CPU or GPU upgrade?

Well, if you upgrade the CPU and all associated components. you will still be limited by the Graphics card. That is a substantial step up. I'm wondering if you'd not be better off selling the current rig, and upgrading everything, with a more modest GPU and then perhaps in a year or so upgrade the GPU again.

If you upgrade the GPU, chances are you will also have to upgrade your power supply.

If you only wanted to upgrade the GPU for your current rig you would be looking at the GTX 960 or at best GTX 970. The GTX 980 will most definitely bottleneck your current rig.

As for your upgrade decision it all depends on what you want, and how long you are willing to string out your upgrade path. For example if you got a GTX 970 now and then upgraded your processor in a years time you would have the choice of Intel Kaby Lake or AMD Zen and be able to choose what the best bang for the buck is. If Zen actually lives up to expectations and comes with some interesting "packages" then it also may drive down the cost of both Zen and Kaby Lake as right now Intel has no competition in the high end market and thus can charge whatever they feel like charging.

If you need an upgrade now that will be the best possible upgrade for what currently exists then an upgrade to Intel i5-6600K would be your best upgrade decision.

It really depends on how long your willing to wait and if you want to see what Zen has to offer and what it will do to the high end CPU market. When Zen releases it may drive prices down due to competition for the first time in years.

Have you considered R9 390x ?

Hello Bro.....
I have Fx 6300 and I also have gtx 980 ...and from me ...yes....it will bottlneck because ....when i play games sometimes....in Assassin creed unity ...my cpu Cross 100% usage and my gpu is still running at 70% thats look like hell ....for fx 6300 gtx 970 is last...you can opt fore more....but for now i will tell you to go for gpu first so you can play that game ....after you got money....get i7 or whatever you mention i5 6600k .. Still you can run all those games on fx 6300 on ultra with decent fps....hope it helps .....good day.....

In my personal opinion I would upgrade your GPU now and wait till the end of the year or beginning of next to upgrade your CPU (and motherboard). In my opinion Intel has charged an absorbent premium for what you actually get. I upgraded my rig to the FX 8370 when they first released and have had a great experience with it. I do a lot of hard core multi-tasking as well as gaming so it was a great fit for me. Better multi-tasking performance than I could have ever got out of an i5 and a lot cheaper than going to an i7. During that time period I have overclocked my processor to 5.05Ghz for everyday use and with an R9 290 Vapor X have been able to play all the newest AAA titles @ 1080p 60+ FPS. During the time that I have had the FX 8370 Intel has done two (almost 3) generation upgrades. Haswell released just before the FX refresh and then there is Skylake and Broadwell. The funny thing is from generation to generation Intel's performance really isn't increasing very much. Skylake is the biggest jump they made in awhile and an overclocked Haswell can still match it. And well i5 platforms will usually outbenchmark my CPU by 5-10FPS with the same GPU configuration (most anything other than GTX 980+) my monitor can only support 60Hz so that extra 5-10FPS really doesn't mean much to me. Now someone with a $1000 gaming monitor.... but then again someone like that is going to have at minimum an i7 anyway.

The point is that Intel's performance lead over AMD (i5 vs FX 8 core) has been overblown a lot. When you run heavily multi-threaded applications you get better performance out of a FX 8 core, and in gaming the "huge performance difference" in real world gameplay is usually 5-10FPS. Yet Intel charges a big premium for its processors because in the high end market that 5-10FPS means a lot to marketing and AMD has nothing that can match it. Intel can charge what they want and people will buy because they think they have to so they can run the game.

Now with that said, yes Intel is better at gaming right now because they have better single core performance. Intel's better IPC and DX 11s limitations of using a single primary core also means that in DX 11 games only Intel can handle high end GPUs like the GTX 980 and above without having a bottleneck. For someone building a gaming rig that needs a new motherboard and processor Intel is the way to go. However if a person is in a position that they can wait to upgrade their motherboard and CPU for a little while I highly recommend waiting until Zen launches. While I don't expect Zen to outperform Skylake or Kaby Lake it will be a big boost for AMD in the high end market. It should have the same IPC as Haswell and if AMD sticks with its tradition of running higher clock speeds and more cores on the processors has a good chance of matching up well against Intel high end processors. AMD also has a tradition of undercutting the cost of the Intel counterparts.

Intel hasn't had any competition in the high end market for a long time which is why their performance every generation isn't ground breaking and why their cost premiums are so high. If Zen gives them real competition they will not only have to step up their game in performance development but will also have to lower their cost premiums to compete.

If you upgrade right now you really only have one choice- to upgrade to Intel and pay whatever premium they set their price at. If you wait you have the opportunity to compare two very different processor lines, both in the high end market, and just may be able to get a much better processor at a better price (be it either Intel or AMD Zen).