Upgrade GPU vs. CPU

Scottvdken · Apr 11, 2016

Hello all,
Hopefully I picked the right forum.

I currently have an FX-6300, GTX 960 4GB , EVGA 500W power supply, 16G RAM, running on a GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P motherboard with a Corsair H60 cooler. I am looking to start upgrading some components in the next couple weeks, so my question is as follows:

Would I be better off upgrading my GPU, or CPU first? A follow-up question would be, can my PSU handle an upgrade?

I would like to stick with the brands I have, but I could possibly be persuaded to go with an AMD GPU, if necessary. I would rather not change the motherboard however, so I'm stuck with AMD CPU's. My price range is anything up to around $800. I was thinking about going with a 980ti, but am not sure that I will see much difference with my current CPU. Basically my toss-up right now is between spending the $$$ on the 980ti, or just upgrading to an FX-8350 (I heard the 9's are no good?) for now. Thoughts?

I play exclusively games, mostly total war and flight simulator-style games, to give you an idea of my application.

Thanks in advance!

riccardan-humiliato · Apr 11, 2016

As long as your new components do not consume more watts, you're good. You should upgrade the AMD FX. Don't bother with a 980Ti. New GPUs are literally right around the corner and they will be at minimum 50% faster. As in, they're releasing in literally a month or two. I would get an Intel i5 or a Xeon. Intel i7 is a waste of money unless you're doing media related tasks or 3D rendering.

Rogue Leader · Apr 11, 2016

That PSU is good enough for what you have now, but if you upgrade your GPU you are going to want to upgrade that. Its a lower end model that can't really handle the power of a HP GPU.

The FX AM3+ platform is nearly dead, its almost 4 years old, with AMD coming out with new CPU's at the end of this year on the new AM4 Zen platform. Personally I would not spend the money on a processor upgrade, you aren't going to get your money's worth.

Now you mentioned a 980ti, which is a great choice, however your CPU will bottleneck it, so it really isn't worth spending the money on.

For $800 if I were you I would get yourself into Intel. Get a Z170 Motherboard (like the ASUS Z170-PLUS) and an i5-6600k. Using that H60 cooler you can overclock the 6600k to get some more power out of it. You will also need new DDR4 RAM. I would recommend DDR4-3000, its a bit overclocked so its faster, but isn't that expensive.

Those 3 things won't even break your budget. Then I would hold on to the rest of the money until the newest GPU's come out later this year and then at that time upgrade to a newer GPU and a better PSU.

bicycle_repair_man · Apr 11, 2016

Why do you feel the need to upgrade? Are you not getting the frame rate or graphical fidelity you want?

My advice would be to not upgrade now. Pascal and Polaris are due for release later this year, not to mention Zen, which is the long overdue replacement for AM3+.

If you upgrade just the GPU then you'll most likely create a CPU bottleneck.

riccardan-humiliato · Apr 11, 2016

Rogue Leader :

That PSU is good enough for what you have now, but if you upgrade your GPU you are going to want to upgrade that. Its a lower end model that can't really handle the power of a HP GPU.

The FX AM3+ platform is nearly dead, its almost 4 years old, with AMD coming out with new CPU's at the end of this year on the new AM4 Zen platform. Personally I would not spend the money on a processor upgrade, you aren't going to get your money's worth.

Now you mentioned a 980ti, which is a great choice, however your CPU will bottleneck it, so it really isn't worth spending the money on.

For $800 if I were you I would get yourself into Intel. Get a Z170 Motherboard (like the ASUS Z170-PLUS) and an i5-6600k. Using that H60 cooler you can overclock the 6600k to get some more power out of it. You will also need new DDR4 RAM. I would recommend DDR4-3000, its a bit overclocked so its faster, but isn't that expensive.

Those 3 things won't even break your budget. Then I would hold on to the rest of the money until the newest GPU's come out later this year and then at that time upgrade to a newer GPU and a better PSU.

If you're asking him to wait I would just wait until end of the year when Intel releases their new CPU architecture. It's not even that long to wait.

Scottvdken · Apr 11, 2016

Honestly, it's pure laziness on my part, but I was hoping to avoid a mobo replacement simply to avoid re-installing the OS and a ton of software. I try to keep my two drives separated but I know my mods (I mod the crap out of just about all my games), and probably some of my software, has bled over onto my Windows drive. So to be safe I would wipe both and start from scratch. Anyways, that might be what I'll have to do. The more reading I do, the more I regret getting into AMD in the first place........

As for reasoning, I was hoping to squeeze some more frames out of Total War, honestly. Rome II and Atilla really hammer my fps. Other games could definitely use a boost too. I can run a decent amount of games on Ultra, but when I get into the really new / heavy games, I start having to make sacrifices.

Rogue Leader · Apr 11, 2016

riccardan-humiliato :

Except they are not releasing a new architecture at the end of the year. It will be an update to Skylake, and if he felt compelled he could get a new processor from that series that would work with this.

The i5-6600k is an extremely viable processor now and should last a good long time as Moore's law has been slowed to half its normal speed at this point.

Hlsgsz · Apr 11, 2016

Scottvdken :

Now is a really bad time to be buying a GPU with both teams coming out with new stuff in a couple of months. As for the CPU, it's really not worth it to spend money on the dead AM3 platform. So going intel is the best solution and waiting for pascal/polaris.

Rogue Leader · Apr 11, 2016

Scottvdken :

I am an AMD fan, however they have been dropping the ball for a long time. I am waiting for Zen AM4 at the end of the year to decide on my next upgrade. If its good I will go with it. If not, then I will be building an Intel rig, simple as that.

At this point with your rig I just wouldn't spend the money on dead technology. In a year or two you are going to be angry about the $200 you spent on a processor this year that you are now replacing.

bicycle_repair_man · Apr 11, 2016

You won't have to reinstall the OS, just the motherboard drivers. You also won't have to worry about your mods and software because the file paths won't change. You'll only encounter a problem if you assign a new drive letter or move files and folders around.

Scottvdken · Apr 11, 2016

tea urchin :

This is the PSU I have

EVGA 500 B1 80+ BRONZE, 500W Continuous Power
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-BRONZE-Continuous-Warranty-100-B1-0500-KR/dp/B00DZ6R9GE?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

Scottvdken · Apr 11, 2016

bicycle_repair_man :

Really? Going from an AMD to Intel-based mobo, I won't have to re-install? I had always thought it was best to wipe whenever a mobo gets changed...... but I know nothing. If this is accurate, I'll definitely go that route.

Rogue Leader · Apr 11, 2016

Scottvdken :

He is incorrect and this is often the cause of issues here.

OCCASIONALLY if you swap the hard drive between the two and the hardware is similar it will work. Except for the fact if you are running Windows 7, 8.1, or especially 10 it will give you an activation error because OEM versions tie themselves to the hardware. This leads to all sorts of problems. OCCASIONALLY this will work fine, because it has happened here. But its not guaranteed.

No matter what for the best performance, installing the OS new is by far the better way to go. It avoids the headache of the possible errors from above, and will give you a clean start for your new equipment. Spending that much money don't you want the best performance?

bicycle_repair_man · Apr 11, 2016

I disagree.

It's best to reinstall Windows, but it's by no means necessary. An OEM copy of Windows will ask you to reactivate and that's all. Assuming the activation goes through successfully there's nothing else to consider except the motherboard drivers.

Scottvdken · Apr 11, 2016

Rogue Leader :

Windows 7 64bit is what I'm running on. Thank you for clarifying. I may still go the motherboard route. Just have to get up the courage to re-install everything. I may try to do it without wiping first, just to see if I can get it to work.

So, to summarize: Don't do anything at the moment. Wait and see what the new GPU offerings are (or at the least, a price drop on current selections) + a new PSU, or go Intel? Will I see that significant of an fps increase if I keep the 960 and go with an I5?

Rogue Leader · Apr 11, 2016

bicycle_repair_man :

Correct, except many times it won't even boot, in Windows 10's case you can't even get into safe mode (to kill the drivers so it will boot) without it booting if it was installed with UEFI. And Windows 10 especially will not activate on different hardware. We see this issue almost every day here.

Rogue Leader · Apr 11, 2016

Scottvdken :

You will see an FPS increase on many processor intensive games, and most games in general. The i5 will push your 960 to its limit which is good, and also handle something better. GPU wise its best to wait at this point unless you need it right now, only because there will be a lot of new GPUs coming soon.

Hlsgsz · Apr 11, 2016

Scottvdken :

Rogue Leader :

Windows 7 64bit is what I'm running on. Thank you for clarifying. I may still go the motherboard route. Just have to get up the courage to re-install everything. I may try to do it without wiping first, just to see if I can get it to work.

So, to summarize: Don't do anything at the moment. Wait and see what the new GPU offerings are (or at the least, a price drop on current selections) + a new PSU, or go Intel? Will I see that significant of an fps increase if I keep the 960 and go with an I5?

If you are running 7 it's time for an update anyway. Take advantage of MS's offer and go to win10 for free. You can do that by updating over win 7, but the best thing would be to do a fresh win 10 install with your win 7 key(yes, it will work). Time to get with the times, man

Rogue Leader · Apr 11, 2016

Personally if you're ready to buy the new parts I would buy them and try and convert your Win 7 over, this way you do the Win 10 upgrade on the new hardware. Will guarantee you avoid problems, and then you can do a fresh Win 10 install with a copy tied to your new stuff whenever you want. You have until June to get the free upgrade.

Hlsgsz · Apr 11, 2016

Rogue Leader :

That conversion is no longer required. The newer builds of 10 accept win 7 and 8 keys straight up so OP may do a fresh install after he gets his parts.
And, btw, aside from the usual internet bickering, OP should know there is no valid reason why one would stay on older versions of windows, especially since its a free upgrade.

Rogue Leader · Apr 11, 2016

Hlsgsz :

Except that if he does he upgrade now it ties to his old hardware and invalidates his old license key. He could if he wants to do a fresh install get the new hardware and go for a fresh install using the Win 7 key there, except it sounds like he wants to try to convert his drive over, so therefore better to wait for the new hardware and do that.

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