Upgrading GPU & increasing RAM worth it with existing CPU?

[roguerower]

My current system which I've had for going on 5 years is an E8400 with a AMD4850 and 4gb of RAM. It's done pretty damn well, but it's showing its age with some of the newer games. How CPU limited would I be if I end up getting a 6850 or 7850 to replace the 4850 and increasing the RAM from 4gb to 8 but keep the 8400? I have an Intel SSD serving as my boot drive and all the games stored on a WD Black 640gb drive.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Very. Dont upgrade the memory. It will only be a waste. Plan the upgrades and decide what you want first. one upgrade would be CPU+memory. The other GPU.

 

[roguerower]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but to see any appreciable jump I'll have to dump my Core 2 and go with an Core i5 or i7. Yes or no?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but to see any appreciable jump I'll have to dump my Core 2 and go with an Core i5 or i7. Yes or no?

Yes, I forgot to mention CPU also requries new motherboard.

So CPU+MB+memory in one upgrade. And the GFX card in another. What to pick first is your own choice.

 

[postmortemIA]

IMO sell all 4 of these and get a new mid-range i5 system. Or if you want to do it in steps, get graphics first, as it will give you instant upgrade, and you can keep it for new system. However, graphics will be bottle necked by your CPU.

 

[Gryz]

This spring I upgraded my E8500+gtx260. In two steps.

Step 1: replace gtx260 with a gtx680.
My framerates kinda doubled. Maybe a bit less. When I looked at benchmarks, I could see that the gtx680 was supposed to be 3x more powerful than my old gtsx260.
There was a side-effect. Which could have been expected, but I hadn't realized it. With my new gtx680 I could enable a bunch of extra eyecandy, and hardly lose any framerates. More AA. SSAO. High-res texture packs in Skyrim. Etc. My framerates would hardly go down. But if I disabled eyecandy (low settings) I would hardly gain more framerates too.

Step 2: replace E8500 with i5-3570K.
Now my framerates would go up another 50% or so.
Example: Skyrim, top of the stairs in Whiterun:
18 fps with E8500/gtx260
32 fps with E8500/gtx680 (and more eyecandy)
45 fps with 3570k/gtx680

I gained another 5 fps or so with new drivers.
And another 5-8 fps or so when I overclocked my CPU from 3.4GHz to 4.0GHz.
And then a few more when going from a 1920x1200 to 1920x1080 monitor.
I am now at 60 fps. Those stairs are not a good benchmark anymore.

Skyrim is known to be CPU intensive. So are MMOs. So are RTSs. In these games a new videocard will allow you to configure more eyecandy, but maybe not double your framerates. In other games (which depend on GPU more) you might see a bigger increase in fps.

My suggestion: upgrade your GPU first. Enjoy the better eyecandy and the slightly higher framerates. Then later when you have more money, buy a new CPU/mobo/RAM.