Basic questions about MSI B360M
Basic questions about MSI B360M
Hello everyone! I'm just starting out in the PC gaming scene and picking up new ideas every day. I bought a prebuilt PC from Cyberpower that felt overpriced for what I got. (I wasn't sure what I was getting) Most of it needs improvements. Right now I have an MSI B360M Bazooka motherboard, an i5 8400, a GTX 1060 with 3GB RAM, and two T-FORCE Vulcan 8GB at 2400MHz. Overall, my graphics performance is still lower than my PS4 Pro. I'm wondering if I can just keep the motherboard and upgrade the rest? My goal is to get an i9-9900 and an RTX 2070. I'm not completely confident about building a PC from scratch yet. I've updated the BIOS on my motherboard and believe it supports the 9th generation.
It supports 9th Gen with a BIOS update, but I recommend upgrading the GPU first, then the CPU. Testing will help you decide if a CPU upgrade is necessary based on your requirements. The 8400 should suffice for gaming and isn’t weak at all. Performance also depends on resolution; at 4K it may not be enough even with an RTX 2070.
I also intended to tackle this, thank you for the confirmation. I’m worried about the CPU bottleneck and the lack of hyperthreading in the i9900 and i9900k compared to the i5 8400. I’ll aim for 1440p at 144MHz—what a solid balance I think I can manage. I’ll be gaming from about 30 inches away from the screen.
Hyperthreading offers some improvement, but it won’t be the key factor in achieving top performance like the 9900 provides. The main issue lies in higher clock speeds. The 8400 should perform adequately at 144Hz, though it might struggle to maintain that speed consistently across AAA games. It still delivers a solid experience. To identify bottlenecks, monitor your GPU usage—if it isn’t being fully used, there’s a limitation elsewhere. As long as you’re happy with the frame rate you receive, it shouldn’t be a problem.