Hardware upgrade suggestions

Off-Topic Games, Gaming and Hardware
1

Hey all,

I’m looking to upgrade a few parts in my PC since it’s starting to lack the performance I’m looking for.

I’m currently using a Ryzen 5 3600, with a 1060 3gb, and 16 gb of ram. From my brief research on this forum and others, it seems that upgrading the graphics card won’t be doing all that much. I’m leaning towards upgrading the ram to 32gb since my memory usage creeps anywhere from the high 80s to low 90s according to task manager. I also have a second account that I use simultaneously sometimes when I want to double up on doing dailies/WQs, and the quality of both games goes drastically down (takes forever to log in, low fps, a small chance both games will just disconnect or crash completely). Using both becomes playable if I have the second account in windowed mode + very low graphics settings, however.

I mostly want to make sure my game isn’t running at 15-20 fps in raids while recording (it runs at 20-25 without), so I can upload my videos to Youtube without it looking like a slideshow.

If anyone has any suggestions, I’d greatly appreciate it (including suggestions on resources to watch/read so I become less ignorant on this topic)!

2

Well there is a lot to tackle about your post, a lot depending on things that you have not told us.

You said that you are running a Ryzen 5 3600, but you didn’t mention what motherboard. If your motherboard supports it, you should seriously look into upgrading to a Ryzen 5800X3D. WoW benefits tremendously from the 3D cache on the 5800X3D and chances are very high that it would be a drop-in upgrade for your existing motherboard. CPU upgrades have the most potential, out of any component, to increase your FPS. You can compensate for a slow Videocard by using lower video settings, but there aren’t many settings to reduce CPU usage.

The 1060 3GB is a pretty low-end card. VRam less than 4GB is going to cause problems. When you run out of VRam, your system has to begin using normal system RAM to augment your VRam, which is much slower and higher latency. This will cause your performance to tank. So you really need to be cognizant of which settings you use.

You didn’t mention what resolution you run the game at. Resolution has a huge impact on VRam usage. If you are running at anything higher than 1080P, 3GB is going to be a problem. You could experiment with using a “Render Scale” of less than 100% to essentially decrease your in-game resolution. Make sure that you are only using anti-aliasing methods such as CMAA, and do NOT use any form of MSAA. Keep view distance sliders down very low (the fewer textures in your viewable range, the less will be loaded into VRam). I would upgrade your Videocard next, after your CPU.

16GB RAM is not a massive amount of RAM, but it should not be holding you back at this point. I really doubt that this is limiting you or that you would see any relevant increase by upgrading to 32GB. You may be misinterpreting your RAM usage. Windows will attempt to use extra available RAM to cache files for faster loading times. This RAM that is used as cache will be freed up immediately when needed by an actual program or game. I wouldn’t even consider touching your RAM until after you’ve upgraded both your CPU and Videocard.

Regarding running two copies of WoW at the same time, I can see how that would be problematic. You’re probably running out VRam very quick in that scenario, as 3GB is already barely enough for one copy of WoW.

If your motherboard has an extra full-length PCI-E slot, you could try adding an extra, cheap videocard into your system. In the WoW settings, you can specifically set which videocard WoW will use. When you use that setting, that copy of WoW will render the game using the videocard that you choose, and this is independent of which videocard your monitor is plugged into. Having your 2nd copy of WoW using a different videocard instead of both trying to share the same videocard would be an easy workaround to not clog up that 3GB on the 1060.

Also, I seriously hope that you are using an SSD, not a traditional mechanical Hard Drive. Otherwise I would make that one of your first priorities.

3

Thanks so much for the detailed reply! I figured that there was a lot more to this than I had initially anticipated (and also way more information that I needed to provide lol).

My mobo is an MSI B450M-A PRO MAX, which does appear to be compatible with the Ryzen 5800X3D. I noticed there are a few places mentioning to get a better cooler for this particular CPU, is that 100% necessary? My case is a bit smaller than the standard size and I’m not sure if these recommended dual tower coolers will fit. The Deepcool AK500 seems to be single tower and also has really good reviews, but again, I’m wondering if it’s needed.

I’ll look into upgrading the GPU after I get the CPU. I cheaped out on that card and I knew it wasn’t gonna last me a long time, but somehow it has for 4-ish years. I’m running my resolution at 1080P with render scale at 95ish just to keep the game looking relatively OK. Most graphics settings are turned down to 3-4, and in raid those are lowered to 1 (except for the few mandatory settings to see all the swirlies/puddles/etc on the floor).

From all the discussion about upgrading CPU on this forum I had an inkling that it wasn’t really the RAM that was the real root of my issue, but I thought I would ask anyway.

I mentioned my mobo above and I’m sure I don’t have a second PCI-E slot. The only graphics card I have on hand atm is a 660 lol, which I don’t think will help all that much.

I definitely am using an SSD for my games + OS. I ran a copy of WoW that I put on my HDD just to test PTR stuff and I completely forgot how awful the loading times were without one. I appreciate your thoroughness, though!

4

without going for a new build, I’d say replace the graphic card first. something with 8gb of ram. the game engine now is really affected by the graphic card.

I think your cpu is ok for now. obviously the 5800x3d will be good but right now that graphic card is holding you back

5

It will definitely put out more heat than your existing CPU. What cooler are you running now? The stock cooler from your existing CPU? The 5800X3D is “only” an 8-core chip, so it’s not as demanding as the 12 and 16 core chips. The extra cache does add some heat, but not as much as extra cores.

Another factor is, do you play other games besides WoW? Despite minor improvements over the years, WoW still rarely uses more than 4 cores, and most of the time it’s using between 1-3 cores. Most of the people talking about what cooler you “need” for a 5800X3D would be basing that on benchmarks that are artificially loading down all 8 cores. So if WoW is the only game that you play, you could probably get away with just about any CPU cooler. But there are other games that do use more cores. Either way, the CPU will protect itself if it overheats, and will throttle (slow itself down). So there is really no harm in trying it with your existing cooler, and upgrading if you feel that you need to. Something like the AK500 would probably be a good fit if you need to upgrade. Although I would personally recommend the Peerless Assassin 120 if it will fit.

I agree that you definitely need a GPU upgrade also, but again, you can compensate for a slow GPU by using lower settings. There isn’t much you can do to compensate for a slower CPU, and the 5800X3D is ridiculously fast for WoW. It actually outperforms all of the non-3D cache next-gen AM5 CPUs (AMD 7xxx series) in WoW, and also outperforms the Intel 13900k.

6

Yeah, I am using the stock cooler. From my very limited experience in building, I haven’t really had any issues with a PC overheating. And like you mentioned, the CPU will slow down if it reaches an unsafe temperature anyway so I think it’ll be alright if I try it out with the stock cooler and judge if the extra 50-60 bucks is necessary.

WoW is the game I play the most nowadays, however I do play D4 occasionally and Overwatch 2 very rarely. D4 seems very playable with my current setup at low settings and I don’t really have much complaints apart from the game being understandably uglier at lower settings. I’ve had FPS issues with Overwatch and OW2 but I haven’t really played since Season 2, which was a while ago.

All in all this seems like a no-brainer in terms of upgrades. Thank you so much for your help.