Time For An Upgrade?

So with this new generation of consoles coming out, the lowest common denominator in terms of game development has increased. Already, there are games like Watch Dogs which are starting to demand a lot more than most games this past generation. I recently built a gaming rig last winter. Here are the specs:

RAM: 8 GB (planning on doubling to 16)

CPU: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor 3.5 GHz

GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7970 with 3 GB video memory

OS: Windows 7 64-bit

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3

Is there anything more I should upgrade?

You don't need to upgrade anything, you'll be able to play any next gen games the coming year. But if you're really looking to max everything out at all times, you could use a better CPU for a game like Watch Dogs.

The processor is probably your weakest part for most games, though the extra cores may help even things out if games start using more of them. I doubt we'll need more than 8GBs of RAM right away, but the price makes it pretty easy to get more if you feel like it.

An AMD Radeon 7970 is a pretty strong video card. Probably stronger than both Xbox One and PS4 GPUs combined so you should be good on the part for a while.

Over all I think you are set until these new consoles start looking long in the tooth.

@slaegar: @troispoint: Yeah, that's pretty much what I figured. I was mostly unsure about the processor, which, as you point out, seems to be the bottleneck in my system. So do you have any specific processor you'd recommend or should I just get any 8-core amd processor? Thanks a ton for the advice, by the way!

Your CPU isn't bottlenecking your GPU. But the few games that are CPU intensive like Watch Dogs and BF4 do benefit from more threads in your CPU. I would wait for another generation of CPUs from AMD. Unless you don't mind changing your motherboard, because the latest Haswell i7 could be a good choice, although not necessary at all.

Your system is better than mine and I'm not planning on upgrading anytime soon...

@troispoint: Yeah, I'm trying to avoid rebuilding the computer from scratch haha. I think I'll take your advice then and wait on the next generation of AMD processors. Thanks for the help!

I'm biased towards Intel/Nvidia but I would take the wait and see approach on new PC hardware coming out next year because you don't need to be in a rush with the system you currently have.

If your motherboard supports AM3+ chipsets then grabbing an FX-8350 wouldn't go amiss. I have a 7970 as well and even upgrading from an FX-8120 saw marked improvements across the board. And it's relativity inexpensive too (sitting at around $200).

Think your current build is actually just fine, only thing I would probably upgrade now would be your RAM to 16GB which you plan on doing anyway, otherwise your next upgrade will probably only be to change your Graphics Card when you need it, BF4 uses 8GB of ram if you have more then that as it is to give you an example, and as cpu intesive BF4 actually is, your CPU usage should only be about 55-65% on a 6-core machine so you wouldn't even be maxing out your current CPU anyway right now. Bare in mind, both next gen consoles are 8-core CPUs, but both are using 2 cores out of the 8 to run their operating systems and background garbage, theres only about 5-6GB of free RAM available on the consoles, 16GB is just for specific games really that'll be written to use more for the PC than consoles, as is what normally the case is. Crysis 3 and BF4 are about the only games on PC currently able to use 8GB of RAM or more, with games like The Witcher 3 / Planetary Annihilation and Watch Dogs, that will change though

Yes, I think your PC is ok for playing Video games in today but day by day it will backward when new generation games come.