What to upgrade first? Card, Monitor, Win 8.1

[emperay]

I have a $300ish budget to upgrade a part but can't decide which would give me the best performance. I have Win8.1 as a potential upgrade b/c I heard games performs 20% better than Win7 which I'm currently using. I'm currently eyeing the HD 7970 and VG248QE.

Current specs
i5 3570k OC @ 4.2
hd 6870
8GB ddr3 1600
MX239H < monitor

Thanks, let me know what you think I should upgrade.

 

[huilun02]

Games won't perform 20% better on Windows 8.1. In fact they perform about the same.

Get a new graphics card first. The 7970, 280x and GTX 770 are all good at $300.

 

[michaeldean]

I'm no expert, but I would do the card, then the monitor and lastly Windows.

The monitor you have looks good enough that the new video card would give more of a difference than the new monitor, unless your current one has some display issue.

Unless you're willing to get Windows 8 (as the upgrade to 8.1 is free) I would wait that one out until more issues are fixed. Windows 8 never gave me problems, while on 8.1 my PC won't go to sleep automatically, in manual sleep it randomly wakes, has been restored twice due to a constant restart loop and a couple BSODs. It's disappointing, because 8.1 does have some nice changes, but it's just too unstable. Maybe by the time you get around to picking 8 up, 8.1 will be fixed.

 

[emperay]

Thanks, picked this up: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130921
On sale and preparing for G-Sync monitors.