Gaming: Should i upgrade my graphics card or processor first?

Tristan007

Commendable
Mar 20, 2016
6
0
1,510
Hello, I play games just about everyday and i am looking to get more fps on the latest games like Tom Clancy's The Division and Far Cry. My current cpu is the amd fx 6200 and my graphics is EVGA Gtx 750ti. Please reply soon, my birthday is on the 30th.
 
Solution
Budget?
I should mention that AMD's DX11 drivers aren't very efficient. With a relatively weak CPU you can get even more of a CPU bottleneck, so I would avoid AMD cards.

Having said that, the R9-380X is a pretty good deal otherwise, and the CPU bottleneck for some games may not be too bad. It gets complicated pretty fast. So I'll link one of those.

You're pretty much looking at a GTX960 or 970 depending on budget for NVidia. A GTX950 might not be worth the upgrade. A GTX970 is recommended.

GTX960 4GB $180USD-> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-strixgtx960dc2oc4gd5

The 4GB won't help most games, but it will help a few at this level and games are increasingly using more VRAM than the past so it's mainly to future proof...

Tristan007

Commendable
Mar 20, 2016
6
0
1,510


Thanks for the reply, everyone one of my friends or randoms I talk to online all say I should replace my cpu ASAP. I personally do not know but my budget is kinda small and i need an answer before my birthday (looking to get an upgrade as a present).
 


The problem with the CPU is that a worthwhile upgrade would be a good Intel CPU like the i5-4690K. That also requires a new motherboard, and copy of Windows (not to mention you have to REINSTALL everything).

Going with Skylake such as an i5-6600K would also require different system memory (DDR4 not DDR3).

CPU bottleneck:
Games VARY in how much CPU bottleneck they tend to get. You can try to estimate from "CPU Scaling" reviews of particular games but since you only have a GTX750Ti anyway and obviously a budget I'd recommend just getting a better graphics card for now and worry about the system later.

Upgrading your CPU without the GPU will help a little bit depending on the game but it's really not the best way to do it.
 

Tristan007

Commendable
Mar 20, 2016
6
0
1,510


Thank you for this response. Would spending a bit more money on a new motherboard and cpu be worth getting than a new graphics card think for the future?
 
Budget?
I should mention that AMD's DX11 drivers aren't very efficient. With a relatively weak CPU you can get even more of a CPU bottleneck, so I would avoid AMD cards.

Having said that, the R9-380X is a pretty good deal otherwise, and the CPU bottleneck for some games may not be too bad. It gets complicated pretty fast. So I'll link one of those.

You're pretty much looking at a GTX960 or 970 depending on budget for NVidia. A GTX950 might not be worth the upgrade. A GTX970 is recommended.

GTX960 4GB $180USD-> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-strixgtx960dc2oc4gd5

The 4GB won't help most games, but it will help a few at this level and games are increasingly using more VRAM than the past so it's mainly to future proof.

GTX970 $310USD (after rebate)-> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-04gp43975kr

R9-380X $200-> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9380x4255

There are several good cards available.

BENCHMARKS (average). Note your performance will be lower where CPU bottleneck exists->
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_380X_Strix/23.html

Also..
POWER SUPPLY must be adequate. Use the 6/8-pin PCIe connectors as a guide. For example, if a card requires 2x6-pin power you need that from the power supply (or a 1x8-pin, or 1x6+2-pin -> plus 8-pin-> 2x6-pin adapter).
 
Solution
The FX 6200 isn't bad, I'd overclock it though, I recently went from a FX 8320 at 5ghz to a i7 3770s at 4.2ghz and in some games it was a night and day difference. But I am also running 2 higher end cards, a single card should be ok on the FX 6200, though I would upgrade the GPU 1st then the CPU to an i5 or i7 or wait it out for Zen.

Personally I'd save up for a skylake i5 or i7 and a DDR4 platform and it will last ya a long time.
 


I'd go for Zen only if the savings are fairly significant on the CPU. However, a couple of caveats:

1) Avoid motherboards, if possible, until that model has had several BIOS upgrades. Ideally at least three months, and

2) AMD isn't known to have the same level of driver support as Intel. It's probably not significant for the CPU but it's hard to say. Even Intel gets issues like errata bugs etc that need to be sorted out with drivers for Windows/Linux, and firmware updates to the motherboard BIOS.

I'm not too worried about these being fixed, though I wouldn't want to be an early adopter.

3) Performance difference?
All we know now is the "40% IPC" value which suggests to me it's less than Haswell, but then a cheaper, overclockable CPU could really make a huge difference.

Summary:
I'd say basically if the motherboard cost is similar, then I'd go with Intel unless the AMD cost is 75% or less for the CPU. For example, a SIMILAR CPU (after overclock) costs $150 for AMD but $200 for Intel maybe that $50 saved is worth it.

*And, for other people an APU path might make sense if they can't afford a dedicated GPU right away but that's a complicated value proposition as you have to ensure the DDR4 memory is fast enough to minimize GPU bottleneck etc.

There is strong evidence that a Zen/Polaris top-end APU might be a pretty awesome budget gaming system. For example, similar to an i5-4690 on the CPU side and GTX960 on the GPU side?

(And the iGPU might even get used in ADDITION to the dGPU for future DX12 games. For example, if you got a dGPU that is 2X more powerful you might see up to 50% higher frame rates in theory though these things never scale perfectly. A test was done already with an intel iGPU and dedicated NVidia card so it does work.)