Best Bang for the Buck Upgrayedd?

[topmounter]

I'm about to do an incremental upgrade on my Win7 gaming PC. My plan was to do the CPU/Mobo and get the i5 4670k / ASRock Z87 Extreme4 bundle from Newegg, but I didn't order it in time and the bundle price is gone.

Basically, am I going to get more bang for the buck upgrading the CPU/Mobo or the GPU right now? I don't mind upgrading the GPU now while I wait for the price to come back down on the i5/Mobo bundle if I'll see boost in performance.

1. Dedicated gaming rig
2. $300'ish for now
3. USA
4. n/a
5. CPU - Intel this time, GPU - No brand preference
6. I'll continue using all existing parts that I don't upgrade
7. I don't overclock day-to-day, but I like to tinker
8. 1680x1050
9. Soon

Current CPU / Mobo:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX

Preferred Upgrade CPU / Mobo:

Intel Core i5-4670K
ASRock LGA1150 Z87 Extreme4 ATX

Current price @Newegg $337.98

Current GPU:

Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB Gddr5 PCIE

Preferred Upgrade GPU:

ASUS R9 270 2GB

Current price @Newegg $179.99

My preferred upgrade choices are based on my desire to keep things cool and quiet (e.g. lower wattage CPU, quiet GPU).

 

[lehtv]

Your CPU+GPU combo is quite balanced. You will get higher framerates with a faster graphics card, but you won't get the most out of it, and framerates won't be as consistent as they should be. The R9 270 is about the highest I'd even consider for that CPU. On the other hand, a CPU upgrade is unlikely to yield higher framerates except in the most CPU limited games, and not a noticeable difference even then.

The R9 270 is a good card but a bit expensive for what it is - a refresh of the 7870 which you can get for as low as $130 AR: Sapphire 7870 GHz.

Personally, I would not do incremental upgrades on a setup that is already balanced. Better keep saving and grab a new CPU, mobo, RAM (if needed) and GPU all at the same time for about $500-600. I would also want to upgrade that monitor at some point. A decent enough 23" 1080p monitor costs $140-160.

It'd be good to know what the rest of your rig is like - most importantly the PSU.

 

[sm625]

Check which rev board you have, there's like 4 revisions and they all have slightly different upgrade options. I'd look to see if you can upgrade to a piledriver/vishera (not bulldozer) 6 core, like a FX-6350. If you can do that upgrade then I would also consider a 280X, since you're already considering dropping $338 on a new motherboard combo, which is probably overkill. A FX-6350 + R9-280X would easily outperform any intel+ R9-270 combo and it would cost less given what hardware you already have. You should definitely also consider just waiting, since 28nm is awfully long in the tooth.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

For $300. not much stands out as a great value right now. Overclock both the 955 and the 6870? Your current rig is no slouch and has some headroom, especially the 955be. Should be easily capable of 3.6-3.8. For GPU's a r9-270 is not a huge upgrade to your current card and prices on r9-280x are high due to a surge in litecoin mining. You just missed excellent sales on left over 7950's and 7970's. Bummer.

 

[topmounter]

To fill in the blanks...

Whoops that was my old display, my current display is 1920x1080... the ASUS 24" 144 MHz VG248.

Power supply is a Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W.

The board is Rev 2.0 and it appears that it only supports the Phenom II X4/X6 procs.

 

[mfenn]

Your CPU+GPU combo is quite balanced. You will get higher framerates with a faster graphics card, but you won't get the most out of it, and framerates won't be as consistent as they should be. The R9 270 is about the highest I'd even consider for that CPU. On the other hand, a CPU upgrade is unlikely to yield higher framerates except in the most CPU limited games, and not a noticeable difference even then.

The R9 270 is a good card but a bit expensive for what it is - a refresh of the 7870 which you can get for as low as $130 AR: Sapphire 7870 GHz.

Personally, I would not do incremental upgrades on a setup that is already balanced. Better keep saving and grab a new CPU, mobo, RAM (if needed) and GPU all at the same time for about $500-600. I would also want to upgrade that monitor at some point. A decent enough 23" 1080p monitor costs $140-160.

It'd be good to know what the rest of your rig is like - most importantly the PSU.

I agree with this overall. However, given that the 7870 is such a good deal right now and will give you some benefit, I'd go ahead and pick that up. Then save up another $130 for a good i5 deal down the line.

 

[topmounter]

Thanks for all the feedback, I guess I'll sit tight with the CPU/Mobo I have for now... I'm not used to a CPU still being reasonably competitive after four years

I'll keep my eyes open for good deals on video cards though.

 

[alkemyst]

I have a 955 @ 3.8GHz…I thought about upgrading and canned it. My machine runs everything I want smoothly.

I did go from a 4890 to 6870…I am maxing out most of the games I like at 1920x1200.

 

[Blue_Max]

Bonus points for:

 

[mfenn]

Bonus points for:

Suspense???

 

[PliotronX]

Looks like a good combo