Gaming wise, should I upgrade my graphics card or processor first?

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Spidermafia

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Jul 9, 2014
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Hey guys,
I do a fair amount of PC gaming, and I figured with newer and higher end games coming out each year, it was time for an upgrade to be able to run everything high and get a steady frame rate again.
Right now my parts are,
GPU: Radeon 6870
CPU: Phenom II X4 955
I want to upgrade to a Nvidia 780 card and an i5, but only have enough money to do one upgrade now. I understand my computer will be bottle necked heavily this way, that's why I'll quickly try to get the second upgrade but I'm not sure how long that will take. To get the highest performance in games and other general usage for the time being, which should I make an upgrade to first? Graphics Card or CPU?
Thanks, and have a good one!

 
Solution
IInuyasha74
If money is tight, you are really best to go with an AMD R9 290 instead of an Nvidia 780.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202080

Its significantly faster than the Nvidia 780, and its also like $70 cheaper.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7601/sapphire-radeon-r9-290-review-our-first-custom-cooled-290/3

That way you get the most performance for your money, and that $70 saved is a good step on your way towards the processor. Also I recommend going for the GPU first, just how I feel you would benefit most by going GPU first. For CPU I recommend going Xeon which is like i7 performance at i5 prices.
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Place_Matz

Place_Matz

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Mar 3, 2014
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For the longest time I had a brand new and fully functional GTX 760. I thought it was definitional. I had not realized that my processor (AMD FX 6100) had slowed down my computer and overall performance. I was really frustrated that despite buying a high end graphic's card all of my games had to go high instead of ultra to stay above 30 FPS. If I knew that my processor was causing the problem I would have swapped my brand new GTX 760 for the best one possible (my soon to be AMD FX 8350).

Here is the reason why: You graphics card is in charge of processing graphical functions and is not being or needing to be used unless you are playing games or doing graphical design. The processor is used the ENTIRE TIME that your computer is on. It is vital that you have a good processor if you want to do anything on your computer. From surfing the web to playing games you NEED a processor. Sure it will be bottlenecked until you upgrade you graphics card but for all of the applications that you use like chrome or Microsoft Word your computer will function perfectly.

Bottom line is you need a processor and you need it to work. It would be great to have a video card but you don't absolutely need it.
 
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Akhil Potukuchi

Akhil Potukuchi

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May 28, 2014
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Get the i5 and its mobo and keep using the 6870 until you can upgrade. Anyways, what's your budget for buying new parts. If you buy a 780 right now it will get heavily bottlenecked by your phenom and will give about the same performance as the 6870.
 
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IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

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May 1, 2013
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If money is tight, you are really best to go with an AMD R9 290 instead of an Nvidia 780.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202080

Its significantly faster than the Nvidia 780, and its also like $70 cheaper.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7601/sapphire-radeon-r9-290-review-our-first-custom-cooled-290/3

That way you get the most performance for your money, and that $70 saved is a good step on your way towards the processor. Also I recommend going for the GPU first, just how I feel you would benefit most by going GPU first. For CPU I recommend going Xeon which is like i7 performance at i5 prices.
 
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Solution
Place_Matz

Place_Matz

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Mar 3, 2014
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Like I said, get a good processor first and set it up however way you want. Then, when you have enough money, buy a video card that wont bottleneck or be bottlenecked by the processor. The video card you get all depends on the processor you get. If you get a high end i5 like the i5 4670k then it would be a good idea to get the GTX 770 or even the 780. But if you get a cheaper i5 then you would want to think about saving your money on the video card front because even if you get the best video card it will perform the same due to the lacking processor power needed.
 
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