I'm looking to enhance my setup by upgrading the CPU on my H310M motherboard. Currently, I have an i3-9100F, but it's struggling to handle background applications like Discord while I'm playing CS2. Do you think switching to an i5-9500, which has two extra cores, would resolve this problem? What would be the best CPU upgrade available at a reasonable price?
2 Answers
The performance upgrade depends on cost-effectiveness. The 9th gen Intel CPUs were released back in 2018, so while they can still be powerful, you might be throwing money at something that's showing its age. Make sure the upgrade justifies the price you're paying. What prices are you looking at?
An i5 would definitely help improve performance, especially in multitasking situations. But if you're open to it, consider checking the prices for i7 processors too. If you find an i7-9700 at a decent price, that’s a solid upgrade without needing a new motherboard!
I'm seeing the i5-9500 for about $60, but the i7 is over $100. Also, what do you think about Xeon CPUs? I have 16GB of DDR4 RAM. This is just my secondary PC - I mainly play CS2 and need a little boost in multitasking with Discord calls in the background.