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Upgrade My DDR3 Ram or The whole platform?

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Howzit Guys

So my current system is standing at:

CPU: i7 4770 with a bequiet! air cooler
Ram: 8gb very generic shopping mall rando pickup at 800mhz according to CPU-Z
Motherboard: Gigabyte H97M-D3H
GPU: GTX 1060 6bg
PSU: 500W Corsair
Storage, 120gb ssd for OS and some apps, 500gb hard drive for the bulk (don't really keep much games or large files, not particularly because of restriction but rather I keep things clean)

The PC has been built up bit by bit switching out things where I could with my budget, and has for the most part taken care of my needs (Mainly gaming titles like LoL, light video and photo editing here and there, and some admin things). But I've recently hit an issue running some newer games most notably WarZone and stutter like a mofo mostly due to the ram I think.

Whilst I do understand that newer is arguably always better, is it necessary to swop out the entire CPU, motherboard and Ram out for a newer gen now? And if so, what would that combo price for if I sold it? Looking at the Ryzen platforms mostly for upgrades.

Or would it be fine to change out the ram for something a lot better for now, and ride the system for approx another 1.5-2 years or so? Which would also be much easier and cheaper.

I've also found it difficult to find any "decent" Ram options for 16gb DDR3 around new or second hand, maybe someone could point me in that direction?

Much appreciate the help!
 
1. Most probably running at 1600MHz, not 800.

2. My advice would be to sell while DDR3 systems still have some value worth selling. I was recently met with this exact problem.

Do what I did: Get the best motherboard you can buy (from a modern platform) - Intel or AMD, and then the best value for money processor within your budget. I recommend getting 16GB DDR4 RAM to future-proof yourself. From there you have a solid upgrade path.

Look at the specs in my signature, relatively good motherboard with a great value for money processor.
 
1. Most probably running at 1600MHz, not 800.

2. My advice would be to sell while DDR3 systems still have some value worth selling. I was recently met with this exact problem.

Do what I did: Get the best motherboard you can buy (from a modern platform) - Intel or AMD, and then the best value for money processor within your budget. I recommend getting 16GB DDR4 RAM to future-proof yourself. From there you have a solid upgrade path.

Look at the specs in my signature, relatively good motherboard with a great value for money processor.
This is good advice, but a counterpoint:

If you get 16GB DDR3 RAM, with your other specs, you should be running Warzone and the other games you mentioned very smoothly.

With a 4770 I don't think anything less than a Ryzen 5 3600 or an i5 9600K will give a noticeable bump to your performance. Which means you're looking at R 4 000 + for just the CPU, plus at least R 2 500 for a decent mobo and R 1 400 for 16GB DDR4 RAM.

The tricky bit is, 16GB DDR3 kits go for around the same price - or sometimes even more - than the equivalent DDR4 memory.

I suggest trying to get 16GB DDR3 second-hand and seeing how that feels. If it works, sorted. If it still feels too slow, save up for new CPU/Mobo/RAM. When you're ready to pull the trigger, you should be able to sell the DDR3 for not a lot less than you paid.
 
1. Most probably running at 1600MHz, not 800.

2. My advice would be to sell while DDR3 systems still have some value worth selling. I was recently met with this exact problem.

Do what I did: Get the best motherboard you can buy (from a modern platform) - Intel or AMD, and then the best value for money processor within your budget. I recommend getting 16GB DDR4 RAM to future-proof yourself. From there you have a solid upgrade path.

Look at the specs in my signature, relatively good motherboard with a great value for money processor.

Thanks for the advice! Will definitely look to going through those steps if I decide to upgrade up :)
 
This is good advice, but a counterpoint:

If you get 16GB DDR3 RAM, with your other specs, you should be running Warzone and the other games you mentioned very smoothly.

With a 4770 I don't think anything less than a Ryzen 5 3600 or an i5 9600K will give a noticeable bump to your performance. Which means you're looking at R 4 000 + for just the CPU, plus at least R 2 500 for a decent mobo and R 1 400 for 16GB DDR4 RAM.

The tricky bit is, 16GB DDR3 kits go for around the same price - or sometimes even more - than the equivalent DDR4 memory.

I suggest trying to get 16GB DDR3 second-hand and seeing how that feels. If it works, sorted. If it still feels too slow, save up for new CPU/Mobo/RAM. When you're ready to pull the trigger, you should be able to sell the DDR3 for not a lot less than you paid.

^^^ This was my main train of thought.

I need to at least upgrade the RAM, but with the costs of DDR3 probably due to the lack of demand, it was mostly equal or more than DDR4, and if i was to start upgrading anyways, I might as well consider swapping out the whole platform. It does make more sense to just try out the RAM upgrade for now, but I'm also worried like @AinsleyHarriott said that the platform might lose its value over the years if i want to sell or trade later down the line.
 
^^^ This was my main train of thought.

I need to at least upgrade the RAM, but with the costs of DDR3 probably due to the lack of demand, it was mostly equal or more than DDR4, and if i was to start upgrading anyways, I might as well consider swapping out the whole platform. It does make more sense to just try out the RAM upgrade for now, but I'm also worried like @AinsleyHarriott said that the platform might lose its value over the years if i want to sell or trade later down the line.
Fair enough. In that case a possible game plan is:
1. Search Carb classified threads for your current parts, to see what your possible sell value would be.
2. Decide what your current savings allow for upgrades.
3. Look for the best price on your desired upgrades. As a starting point, I recommend the MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX, R5 3600, and 2x8GB 3200MHz DDR4 RAM (don't get 1x16GB; you can get 2400MHz if you're really tight on budget, but Ryzen really likes the extra speed).
4. If the totals from items 1 + 2 cover the total of item 3, profit! If not, keep saving up.
 
Understandable.

I just could not bear the thought of running old components, and just seeing how fast it loses its value. With DDR5 rumoured, I just wanted to get on the newest platform with the best upgrade path.

Even though buying new, modern components do not give me a massive performance upgrade right now, it opened up my options in the future.
 
Also if the 8Gb of RAM you're currently using is just a single stick then you'll be running single channel only. That's not much memory bandwidth for gaming.

What I'd recommend is just buying the Kingston 8Gb stick linked above for R900 and installing it.
Should work fine, just go into CPU-Z beforehand and check what the timings are with your current RAM and then compare that to the timings for the new stick which you can probably find online and set it to the slower timings (higher numbers) in BIOS after installing the second stick.
 

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