Upgrading from old A10: CPU or GPU?

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Celso Riva

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Jul 2, 2014
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Hi,
I have an old a10 5800k with a gtx 960 4Gb. Many games run fine, however I noticed some slowdowns and I have to use medium setting on several games.
I was wondering, considering I have about 300-400 eur to spend, if would be better to:
1) upgrade the GPU to a GTX 1060 (about 290 eur here)
2) switch to an Intel, keeping current GPU, RAM, SSD etc. Changing only MB+CPU. I found a MSI MB+Intel i5 7400 for around 350-400 eur

What would you do? is the CPU really the problem? Thanks
 
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synphul

synphul

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Mar 11, 2011
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It depends on the game but I would think a cpu upgrade would benefit you more. Check your cpu and gpu usage while gaming using something like msi afterburner, if the cpu is maxed out but the gpu isn't, the cpu is holding you back. If the cpu is around 80% but the gpu is constantly at 100% use then the gpu is holding you back.

You mentioned lowering settings to improve performance, that's usually a gpu issue and it could easily vary from one game to another. Some are more gpu intensive than others. If that's the case then a gpu replacement would benefit you but be aware that the cpu portion of that apu is mediocre and a new gpu may be that much better than what you've got that your performance doesn't improve a ton once the cpu is holding you back.
 
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Sm0k

Sm0k

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Nov 7, 2013
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Hi,

You probably need to change the RAM ass well if you are using DDR3, you won’t find a motherboard that supports DDR3 plus there is not a good idea to use Kaby Lake with DDR3.
 
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C

Celso Riva

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Jul 2, 2014
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Tried MSI afterburner with Deus EX in High settings: both CPU and GPU were at 100%. It was running fine at that setting to be honest. Maybe some games are poorly optimized :p
 
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user11464

user11464

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Feb 25, 2017
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The benefit of prioritizing CPU over GPU in a build is that it increases performance in places other than games too, like video editing. Technically it's more bang for your buck if you take that into consideration. Not to mention some of the best games are CPU intensive anyways... GTA 5.
 
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synphul

synphul

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Mar 11, 2011
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Game optimization can play a part but no game is the same. Solitaire, cs:go and witcher 3 are all games with widely varying requirements in terms of hardware. If both components are at 100% then you're likely running that particular game as well as you can. Upgrading only one piece is liable to create more of a bottlenecked situation (ie cpu or gpu running at 60-70% while the other is 100%). Performance will be limited by the weakest component.

Depending which deus ex title you're referring to, it could be that the hardware just isn't strong enough (manking divided). The 960 was a midgrade gpu back when it released. The 970 was higher end gpu for 1080p gaming and the 980 was at the top of the heap (not counting ti models or the titan/titan x etc). The 1060 is the new midgrade gpu and it's stronger than a 970. At very high quality settings on mankind divided the 1060 was slightly better than the gtx 980.

Being that the 1060 is such a large upgrade over the 960 it will almost certainly make your cpu the bottleneck.

Some 960 vs 1060 benchmarks.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1744?vs=1771

Dual channel ram doesn't make that big of a difference, it's been tested over and over and real world performance differences are all but non existent. Only in very rare memory intensive scenarios is it even slightly better.

If you're happy with your performance then keep your current build. If you want to upgrade you may wish to wait until you can afford to do a full upgrade of both cpu and gpu otherwise you could end up spending on a nice shiny new 1060 only to have it stuck at 60-70% use because the cpu is holding it back.
 
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