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Upgrade cpu or gpu ?

xrock8

xrock8

Member
I wanna upgrade my gaming rig but i am confused between upgrading my cpu or gpu. I've an amd fx 8320 cpu and r9 280x gpu. And right now i cannot upgrade both. Which upgrade makes more sense ?
Was thinking about i5 4690k and gtx 970. And how much performance increase would i experience if i upgrade my gpu to gtx 970?
Rest of specs:
M5a99fx
8gb ram
620w psu
 
Is your CPU overclocked at all? If so, how much, and if not, what CPU cooler do you have?

What monitor resolution are you gaming at?

Does your PC have an SSD?

And how much performance increase would i experience if i upgrade my gpu to gtx 970?
Click to expand...

Assuming you play on 1080p...

GTX 970 is around 40% faster than 280X, but even with heavy overclocking, the FX-8320 is limiting the 280X in CPU heavy games, so you would rarely get to see GTX 970 reach full potential. On the other hand, upgrading the CPU to an i5 would probably not have enough of an impact to be worth it. You've got a fairly balanced set up as it is, as long as you overclock that FX-8320 properly. Your motherboard is a decent OC board and should be able to get the most out of high end air cooling.

So I recommend you wait until you can afford both an i5 and a new GPU that's at least as fast as GTX 970.
 
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lehtv said:
Is your CPU overclocked at all? If so, how much, and if not, what CPU cooler do you have?

What monitor resolution are you gaming at?

Does your PC have an SSD?
Click to expand...

I am currently on stock cooler. And if i push my cpu to 4.5 ghz how much performance increase would i experience? And no i don't own an ssd .
 
Haswell cpu + 280x= You could play anything on highest.
I vote for CPU/Motherboard.
You'll get 15-20 more fps and smoother gameplay.
Haswell..it's nice..
I've only had a 4670k anna Pentium but..it's fast..really it is.
I still have a CHV and a 960T 😀 ..that unlocks..
 
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xrock8 said:
I am currently on stock cooler. And if i push my cpu to 4.5 ghz how much performance increase would i experience? And no i don't own an ssd .
Click to expand...

At stock, you have 3.5 GHz to 4.0 GHz turbo. At 4.5 GHz, you'll have turbo disabled and it will run at 4.5GHz regardless of the number of cores being loaded, so on average you should expect around 4.5 / 3.75 = 1.2 = 20% higher performance.
 
If OP is a gamer then SSD won't bring any difference other than stage/level loading time. Also if he spends maximum time on web browsers an SSD won't make that much sense either. But everything else will fly, especially if he's a person who opens and closes different apps 🙂
 
If i were in your shoes i wouldn't upgrade either of them right now. Go buy a CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO cooler and replace that stock one.

Then you can overclock that chip to 4GHz-4.5GHz range safely.

Wait it out if you can to see what the GTX 960Ti and/or the new AMD series of GPU's has to offer in the coming months if you can hold off.

That way you aren't spending a lot of money and you can reuse the Hyper 212 EVO on your new Intel cpu when you decide to buy that.
 
daveybrat said:
If i were in your shoes i wouldn't upgrade either of them right now. Go buy a CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO cooler and replace that stock one.

Then you can overclock that chip to 4GHz-4.5GHz range safely.

Wait it out if you can to see what the GTX 960Ti and/or the new AMD series of GPU's has to offer in the coming months if you can hold off.

That way you aren't spending a lot of money and you can reuse the Hyper 212 EVO on your new Intel cpu when you decide to buy that.
Click to expand...

+1. Seems like a waste of money upgrading the cpu or gpu from what you have right now.
 
I would not upgrade a GPU on a i5. I mean you can but the benefits will hardly be noticeable. For your rig the idea is more throughput so that I/O has little to no interruption from memory to cpu and though the GPU.

The idea here is to optimize, which is very cost effective for i5 owners.

To optimize you can just add lost more memory or even replace your memory with better rated memory that has a higher clock speed.

Another hard drive that is just dedicated to either games or the windows swap file.
Also create less heat in your system by getting a larger PSU so it works less and more efficiently.

I do not know the case you have but I used to back in the day would have a gaming rig that sat in a $30 pc case and that was pretty stupid. Airflow sucked so maybe get a new case?
 
lehtv said:
So I recommend you wait until you can afford both an i5 and a new GPU that's at least as fast as GTX 970.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: I agree with this.

Your system is decently well balanced right now, shifting from CPU-limited to GPU-limited depending on the game. Which games in particular are you having trouble with?
 
mfenn said:
Your system is decently well balanced right now, shifting from CPU-limited to GPU-limited depending on the game. Which games in particular are you having trouble with?
Click to expand...

Cod aw, other games are alright but i am not able to play any 2014 title with max60fps. And looking at the sys requirements of the upcoming games(witcher 3 etc) i don't think I'll be able to play on high until the end of this year.
 
You should wait and upgrade both the CPU and the GPU, upgrading either wouldn't help you much cause the other would create a bottleneck.
 
When you said you can't upgrade both just yet, did you take into account the cash you'd get from selling the AMD board, CPU and the R9 280X?

going by pcpartpicker.com:
new M5A99FX PRO R2.0 = $114
new FX-8320 = $135
new R9 280X = $230
total = $479

An optimistic second hand price for these would be around 70%, let's say. So $335.

Then grab
4690K + Z79X-SLI + XFX R9 290 = $525 after rebate

or
4690K + Z97X-SLI = $320 AR
MSI R9 290X Lightning $300 AR
= $620 after rebate

or if you're not interested in CPU overclocking
i5-4460 $180
H81M-DS2V $52 AR
XFX R9 290 $220 AR or MSI R9 290X Lightning $300 AR
= $452 or $532 after rebate

Doable?
 
lehtv said:
When you said you can't upgrade both just yet, did you take into account the cash you'd get from selling the AMD board, CPU and the R9 280X?

going by pcpartpicker.com:
new M5A99FX PRO R2.0 = $114
new FX-8320 = $135
new R9 280X = $230
total = $479

An optimistic second hand price for these would be around 70%, let's say. So $335.

Then grab
4690K + Z79X-SLI + XFX R9 290 = $525 after rebate

or
4690K + Z97X-SLI = $320 AR
MSI R9 290X Lightning $300 AR
= $620 after rebate

or if you're not interested in CPU overclocking
i5-4460 $180
H81M-DS2V $52 AR
XFX R9 290 $220 AR or MSI R9 290X Lightning $300 AR
= $452 or $532 after rebate

Doable?
Click to expand...
How much performance increase would i get from these 3 options compared to my current sys ?
 
R9 290 vs R9 280X: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1068
R9 290X vs R9 280X: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1059
R9 290 vs R9 290X: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1068?vs=1059

The MSI Lightning is around +10% factory OC'd, so add a little to those 290X numbers.

If this doesn't seem like a big enough jump to be worth it to you, then you should keep waiting for 300-series.

The processor upgrade is there just to ensure it doesn't limit the new graphics card.
 
lehtv said:
R9 290 vs R9 280X: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1068
R9 290X vs R9 280X: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1059
R9 290 vs R9 290X: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1068?vs=1059

The MSI Lightning is around +10% factory OC'd, so add a little to those 290X numbers.

If this doesn't seem like a big enough jump to be worth it to you, then you should keep waiting for 300-series.

The processor upgrade is there just to ensure it doesn't limit the new graphics card.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot
 
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