Right now I’m using an Asus ROG Strix Gaming B350A-F (w/updated BIOS) and a 5700G, along with 64GB of DDR4-3200 that I can only push to 2666 MHz. There’s also an Nvidia RTX 4070 12GB sharing the case.
In pondering an upgrade, I’m wondering how much benefit there’d be to upgrading to a better/more modern chipset like an X570 or such. Presumably I’d get better memory speeds, along with perhaps some benefit from PCIe 4.0.
Would it be worth the price to upgrade my senescent old motherboard? Mostly playing video games on this system, though I am experimenting with gaming in a VM…
You might just because of a better traces layouts, not due to the chipset.
Yes, you’d get PCIe 4.0 and more lanes/connectivity through the chipset if you need them.
Other than that I don’t think you’re gonna get much out of an X570 or B550 motherboard. I think you should save some money and spend big when you’re gonna change platform entirely.
If you REALLY want a new board B550 is a better chipset for two reasons: more efficient and used in newer boards equipped with 2.5Gbit LAN and amenities some older X570 don’t have.
One check I’d do if I were you is just on the VRMs: make sure the CPU can boost without issues and the VRMs do not overheat.
The reason you can only get 2666 MHz is because you have 4x 16GB sticks in your motherboard. To get more than 2666 you can only have one stick in each channel. Therefore, to allow your memory to clock faster, and to get a better gaming experience, simply remove two sticks of RAM from your motherboard.
Lots of tests have been done comparing low end and high end motherboards and, if you are running them stock there is no noteworthy performance increase. Premium (‘X’) motherboards are more for overclockers and those who need more interconnect options. A mobo upgrade won’t increase your FPS in games if you transfer that CPU and those 4 RAM sticks to it.
3200-3800 MHz RAM performs about the same in games with a 5700G, so the other option is to get 2x high frequency memory sticks that you use mainly for gaming. Realise that 2x 32GB sticks will run slower than 2x 16GB sticks, so if you try and keep your 64 GB total you are just gimping yourself. I do not know if your mobo is capable of pushing memory to 4000+ and remaining stable — I don’t fancy your chances.
Given you have a very good dGPU, the best bang-for buck upgrade would be a new CPU — a 5800X3D would be stellar, and I’m pretty sure that ASUS B350s all now have 5000-series CPU support. The Strix B350-F was first validated with the 5800X3D in BIOS version 6042. Not sure about “B350A-F”?
The FUNDAMENTAL thing to understand is that, aside from memory speed, your most significant bottleneck is CACHE. xxxG-series APUs have very little cache. So to address the cache bottleneck you want to switch from a -G processor to an -X processor… and if you want to do it in style, that means going to a -X3D processor — which has tons of cache.
If NOT mistaken, the 5000G APUs, were still involving PCIe 3.0
Main brag all, when addressing peripheral/component upgrades, is the RAM
IF concerned with PCIe support, you may be better off with devoted CPU
Whether a 5000 standard/X or X3D SKU
Thanks for all the information. I had forgotten the exact model designation of my current board, which is indeed “B350-F.” And it is at the most current BIOS level which is 6203.
And an unanticipated surprise is that the memory is actually running at 3466 MHz - if lshw can be believed. I was pretty sure I had to downclock it to get things stable, but it appears to have done some auto-overclocking (which I think Asus is known for LOL.)
Nope. 5700G is PCIe Gen3 only. Also is will not do more than DDR4-3200.
I think the time to upgrade this system is when you’re limited in any way. At that point I’d look at a bargain in the latest tech. This should come with generational upgrades in tech.
Today, I would look into this MicroCenter bundle as a baseline:
→ 8 core, 16 thread CPU, overclockable
→ DDR5-6000
→ mobo with PCIe4 slots and m.2 slots (IMHO a PCIe5 slot does not yet offer any benefits yet due to lack of devices that take advantage over it. Will change over time).
If you can, always link the product page, it makes it easier to check out the juicy bits
The short gist of it: There are some benefits to updating, mostly going 3.0 to 4.0 on the PCIe version, but nothing worth the money it will cost you, at this stage. Better to invest in B650 and AM5 in that case.
As a home user in 2023 2024 you are mostly concerned with four things on a new motherboard; VRM deliveries, RAM speeds, PCIe version and lanes, and expandability, most specifically the number of m.2 slots available. For PCIe slots you usually only have four things of interest, GPU, SATA controller, 10 GbE and USB C.
VRM - There is absolutely no reason whatsoever here. Your VRMs and that CPU are more than fine.
RAM Speeds - 2666 MHz isn’t the ideal speed, but works well enough and system isn’t significantly slowed down by it. Benchmarks, yes. Actual use, no.
PCIe version/lanes - B350 isn’t exactly a champ here in 2024. PCIe 2.0 and 3.0 isn’t exactly stellar. But it’s good enough for your needs. The 5700G is capped at 3.0 anyway - you will not get 4.0 speeds on a B550 upgrade.
Expandability - So you have x3 of both PCIe 16 and PCIe 1 slots, though one could be disabled due to the 5700G. Unless you have a use for those ports, there is no use caring. For m.2 slots you have two and they share x4, which is par for the course and not really a problem. You could add an x16-but-x4 m.2 slot in your third PCIe slot, if you really have to - see an adapter such as this:
With that in mind, we are looking at a cheap-ish replacement AM4 B550 or X570 motherboard that supports a GPU and at least 3 m.2 slots. Here is the cheapest I can find that supports this:
Anything less would not be an upsell, and $200 is definitely a bit too much, I’d spend at most around $100 or so. Here is an example kit of what I would pair with that video card of yours on AM5, just to have something to compare notes to:
True, $700 is quite a bit more and in your case, using what you have will beat buying this for $700. The only saving grace is that this package is a good starting point for someone looking to take the next step, but I would personally recommend a 12 core or better in 2024 if going AM5. Also, you could use this as a core and sell your old system (minus GPU) as an APU Entry Gaming system or Windows 11 Office machine for $350-$500.
Going AM5 should give you ~40%-60% performance boost due to resolving GPU bottlenecks along with higher clocks and the 15% IPC boost, going with a better AM4 board should give you ~5% beter performance, ~10% if you also upgrade to a 5700X CPU. That is just too little extra performance for, what? A $350-$400 investment?
First of all I need to clear up one mistake on my part: the RAM is running much faster than I thought according to both the UEFI and Linux’s lshw command:
How did that happen? Not sure, but it seems I enabled auto-overclocking sometime during my attempts to stabilize the system. Doesn’t appear to have done anything to the CPU clocks, but it does seem to have affected the FCLK and RAM speeds. In fact all the DDR4 I bought was rated at 3200.
But @wertigon has mentioned some very impressive numbers for AM5. How much uplift would I see out of say a 5800X3D?
Since you only have the 5700G with half the L3 cache as the regular 5700X, the 5800X3D will be a sensible upgrade.
How much more FPS depends on the game, newer games benefit more from the cache and at 1080P you will certainly get up to 40-50% more frames, sometimes maybe more.
The 5800X3D is comparable to the 7700 in games.
Together with your 4070, you will get a competent gaming system
