Should I upgrade my GPU or will it be bottlenecked by the CPU?

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Tlowrey

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So, I've been upgrading my graphics cards for years despite my CPU because it requires a new motherboard, RAM, blah blah so on and so forth.

In the next couple of days I CURRENTLY plan on buying a GTX 1050 Ti (currently have a GTX 760). I am not very smart when it comes to computers, but I hear a lot about this bottlenecking stuff. I've never upgraded my CPU since I originally got it for buying the whole set (AMD A10-6800K [FM2+; which there is very little good CPU's in stock with this slot]) but I have been upgrading my GPU over time, with little to no bettering in my gameplay graphics or performance. You think I would have figured out the issue by now, but I haven't.

So, down to the point/tl;dr: I have a GTX 760, I am looking to buy a GTX 1050 Ti for a little under $170. My CPU is an AMD A10-6800K; while upgrading my GPU I've noticed zero to none of highering my performance/gameplay graphics. Should I buy the graphics card or should I buy a new CPU/Motherboard/RAM?
 
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xFeaRDom
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xFeaRDom

xFeaRDom

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What is your budget while coming to this?

Tom's Hardware has a GPU Hierarchy, although the GTX 1050Ti is not listed on there, it has similar performance to the GTX 780/780Ti (It is probably in between those cards, or on par with the 780Ti:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gpu-hierarchy,review-33383.html

It is recommended you go up 3 tiers before upgrading your GPU.

What were your previous GPU upgrades? And what is your budget for this upgrade?
 
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Tlowrey

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Dec 11, 2016
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But do you think I'm being bottlenecked by my CPU or should I try and go for a better GPU? I talk to one of my buddies who plays Planetside 2 with me and he runs the game 100x better than I do on ultra and his graphics card is not as good as my current one, but he has an intel CPU setup that is relatively worth the same amount as my AMD CPU, not sure what that could mean. Also, I'm always scared to go offbrand of NVIDIA when it comes to graphics cards which is why I don't expand my horizons; I don't know the first place to look, and I don't know what works and doesn't with my setup.
 
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Tlowrey

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My previous GPU upgrades I believe was from about nothing, to a 600 or so, to a 720, 750 ti, 760, now (probably not anymore) to a 1050 Ti, all NVIDIA/GTX. My budget for this upgrade being GPU is 100-150-60, can go a little higher, my budget for a new CPU/motherboard/RAM is kind of unheard of right now.
 
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xFeaRDom

xFeaRDom

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Agreeing with what @Madmatt said, I doubt it'll get bottlenecked too much, if at all. I don't know too much about AMD, but I believe that there's not really a reasonable CPU upgrade unless you hop over to Intel and go with a skylake of some sort (i5 6500-ish), and upgrading to the RX470 would, in my opinion, be a really nice upgrade that would most likely show a great jump in performance, this card would allow you to run your system for a good couple of years, then maybe upgrade your CPU to either AMD's upcoming Ryzen/Zen or to Intel's Kabylake.

Edit: You could try and find a second hand GTX 970 if you wish, but I believe the RX470 will perform a little better than the GTX 970. In the long run, they perform better in some games than others, but the RX470 is cheaper brand new than the GTX 970.

Another edit: That's probably the reason you didn't notice too much of an upgrade, those cards are like jumping from a GTX 970 to a GTX 1060, a performance gain, but nothing major and noticeable, unlike jumping from a GTX 750Ti to a GTX 1060, that would bring a great performance gain and would yield a really noticeable increase.
 
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Tlowrey

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Dec 11, 2016
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Like I said, I am kind of scared to go offbrand when I know I shouldn't be. I'm looking up the RX470 and I found this: http://www.frys.com/product/8909053?source=google&gclid=CjwKEAiAp97CBRDr2Oyl-faxqRMSJABx4kh9-AxLm-goOBCba9B7IQH3ATE9cW9FWzXkhdozeAf--hoCbmDw_wcB

Would that work with my current setup? Does any graphics card work well with just about any setup? If you absolutely think that I won't get bottlenecked, let me know and I will drive out to Fry's tomorrow and pick up an RX470.

Edit: So do jumping up from numbers really mean little to nothing whatsoever? That's how I always played upgrading my graphics cards because I didn't know what was supposed to be the "latest and greatest".
 
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xFeaRDom

xFeaRDom

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As long as the card is PCIe 3.0, which basically all of them are at the current time.

If you look at it this way you'll realise what I mean. Why fix something that doesn't need fixing? Can sort of be looked like with upgrading, it's sort of like jumping from a i7 6700K to the upcoming i7 7700K, simply, a waste of money for an estimated 10%~ performance increase.
 
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Tlowrey

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Dec 11, 2016
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Thanks for the help!
 
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madmatt30

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That xfx 470 is absolutely fine mate & a worthwhile upgrade.

The 1050ti isnt worth it because it performs similar to a gtx 960.
Your current 760 performs about the same as a gtx 950.
You'd be jumping 1 step up - just not worth it.
470 is close to a gtx 970 performance wise - 970 is slightly stronger but not noticeably so.

Go with the xfx 470 mate, you won't regret it.
 
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