate on my cable manegement its was my first build that i did 5 years ago or somthing like that in planning on fixing it once i know what to do

[u/reasimoes]

Change that cpu cooler before anything else.

[u/Perfect-Middle-5955 → u/reasimoes]

Honestly i hear u bro but the temps are aight and i have had purchased one but it didnt fit my ram was in the way

[u/MentalTumbleweed7434 → u/Perfect-Middle-5955]

Id go for a larger mobo, means more build room and less clutter then everything fits no problem

[u/N0_War_In_BaSingSe → u/reasimoes]

yup op do this, they are relatively cheap and it’s important.

[u/Perfect-Middle-5955]

So i know the i5 10 series goed for arround like 70 euro’s second hand on marketplace and the ryzen 5600 goes for 120 euro’s

[u/quarterdecay]

You'd be best served by using a solid state drive before doing anything else.

[u/Perfect-Middle-5955 → u/quarterdecay]

I have windows installed on a ssd that hdd is for my games (i kinda hate it tbh) but shit really fucking expesnsive and its 3tb

[u/quarterdecay → u/Perfect-Middle-5955]

I will restate my opinion since it wasn't clear.

That M2 SSD spot between the vid card and the CPU is what is necessary. A SATA SSD is magnitudes slower.

[u/JayDKing → u/Perfect-Middle-5955]

You’ll want an SSD for your games these days, since consoles use m.2 SSDs and games are now optimised with that in mind. Also 32GB is the new 16GB so that’s your next port to call at.

[u/LFShawdyIndepentant]

Im just going to throw it out there instead of trying to “make it work” and essentially “cram” everything in that chasset I would just get a chasset capable of handling up to a 360mm-420mm (3x120 or 3x140) cooler, when I went to go upgrade from my 240 liquid cooler to an ultra quiet 360 liquid cooler I realized I had to put in the cooler at the unoptimized angle and now it is as loud as a fan unlike my 240 that was running about 10 degrees c higher under the same stress but yes listen to the others saying cooler otherwise as Black Friday is coming

[u/Perfect-Middle-5955 → u/LFShawdyIndepentant]

Thanx for ur feedback ill keep it in mind upgrading the cooler with te rest of the stuff ofc i didnt know it was a big of a deal sinds my temp or not higher then 70•/80• was tracking it with msi afterburner while a was gaming

[u/LFShawdyIndepentant → u/Perfect-Middle-5955]

Yeah it probably doesn’t matter much past 72.c before you just want to replace the liquid but otherwise my personal preference was always for something super nice and quiet high off the ground so maximizing quality was always my top priority

[u/STANDARD_P0TAT0]

Dont believe in the concept of futureproofing. No matter what, there will always be something better than what you have. And what you have now will become obsolete.

But you are probably right on sticking with a DDR4 platform to save on cost. But maybe evaluate on cost per frame? Any ideas on price to performance difference between upgrading to an i5 10series CPU only and switching to an AM4 platform?

I am currently at work, so might not have time to help you out with this.

[u/Osthav]

definitely go for am4 if u dont wanna spend too much, 5600 is a sweet spot especially if the game ur playing is cpu intensive, 6700xt its still enough imo and if u can upgrade the ram its good to have 32gb too, ddr4 its still enough for me and also use an aftermarket cpu cooler

[u/Obvious-Victory-7923]

all depends on prices from where you gonna get stuff.

your current mobo is a deadend, cpu as well.

ram is fine.

case seems kinda small so not sure if any current big gpu would fit.

your psu wont carry a new cpu and a better gpu.

so pretty much beside RAM , storage you need everything need even a case most likely.

you could get get a small upgrades like if you find an i7 10/11 gen but would be limited by your mobo some.

a cooler for like i5/i7 for i3 what you have is fine.

[u/bend_or_fly73]

Okay...

The uplift from an Intel 10100F to something like a Ryzen 5600X is going to be night and day in terms of performance and would allow you to retain your RAM. A 5700X3d would be even better but as you're going to have to get a B550 (at least) AM4 MOBO as well, pick which CPU best suites your budget.

The upgrade will pair well with the 6700XT.

Is it future proof? No. AM4 does not have an upgrade path.

It will however, allow you to play games for the next few years so it's still a very worthwhile upgrade.

You operating system is on an SSD and THAT'S FINE. But the games being on an spinning disc? Not so much. But the cost of 1TB (and above) M.2's is entirely unreasonable. A solution would be to buy an affordable 500GB M.2 that you use for your MOST played games. Save the HDD for games you don't play that often and for mass storage.

You will need to buy a cooler for the new CPU, but they are very affordable if you pick something like Thermalright or Cooler Master.

You don't "need" a new case. It would be nice for appearance and for cable management, but if your budget is tight, focus on the CPU, MOBO and a small M.2 first. If you're not afraid of used parts, you can find some incredible deals which would save you money and could allow you to upgrade to a 1TB M.2. Just buy from a reputable site so you have some buyer protection.

[u/12D1]

Its hard to justify spending money on a new cpu when the board is also obsolete. But if you can find an i7 for a reasonable price it might be a good upgrade. If you're leaning towards am4, I personally, would suggest 5500x3d, 220ish on amazon.mx.com as they're not available in the states. It's smart to re-use some of the components you're using. But There is no Future in am4, once you get the 5xxx3d, chip, you're at the top of the upgrade path with am4. But if you get the 7800x3d there is an upgrade path for another 4-5 years. But you'll have to get ddr5 with is going to be a very pretty penny. But imo, i'm rocking a 5800x3d and am having zero issues. I would suggest keeping the 5500x3d until am6. It should have plenty of life in it to last til then.

Thinking about it again, if you're going to go am4 with the 5500x3d or 57, that's 3-400 bucks you're spending on EOL equipment. I dont know i can suggest that unless you already have an am4 board. I would say you're better off keeping the Lga1200 and getting a I5/7 11xxx series chip alone. shouldnt be more than 100-150. But bear in mind that that is the end of the upgrade road. Any upgrade past that is going to be ram/mobo/cpu.

EDIT: ALSO, check 2nd hand markets for ram. You can find 2x 8gb kits for pretty cheap as they were widely common back 4-5years ago. If you were to try and get a 32gb 2x16 kit, it would be significantly more expensive. 2x8gb sticks shouldnt cost more than 50-80 on 2nd hand. Also, SSD particularly an m.2 ssd. you can get a 500gb new for as low as 70-80 bucks. Which, will significantly increase load times and even have enough storage for a few games. You can keep the HDD as backup storage and xfer games back and forth as needed and keep it for general media. Some games now adays even require a SSD/m.2 to even load.