Should I upgrade my CPU or my graphics card?

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registradus

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I currently have a AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition and a Gigabyte Radeon HD7850 1GB OC.

I'm looking at upgrading either to either a Ryzen 3 2200G (and new motherboard) or a Radeon RX 560.

Which one would give me the bigger performance boost? (yes I am on a budget)
 
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D
First, for Ryzen you'll need the CPU, motherboard, and DDR4 ram. Next, a 560 is not really much of an improvement over the 7850 except in the fact that your 7850 has only 1gb vram. So you'd be paying mostly for the benefits of more vram, which may or may not be worth it depending on the games you play.

Speaking of which, what games do you play? It's hard to say what will give you a boost without knowing what needs boosting.

In CPU demanding games you will be better off with the 2200G, that's for sure.
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samyakjain222

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If you want to game, then RX 560. If for other purposes which include great processing, then Ryzen 3
 
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dontlistentome

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First, for Ryzen you'll need the CPU, motherboard, and DDR4 ram. Next, a 560 is not really much of an improvement over the 7850 except in the fact that your 7850 has only 1gb vram. So you'd be paying mostly for the benefits of more vram, which may or may not be worth it depending on the games you play.

Speaking of which, what games do you play? It's hard to say what will give you a boost without knowing what needs boosting.

In CPU demanding games you will be better off with the 2200G, that's for sure.
 
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Solution
zoltan.boese

zoltan.boese

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Your present HD7850´s performance is somewhere between the RX550 and Rx560 so it would not be a big step up in that sense. If you upgrade to Ryzen, the integrated graphics performs as the RX 550, so you could game on low-mid setting on modern titles.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.13849.0.html
Or use your old card with slowe VRAM if that performs better. Aside from gaming that would be a larger performance boost, but do not forget the price of the RAM and motherboard!
 
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registradus

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Can I still use DDR3 RAM with the new motherboard (until DDR4 RAM prices drop)?

I play Overwatch, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Borderlands and the Arkham games.

I couldn't get Arkham Knight, Mortal Kombat X, or No Man's Sky to run properly.
 
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DSzymborski

DSzymborski

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You cannot. A major platform upgrade, unless you jump to a dead platform, is going to entail new RAM.
 
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