I bought my first desktop a few weeks ago because I found it cheaply, and I'm hoping to improve it rather than replace it immediately. It has an Intel i5-6500 on an LGA 1151 motherboard, an AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP with 8GB of memory, and a power supply rated above 500W. My old ASUS TUF F15 laptop had an 11th-generation i5-11400H and an RTX 3050 Laptop GPU, so I originally hoped to get similar performance from the desktop. The current system can run games such as Kingdom Come: Deliverance at around 59 FPS, but it stutters. Would replacing the i5-6500 with an i7-7700 make a noticeable difference and possibly keep the computer usable for another couple of years? I'm fine with not matching the laptop's performance or running the newest games.
3 Answers
The i7-7700 is probably the fastest practical upgrade for that platform, but it may not be worth paying much for. You would gain four extra threads and smoother performance in some newer or CPU-heavy games, which could reduce stuttering, but it won’t transform the system into a modern gaming PC. Check that your motherboard supports 7th-generation CPUs and update its BIOS before installing one. Also compare the used price of the 7700 with the cost of moving to a newer motherboard, CPU, and memory.
I wouldn’t invest heavily in this platform. The computer is already several generations old, and LGA 1151 upgrades are limited and often overpriced on the used market. If the i7-7700 is available very cheaply, it can be a reasonable short-term improvement, but otherwise save the money for a newer platform. In the meantime, lower CPU-heavy settings, cap the frame rate slightly below your average, make sure you have enough RAM, and install the game on an SSD if it’s currently on a hard drive.
The graphics card is also a limitation here. The RX 580 2048SP is closer to an RX 570 than a full RX 580, and the older architecture lacks some of the features and efficiency of the laptop’s RTX 3050. An i7-7700 could help with CPU-related stutter, especially if the i5 is hitting 100% usage, but it cannot fix stuttering caused by the GPU, low memory, storage, overheating, or background processes. Monitor CPU and GPU usage, temperatures, and RAM while playing before buying anything.
That makes sense. I’m mainly trying to get smoother performance in the games I already play, so I’ll check the BIOS and used prices before deciding.