What is the better upgrade?

[codyw9524]

I won a $300 gift card at work and I want to use it to upgrade my PC. I'm thinking of either upgrading the cpu, mobo, & ram or my video card.

So I have:

AMD Phenom 2 x4 3.4ghz
MSI 790FX-GD70 mobo
4GB DDR3 1600

Proposed upgrade:

i5-2500k
$100ish lga 1155 mobo
8GB DDR3 1600

Or I can spend about $50.00 and upgrade my 2GB 5870 to a 3GB 7950.

Opinions?

 

[DinoDinoDino]

im gonna go with GFX card.

 

[codyw9524]

thanks for the quick response. that's one for the 7950!

 

[DinoDinoDino]

did you ever consider covering every square inch of your case inside and out with LED fans? thats enough money for like.... 54 120mm LED fans
hint hint

 

[codyw9524]

did you ever consider covering every square inch of your case inside and out with LED fans? thats enough money for like.... 54 120mm LED fans
hint hint

HAHA, now there's an idea!

 

[azathoth]

Or you can buy 3 $100 Gift Cards, and yourself feel like you've won even more then a single card!

 

[DeusAres]

My vote goes to the GPU. You'd get more performance by upgrading to a hd 7950.

If you were to upgrade the CPU, mobo and RAM, you'd want to put a little more than $300 in it. I'd be shooting for a i5 3570k ($220), $140ish mobo, and RAM is usually around $30 for a 4gb kit.

 

[geofelt]

In what way do you feel your pc is lacking?
It looks to me like you have a relatively well balanced pc.

If it is FPS for gaming, then the usual recommendation is to upgrade the video card.
In this case, the 5870 is already a good card, so a meaningful jump would be to a 7970 or GTX670 class card

If you are lacking in cpu power for your games , or whatever, the 2500K is a good jump.

To help clarify your options, run these two tests:

a) Run your games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 50%.

Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
set to 50% and see how you do.


If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.

Unless one of those options do not clearly identify a problem, here are some other suggestions:

1) 4gb of ram is a bit substandard by today's standards. 8gb would be better.

2) A SSD is one of the best performance upgrades you can buy. It will cost <$1 per gb. The bigger the better for performance.

3) Buy a second monitor. The increased display area is wonderful for web browsing. when gaming, use one for gaming, and the other for e-mail, performance monitors, etc.

 

[codyw9524]

Great response geofelt! Thank you! I didn't even think of a 2nd monitor and now I really like that idea. I'll try those test and post the results later tonight.

 

[codyw9524]

Best answer selected by codyw9524.