Should I upgrade my monitor or video card next?

d_A_e

Commendable
Jun 24, 2016
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1,660
I'm approaching an upgrade day and I have a split path between upgrading my video card or my monitor. (Kinda like a Quality vs. Performance thing here)

If I were to upgrade my video card I would upgrade to a GTX 950 or GTX 760 TI. (I currently have a Radeon R7 250)

And if I were to upgrade my monitor I would upgrade to... well any wide screen monitor. (I currently have a Princeton VL1919 - Grade A - 19" LCD Monitor with too many dead pixels for my taste) And yes I plan to play at least at 1440 x 900 with at least medium settings.

Note that I am not a hardcore gamer either, I'm causal at best. Here's a small list of games I play:
-Cities: Skylines
-The Sims 3
-Melody's Escape
-Audiosurf
-Team Fortress 2
-Terraria
-The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
-Stardew Valley

So yeah, I don't play the MOST demanding games but my interests can change in a couple of months so I want to make this upgrade as useful as possible. So what will be upgrade my monitor or upgrade my video card?

My specs:
CPU : AMD A10-7860K
GPU : Radeon R7 250
RAM : HyperX 8GB (2x)
MoBo : ASRock FM2A88M Pro3+
Case : Raidmax Viper GX
PSU : Logisys 575 Watt PSU
 
Solution
your graphics card, you need at least a 1080p monitor man, 1920 x1080, first upgrade your graphics card though so at least you have smooth game play and can play more games. I have the 750 ti and can play most games at 1080p with no problem (with 4 core cpu). Also make sure to upgrade monitor asap, I upgraded from 720p to 1080p and its a big difference in picture quality.

update: also I don't know if you are in a rush but there might be a GTX 1060 or GTX 1050 releasing soon that can be as cheap as the options you mentioned or could drive those cards to even cheaper prices. So maybe you might want to wait for that option.

Hatchepsut

Distinguished
Sep 12, 2013
25
0
18,540
your graphics card, you need at least a 1080p monitor man, 1920 x1080, first upgrade your graphics card though so at least you have smooth game play and can play more games. I have the 750 ti and can play most games at 1080p with no problem (with 4 core cpu). Also make sure to upgrade monitor asap, I upgraded from 720p to 1080p and its a big difference in picture quality.

update: also I don't know if you are in a rush but there might be a GTX 1060 or GTX 1050 releasing soon that can be as cheap as the options you mentioned or could drive those cards to even cheaper prices. So maybe you might want to wait for that option.
 
Solution