Should I upgrade CPU or GPU?

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helltaimer

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Jan 27, 2015
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Hello people! Next month I'm travelling to USA and was thinking on upgrading either my CPU/MoBo/ram or only my GPU. My current specs are:
-AMD FX 6300 Black Edition.
-ASrock 960gm-vgs3 FX.
-(x2) GSkill Ripjaw 4gb ram module.
-EVGA GTX 750Ti FTW.
-XFX Pro Ts 550w 80+ Bronze.

I was looking at buying a i5 6400 CPU, with a z170 MoBo (from ASrock, as I want to OverClock the new non K Skylake CPU with Sky Overclock), 8 GB ram ddr4 and a CPU cooler for the OC.

For GPU, I was looking at a with 4gb+ vram of the GTX 960/r9 380/GTX 970/r9 380x/r9 290 or any GPU for 350 USD at least.

Which would be better to upgrade, my CPU or GPU (in mobas,mmorpgs, AAA games like GTA V and others)? What GPU do you recomend I get for around 350$? Or what CPU/MoBo combo do you recomend I get, in case upgrading my CPU is better? Thank you!
 
Solution
photonboy
I'd choose a GPU upgrade over a CPU upgrade.

You'll have a CPU bottleneck, but your gaming experience would be much better with:
FX-6300 + GTX970
than it would be with
i5-6400 + GTX750Ti.

If you kept the GTX750Ti you'd just have a GPU bottleneck most of the time instead, but on average much lower frame rate than the FX+970 combo.

Other:
1) Future DX12 games will use your FX-6300 better.

2) Some games have minimal or minor CPU bottleneck (in your scenario)

3) You can overclock the FX if you haven't already

*I'll give an example below..
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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I'd choose a GPU upgrade over a CPU upgrade.

You'll have a CPU bottleneck, but your gaming experience would be much better with:
FX-6300 + GTX970
than it would be with
i5-6400 + GTX750Ti.

If you kept the GTX750Ti you'd just have a GPU bottleneck most of the time instead, but on average much lower frame rate than the FX+970 combo.

Other:
1) Future DX12 games will use your FX-6300 better.

2) Some games have minimal or minor CPU bottleneck (in your scenario)

3) You can overclock the FX if you haven't already

*I'll give an example below..
 
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Solution
photonboy

photonboy

Titan
Jun 20, 2006
21,567
13
85,015
Examples of CPU scaling:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/57615-amd-vishera-fx-6300-fx-4300-review-12.html
*Note that even with lower performance the FX-6300 still gets 50FPS in Skyrim, and with a few tweaks (and official and non-official patches) it can maintain 60FPS most of the time.

Again, just an example.
(and Dirt 3 has minimal CPU bottleneck, whereas Deux Ex HR does but the frame rate is still very high so it's not that big of a deal)

Example of minimal CPU bottlenecking:
http://www.techspot.com/review/645-tomb-raider-performance/page5.html

The FX-6300 would rarely be a bottleneck so upgrading your CPU would be nowhere near the huge boost upgrading the GTX970 would be.

*In reality, you'll sit somewhere between these examples depending on the game, but I doubt I can find a game that would work better with the i5/750ti combo over the FX/970 combo.

Hope that helps.
 
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H

helltaimer

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Jan 27, 2015
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Thank you SO much Photonboy! Both of your answers were very helpful and full of data to help me decide. My question is, would you recomend a 970 above all else graphics cards in that price range? If so, is the 970 still manufactured with the vram issue it used to have? Would a r9 380/380x/390 be a better choice? Thank you!
 
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