Help on Upgrading CPU or Graphics Card First

[Tubben]

Hello, I am looking for help/opinions on my upgrade this summer. I am going to be putting together my first "proper" build and will be buying parts one at a time because I am 16 and just starting a job. My current rig has a gt 1030 paired with a phenom ii x4 945 overclocked at 3.6GHz. After buying a new PSU and case, I am either going save up some money to put towards a 1060 3gb, or swap out my mobo and ram and slap in a ryzen 5 1600. I will eventually be doing both but it might take awhile, and I'm wondering which upgrade would be better for gaming in the mean time.

Also, would a ryzen 3 1300x be worth getting instead of the 1600 to save 50-70 bucks? I will mostly be gaming but I also use Photoshop and Autodesk 360 frequently.

The games that I will be playing the most include:
Rainbow Six Siege
Dirt Rally
Dead by Daylight
GTA V

Thanks for any help I appreciate it!

 

[ikaz]

I would say stay with the 1600 for now it will help with Autodesk and photoshop, whats your current PSU ?

 

[InvalidError]

The 1600 is a much safer bet for recent and future 'AAA' games.

 

[Tubben]

I would say stay with the 1600 for now it will help with Autodesk and photoshop, whats your current PSU ?

Alright thanks for advice, currently on my build I just have a generic 300W PSU, but in this build I will be getting a Corsair CXM 550W

 

[Tubben]

The 1600 is a much safer bet for recent and future 'AAA' games.

Yeah now that I think of it the $50 difference would be a good investment. Do you think I should replace my phenom cpu first or my gt 1030?

Thanks

 

[InvalidError]

Yeah now that I think of it the $50 difference would be a good investment. Do you think I should replace my phenom cpu first or my gt 1030?

You aren't going to get anything resembling an optimal setup either way. Which one to get first would depend on what you don't mind sacrificing for the time being. Upgrading the CPU first will enable you to get higher frame rates if you sacrifice graphics details. Upgrading the GPU first will allow you to crank graphics details higher at the expense of more frequent and severe frame rate dips due to games being CPU-bound.

Different people have different tolerances to either extreme. If you can't afford to upgrade everything at once, then you have to pick your priorities and sacrifices.

 

[Tubben]

Yeah now that I think of it the $50 difference would be a good investment. Do you think I should replace my phenom cpu first or my gt 1030?

You aren't going to get anything resembling an optimal setup either way. Which one to get first would depend on what you don't mind sacrificing for the time being. Upgrading the CPU first will enable you to get higher frame rates if you sacrifice graphics details. Upgrading the GPU first will allow you to crank graphics details higher at the expense of more frequent and severe frame rate dips due to games being CPU-bound.

Different people have different tolerances to either extreme. If you can't afford to upgrade everything at once, then you have to pick your priorities and sacrifices.

Yes I understand that either way it wont be ideal, but I should be able to get the whole build wrapped up fairly quick. Although I think it would be nice to turn on things such as anti aliasing or higher textures, maybe the cpu would be a better choice because I could also utilize it outside of games. I think I will pick up the ryzen first, thanks for your input