Should I upgrade my CPU first, or my GPU? (both old)

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A

anoromth

Mar 30, 2018
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0
10
Hello everyone, I'm new on Tom's Hardware. I chose this website because I've seen a lot of other questions like mine, and a lot were [solved]. So, I decided to ask you guys what should I upgrade first? My CPU, or my GPU?

I'm planning to buy an i7-3770K along with 16GB RAM(1600MHz)
But a GTX 780/GTX 1060 6GB too. (I need your help here too.)

My current specs:
Pentium Dual-Core E5700 3GHz
4GB RAM
GT 420 GigaByte 2GB

But I'm thinking that if I'd buy one of the above GPU/CPU I'll get a bottleneck.
That's why I'm asking here. Should I buy my CPU first, or my GPU?
Thanks, and sorry if my english is broken sometimes.
;)
 
Solution
A
With those specs, both upgrades are required.

ANY 600W PSU won't do. You need a quality unit. Many units claim 600W but may give out only 60% of it. Do not skimp on the PSU ever.

What is your budget?

Also, the 3770k runs with DDR3 RAM only, not DDR4. The speed you wrote there (2133Mhz) tends to be for DDR4 sticks, so make sure it is DDR3.

If you go the GPU route, your CPU will bottleneck quite seriously. You can go the CPU route, but you would be stuck with a GT 420 which really cannot game until you get a new GPU. Better to save up and build completely new.
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A

ArchitSahu

Splendid
Apr 11, 2014
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With those specs, both upgrades are required.

ANY 600W PSU won't do. You need a quality unit. Many units claim 600W but may give out only 60% of it. Do not skimp on the PSU ever.

What is your budget?

Also, the 3770k runs with DDR3 RAM only, not DDR4. The speed you wrote there (2133Mhz) tends to be for DDR4 sticks, so make sure it is DDR3.

If you go the GPU route, your CPU will bottleneck quite seriously. You can go the CPU route, but you would be stuck with a GT 420 which really cannot game until you get a new GPU. Better to save up and build completely new.
 
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Solution
DSzymborski

DSzymborski

Curmudgeon Pursuivant
Moderator
Nov 19, 2010
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Yup, as Archit notes, you'll have a great deal of trouble getting value from a piecemeal upgrade at this point. Upgrading part-by-part works well, but you have to start it much earlier in your PC's life cycle for it to really work well; it's 2018 and that's an entry-level PC from 2010/2011. At this point, you're essentially looking at replacing every part and if that's the route you need to go, it makes sense to save money until you get get a well-balanced machine all at once.
 
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