Whether to upgrade GPU or CPU first based on circumstances. Some questions about right part choice and CPU-intensive games.

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brad3n

brad3n

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I'll start off with why I'm looking to upgrade. I play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive more than any other game, and I get around 60 fps when I play on lowest settings. It goes down a little when I'm fighting someone, and it can drop pretty low in heavy smoke. I'm currently using the Radeon HD 6670 graphics card and the AMD FX 6300 CPU. When I first built this PC I had read good things about the FX 6300 for gaming at a good price, and the same for the HD 6670 for an entry level card. I can run most games pretty well including Counter-Strike, it's just that with this specific game these FPS drops are important. I have a lot more trouble than my friends sometimes because of my game not running as smoothly (finding it harder to quickly aim at someone without some choppiness). One of these friends who also built his PC gets around 300 fps at his highest settings (possibly higher, he caps its at 300). He is currently using an i5 processor (not sure of the exact number) and an R9 280X graphics card. I can only upgrade the graphics and CPU one at a time, so I was first thinking of upgrading my graphics card to the same one he has, but I've heard and read that Counter-Strike is one of those very CPU-intensive games. I'm worried that upgrading to this graphics card and still having the FX 6300 CPU might not fix my problem and I will be stuck waiting until I have the money to upgrade my CPU as well. Then my other option was to upgrade to the i5 4690K first, and my concern there was that my Radeon HD 6670 would bottleneck it. I don't know much about the actual power of this graphics card since I mostly play Counter-Strike (supposedly CPU-intensive), so if anyone has experience with it any help would be great. Are either of these options okay to go with, or do I really need to wait until I have money to upgrade both the CPU and the graphics card? Some CPU and graphics card suggestions would be great. My main objective is to be able to have high enough FPS for the game to run smoothly and to not be able to notice FPS drops (in smoke or in combat). I'm looking to only spend around $200-$250 on the graphics card. One more graphics related question I have is on the memory. How much does memory in a graphics card matter, and what exactly does it mean? Is 2GB good? Can a graphics card with 2GB of memory run excellently? Whether it's a suggestion, tip, or just one question answered, any help is appreciated. Thanks.
 
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clutchc
The gfx card is holding you back. You won't need to upgrade the CPU for that game. The R9-280 or GTX 960 would be a good card to match up with the FX 6300.
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brad3n

brad3n

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But if I plan to someday upgrade to an i7 4790K or an i5 4690K should I go with something like the R9 290 or R9 290x like the first answer said? Will that card work well with the FX 6300 even though its best paired with the i5 and i7? And LogicalIncrements.com says the R9 290 is a "good card, but needs a good cooler". It already has three fans on it, so what do they mean by a good cooler?
 
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clutchc

clutchc

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If you are planning on moving to an Intel platform and want a card to take with you, yes. The R9-290/290X would be great. But you can get the same performance with far less heat and lower wattage by going with the GTX 970. Or GTX 980 if you have deep pockets.

But if you don't plan on making that move for quite awhile, go with a card that won't be bottlenecked by the FX-6300. If the move to Intel is a couple years away, there may be something better or cheaper you'd like by that time.
 
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brad3n

brad3n

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So like you said, R9 280 or GTX 960 would be great to pair with FX 6300 meaning they won't be bottlenecked by that. If I were to go with an R9 290 or GTX 970 which you said might be bottlenecked by the FX 6300, does the bottlenecking really hurt the performance or would it just take it down to what the FX 6300 can handle. That's what confuses me about bottlenecking. Does one part only bottleneck another part to whatever level it's made for? For example would a GTX 970 run like a GTX 960 with the FX 6300 since the 6300 is better made for the 960? Or is the bottlenecking going to make the 970 go way lower and hugely affect performance. Because if the FX 6300 would only bring a 970 down to a 960 level or a ro 290 down to a 280 level, I might as well go with that and my graphics performance can increase to its maximum level when I get an i5 or i7 processor in the future right?
 
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king3pj

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CPUs aren't made for specific GPUs and GPUs aren't made for specific CPUs. I'll give some hypothetical numbers to explain how bottlenecking works because I have no idea what the actual FPS numbers will be.

Say the 280x you are considering is capable of putting out 300fps in CSGO if it's paired with the highest end CPU on the market. Now we'll say that your FX 6300 is capable of putting out 150fps in CSGO if it's paired with the highest end GPU on the market. In this hypothetical scenario the CPU would be bottlenecking the GPU because you would only be able to reach 150fps instead of the 300fps your GPU is capable of. If you later upgraded to an i5 the CPU would no longer be the limiting factor and you would get your 300fps.

In reality, CSGO is not really a high end graphics game. I think you will get all the performance you need out of a 280x and your current FX 6300. If you plan to use it for other modern AAA games, by all means spend more and get a 290 or 970. If you plan to mostly stick to CSGO I wouldn't bother though. At some point increasing fps no longer produces observable results. Yes 300fps is more than 150fps but if your monitor has a 60 or even 144Hz refresh rate there would be no real world difference.
 
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clutchc

clutchc

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king3pj explains it pretty well. Bottleneck is what the term implies. Pouring liquid out of a bottle is restricted by the small neck of the bottle. Likewise, the weakest link in the CPU/GPU combination can become the bottleneck if one is held back by the other. Although in gaming, the term bottleneck usually refers to CPU bottleneck.
You can use a faster card with a slower CPU, but the card won't be able to reach its full potential.

If you plan on upgrading to a faster Intel platform SOON, grab the fastest card you can afford. If it will be over a year, you might as well go with a less expensive card that won't be bottlenecked by the CPU, because a year or so from now, you'll probably want to get a newer card for the Intel platform anyway.
 
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