Is it better to upgrade graphics card or ram?

TheCpK · Feb 15, 2018

So I have an FX 8350 (4.2GHz), R9 290 4GB (slightly overclocked) and 8 GB of RAM (1333MHz). Is it better to upgrade to GTX 1060 6GB or to 16 GB of RAM 1866MHz + SSD 250 GB? (now I have just HDD)

KiL3MaNjAr0W · Feb 15, 2018

the r9 290 is equivalent to the 1060 per http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html. you will get more benefit from the ssd and an extra 8gb ram

antishill · Feb 15, 2018

Neither. The upgrade you need is to replace that FX8350. It is bottlenecking any video card at the GTX1060 level. See:
https://www.techspot.com/review/1474-ryzen-vs-older-budget-cpus/

aquielisunari · Feb 15, 2018

TheCpK :

The 1060 offers a minor performance boost. Worth the $1.6 trillion dollars the 1060 is at? No. A 1070 is my recommendation.

Are you using all of your RAM? Only you can tell if you need a RAM upgrade. I haven't eclipsed 5.5GB of RAM usage. I still have plenty of headroom. When I NEED to upgrade, I will.

Is the HDD causing issues? Why do you want to upgrade it? You'll get faster boot times, faster Windows navigation and faster in game load times. I am pretty certain that hitching isn't occurring so I am not seeing any worth with that upgrade aside from the faster load times during gaming.

Continue to save money. There is no need to spend anything right now. Invest in a 1070 when you can afford it is my recommendation.

InvalidError · Feb 15, 2018

I agree, you'll get the most out of upgrading to Ryzen and upgrading to 16GB of DDR4-3000 along the way. I'd wait for the Ryzen+ 2000 and 400-series motherboards before doing so though, be it either to get better deals on 1000-series CPU + 300-series motherboard or for the benefits of a 2000-series chip and 400-series motherboard.

13thmonkey · Feb 15, 2018

a ram upgrade would be thrown away with your next platform upgrade, the GPU would not. But a ryzen and R7290 would be something to consider.

jaslion · Feb 15, 2018

TheCpK :

The upgrade you want is a moving to a ryzen/intel cpu. Your 290 is more than fine and a 1060 is not even close to worth it considering the very small performance increase.

TheCpK · Feb 15, 2018

jaslion :

Don't have money for changing processor because i need to buy new motherboard and RAM too, and that's not cheep.

TheCpK · Feb 15, 2018

13thmonkey :

Not thinking about buying new PC for at least 5 more years.

TheCpK · Feb 15, 2018

aquielisunari :

TheCpK :

The 1060 offers a minor performance boost. Worth the $1.6 trillion dollars the 1060 is at? No. A 1070 is my recommendation.

Are you using all of your RAM? Only you can tell if you need a RAM upgrade. I haven't eclipsed 5.5GB of RAM usage. I still have plenty of headroom. When I NEED to upgrade, I will.

Is the HDD causing issues? Why do you want to upgrade it? You'll get faster boot times, faster Windows navigation and faster in game load times. I am pretty certain that hitching isn't occurring so I am not seeing any worth with that upgrade aside from the faster load times during gaming.

Continue to save money. There is no need to spend anything right now. Invest in a 1070 when you can afford it is my recommendation.

I think that 1070 is bottlenecking with my FX 8350 so can't buy it. :/

TheCpK · Feb 15, 2018

KiL3MaNjAr0W :

Thanks m8.

aquielisunari · Feb 15, 2018

TheCpK :

I understand that. Will you eventually purchase a new motherboard, CPU and RAM? The GFX card can be moved over to your new system. The beast within will be released. Nothing else adds an appreciable FPS increase.

Have you watched your RAM usage with MSI AB or a similar utility? How much RAM is being used? I suspect it's under 5GB. If it still has 3GB+ RAM headroom, adding additional headroom won't do a thing for FPS. The SSD helps with load times but not with FPS.

The only upgrade that adds a gaming performance boost is the gfx card. If the goal was quicken productivity tasks such as Adobe's Lightroom the additional RAM and SSD would have a significant impact. One without the other wouldn't be a proper upgrade or would just be half the upgrade needed. But I digress. If you are looking for a gaming boost the GFX card is your only option that will do that.

Yes, the system will be unbalanced in favor of the GFX card but that means the card can grow with the PC. When you eventually upgrade the 1070 will have the beast within released. A stopgap.

yeti_yeti · Feb 15, 2018

TheCpK :

You could buy an older gen intel chip which still supports ddr3. i5 4590 would smash any fx processor out there and all you would need is a cheap mobo to go with it. Good luck

TheCpK · Feb 15, 2018

aquielisunari :

TheCpK :

I understand that. Will you eventually purchase a new motherboard, CPU and RAM? The GFX card can be moved over to your new system. The beast within will be released. Nothing else adds an appreciable FPS increase.

Have you watched your RAM usage with MSI AB or a similar utility? How much RAM is being used? I suspect it's under 5GB. If it still has 3GB+ RAM headroom, adding additional headroom won't do a thing for FPS. The SSD helps with load times but not with FPS.

The only upgrade that adds a gaming performance boost is the gfx card. If the goal was quicken productivity tasks such as Adobe's Lightroom the additional RAM and SSD would have a significant impact. One without the other wouldn't be a proper upgrade or would just be half the upgrade needed. But I digress. If you are looking for a gaming boost the GFX card is your only option that will do that.

Yes, the system will be unbalanced in favor of the GFX card but that means the card can grow with the PC. When you eventually upgrade the 1070 will have the beast within released. A stopgap.

Well I'll buy new PC in 5-6 years because i'm student still. I played PUBG a bit and max RAM usage was 2.65 GB so RAM is good but it's slow 1333MHz. and i think it would be better to buy RAM and SSD because i won't be buying PC soon so i can't use all that glorious power of 1070 and i'll need 16 GB in future 100% for Star Citizen when it come out and GTA VI and maybe some more new games. And i would buy 1866MHz. And yeah SSD is just for faster loading.

But thank you on all these advices and thank you on your effort.

TheCpK · Feb 15, 2018

yeti_yeti :

TheCpK :

You could buy an older gen intel chip which still supports ddr3. i5 4590 would smash any fx processor out there and all you would need is a cheap mobo to go with it. Good luck

Not bad idea. I'll think about it.

aquielisunari · Feb 15, 2018

TheCpK :

I had similar question. Are the 4th generation processors still a relevant gaming solution. I had a 4690K

It took about 9 months to save money so I had that time to research the best upgrade path available. I did the research.

is what I have now. Finding the CPU and motherboard will be the interesting part.

jaslion · Feb 16, 2018

TheCpK :

I got a i7 3770 + cheap h75 board for about 170€. It takes a bit of looking around but once you find a good deal snatch it.

The porblem is that you have maxed out the fx 8350 in terms of gpu before it starts to bottleneck so bad the 1070 would almost perform the same as a 1060 or your 290 (there will be a game here and there that will not struggle on your 8350 but then we are talking about easy to run games or a rare case of super well optimized).

Is it better to upgrade graphics card or ram?

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