Upgrading CPU or GPU first (£400ish budget)

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DriveCruncher

Commendable
May 2, 2016
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I currently have about £400 and want upgrade my rig but am at a loss for what to do first (as it will take a few moths to accumulate another £400 spare)
I like to play games on Ultra but recent releases have been tanking fps down to sub 30 so an upgrade is really necessary. I'm feeling that my cpu is the weakest link at the moment as the gpu never really seems to be maxing out yet the cpu is under constant stress.
my current build is also very power and heat inefficient so I'm also looking to sort that a bit.

Build and possible upgrades:
3Gb XFX R290, (possible upgrade to GTX 980)
AMD A10-6790K 4.3Ghz (OC) CPU (possible upgrade to intel i7 4790K or even the newer i7 6700k)
24GB 2100MHz DDR3
In terms of PSU I have a 650watt one and as for case its a zalaman z9 so a lot of room and fan options (currently running 6 case fans)
 
Solution
geofelt
A perennial question.
You made an unfortunate decision to start with a APU. It is really quite good for what it is.
But once you need a discrete graphics upgrade you negated the big benefit of the excellent integrated graphics.

Then, you are left with a cpu with slow cores.

Here is my stock approach to your question:

------------------------------------------------------------
To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows...
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geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
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A perennial question.
You made an unfortunate decision to start with a APU. It is really quite good for what it is.
But once you need a discrete graphics upgrade you negated the big benefit of the excellent integrated graphics.

Then, you are left with a cpu with slow cores.

Here is my stock approach to your question:

------------------------------------------------------------
To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You should also experiment with removing one core. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option. You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
-------------------------------------------------------------

If you decide on a cpu upgrade, bypass the I7 processors. Few games can make use of more than 2-3 threads, so the extra hyperthreads of a I7 will go unused.
The i5-6600K when overclocked is about as good as it gets for gaming today.

A gpu upgrade is easier, assuming you have s sufficiently good psu.
But, with pascal and possibly Polaris on the horizon, I would wait to see what is offered first.
 
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Solution
I

ikaz

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Dec 27, 2005
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As other have stated go with an I5 instead of the I7 if gaming is your main use (if you do video editing, photo shop etc on the side then go with I7). I would upgrade the mother board and CPU and make sure you have a good PSU. Then wait the few months for the new generation of GPU's to come out. I don't think it would be worth it to buy a high end GPU (your current one is not bad but I can see not being able to do ultra on games that just got released), the time E3 comes around there should/hope there would be test samples released of the new GPU from amd/nvidia which at the very least will drive down prices of there current high-end current/last gen hardware.
 
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