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Will I get better performance with a CPU upgrade or a GFX Card upgrade?
imrobertjames
Member UncommonPosts: 19
The computer I have is a budget PC I built, that I've been slowly upgrading over time. I've put in a SSD raid for my operating system, a 2tb raid for my games, music, etc. and run with 16GB of RAM. I'm at the point where I'm looking to upgrade either the GFX card or the CPU, but I'm wondering which one will give me the best performance boost for gaming, my CPU is pretty weak.
Current CPU: I3-2120 @ 3.3GHz
Upgrade: i5-4670 Haswell 3.4GHz
Current GFX: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660
Upgrade: ASUS Radeon R9 280X 3GB DDR5
I just don't know enough about cpus and gfx cards anymore to make an informed decision, so any help you tech gurus can provide would be greatly appreciated! Hoping to get my next part ordered today so I can get it in time for my holiday vacation 
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."
Comments
I would upgrade the CPU first hands down
your graphics card is still a decent one even in todays market, but as you have already pointed out your CPU is dated.
That for me would be the 'must do next'
This post is all my opinion, but I welcome debate on anything i have put, however, personal slander / name calling belongs in game
where of course you're welcome to call me names im often found lounging about in EvE online.
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In order to upgrade to a Haswell CPU, you'd need a different CPU socket, and hence a different motherboard. That would mean that your current OS license is no longer valid, so you'd have to replace that, too. Ivy Bridge is nearly as fast as Haswell, but uses the same socket as your current CPU, so that would be a more sensible choice.
What motherboard do you have? While we're at it, what power supply and what case, as those can also limit upgrades?
MOST game are GPU highly dependent
in you're situation Performance ~ Money = isn't very balanced also Haswell so mostly a waste of money only significant update is integrated video card every thing else is quite same so don't expect to burst you performance in game with a new CPU. For example some guys tested Archage Performance with different CPU From i3 i5 i7 as a result performance difference was barely noticeable. One game that eats you're CPU is DayZ.
Haswell is like 5 6 % performance increase In some cases but you also will need a new motherboard and New ram probably with correct memory Type for CPU so... yeah I hope it's clear to you ?))
I would suggest you to keep present build and to earn some money and to buy one new next year
Also this website will help you decide
http://www.logicalincrements.com/
Pfrt.
Working with an ancient core2quad here combined with a radeon 5870.
I can still run almost every game with respectable settings (1920x1200 with high settings)
Don't really know what you do with your rig but to me this upgrade seems a bit premature
Do we live to watch anime?
Or do we watch anime to live?
I say CPU.
If you using it for general gaming then you will like the performance from the CPU
if you are using it for just MMOs well they are CPU heavy so having a better cpu is better.
ASUS G74sx
i7 quad core
16gb ddr3 ram
3gb ram Nvidia 560M
240GB SSD & 750GB
tend to agree, i wouldnt bother upgrading the gpu, he already has a 660 gtx, so it would be worth waiting for the next generation at least before upgrading that part again.. as for the cpu/mobo, thats definitely something to think about, not sure you really have to buy another licence for the OS though, i've had no problems so far using the same one on new equipment and havent had authentication problems ? admittedly i have steered well clear of win8 ..but win 7 64 has so far not given me any problems?. At the moment i would be influenced to upgrade the system to at least a 6 core CPU, running as close to 4 ghz + as possible
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."
Not if he is using Windows 8. You can transfer an system builder's license on Windows 8 even if you install another motherboard with a simple phone call. The license was specifically rewritten to do this. You just have to verbally confirm with the phone rep that you are upgrading your motherboard and that the license is only being used on that computer.
James T. Kirk: All she's got isn't good enough! What else ya got?
This is really nice to know. Was really annoying in the past doing an upgrading and needing to reinstall everything.
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."
Problem is most people don't have System Builder licenses. System Builder is new with Windows 8 and most people don't have it.
They have OEM licenses, or upgrade licenses that are linked to OEM copies of previous editions.
OEM licenses are non-transferable no matter what.
That, and going to Ivy won't give you more per-core performance, you'll just get 2 more cores. For the few games that it does matter, it will make a big difference. But for the vast majority of games, that won't do a thing for you.
I still want to know exactly which motherboard and power supply you have. If you've got a cheap junk H61 motherboard, then maybe you could get a Core i5-3570, but certainly nothing faster. If you've got a very nice 650 W power supply (the "very nice" is more important here than the "650 W") and a P67 or Z68 motherboard built to handle a big overclock, then it makes more sense to go for a Core i5-3570K and consider overclocking it when you want more performance.
I have done this twice already. I was also amazed. I have to give credit to the techs at the Tiger Direct store here in Orlando for informing me of it. I went in to and bought a new motherboard and processor and was going to get a new OEM license, and they informed me that I didn't need it. They were right.
James T. Kirk: All she's got isn't good enough! What else ya got?
You're about a decade late on your advice.
If he already has 16 GB of memory, adding more isn't going to help for gaming purposes at all.
The sound card doesn't put much load on the CPU, and what little it does add would be completely overwhelmed by the effect of getting a faster processor.
Your so very wrong in your advice regarding GPU verses CPU. I have upgraded my GPU three times in the last 4 years to the latest and greatest 400 dollar video card only to return the card because it added no improvements to FPS. Two times was when running a high end i5 CPU, the GPU had no effect on game performance. Only after upgrading to i7 did I achieve significant performance gains in my games. Since I've had my i7 I tried one more video upgraded to the latest high card with no improvements in performance so I returned the card.
The only thing that makes a noticeable improvement with todays hardware is CPU upgrades. GPU's have finally outpaced graphic demands in todays games. Upgrading your GPU when you already have a high card that was made within the last three years is a total waste of money. But GPU manufactures have to keep pushing them out. At his point you can upgrade your GPU (if your buying high end cards like me) every 3 to 3.5 years or so and CPU every year.
To answer the OP question your system is so old it falls outside the scope of this argument so you will be forced to upgrade both anyway. But buy the fastest CPU you can afford over the GPU.
CPU makes the biggest difference in today games.
I rather suspect that you were doing something wrong. There are very few games where adding hyperthreading to a quad core desktop processor will make much difference.
Like it's been said, you'd need a new MB to get a I7, I don't really think it's worth it, and a 280x is overkill in my opinion unless you are going to bit coin mine. c.c
If your MB can socket a I5 you could go with that, it will give you a slight increase.
Even a GTX 660 or 670 would be a good upgrade.
Also consider increasing the cooling capabilities within your chassis as that can give you a performance increase as well.
Although your CPU isn't one of the greatest, considering the effort to upgrade it, I am not sure if it is worth the effort with all else that you have.
I have an "outdated" i7 2.8 Ghz, one of the first generations I think, and it still is bored with most games, even Battlefield 4. My GPU on the other hand could use a swapping... Although, I noticed that the latest Splinter Cell gave me troubles and the installer did complain my CPU was old. But again, mine actually is a very old system.
If you are doing MMOs mainly, I doubt you will notice any difference with any type of upgrade, unless you play something like Age of Conan or EQ2 maxed out.
You could on the other hand invest in water-cooling if you have the cash, just for fun, or even some o/c-ing. That is another way to get some more performance out. Or making your system less noisy.
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If it were me I would replace cpu fist. Get the I5 K version for that mobo socket.
Then a GPU when you can / want to. I think you would see a difference with either, personally CPU would top the list for me. I am running an I5 2500k and a 7870 and am very satisfied.
Your so very wrong in your advice regarding GPU verses CPU. I have upgraded my GPU three times in the last 4 years to the latest and greatest 400 dollar video card only to return the card because it added no improvements to FPS. Two times was when running a high end i5 CPU, the GPU had no effect on game performance. Only after upgrading to i7 did I achieve significant performance gains in my games. Since I've had my i7 I tried one more video upgraded to the latest high card with no improvements in performance so I returned the card.
The only thing that makes a noticeable improvement with todays hardware is CPU upgrades. GPU's have finally outpaced graphic demands in todays games. Upgrading your GPU when you already have a high card that was made within the last three years is a total waste of money. But GPU manufactures have to keep pushing them out. At his point you can upgrade your GPU (if your buying high end cards like me) every 3 to 3.5 years or so and CPU every year.
To answer the OP question your system is so old it falls outside the scope of this argument so you will be forced to upgrade both anyway. But buy the fastest CPU you can afford over the GPU.
CPU makes the biggest difference in today games.
I rather suspect that you were doing something wrong. There are very few games where adding hyperthreading to a quad core desktop processor will make much difference.
Doing something wrong thats funny?I play games that are incredibly demanding on both cpu and gpu but always the greater demand is on my cpu.
I'll reserve judgement until we see what games these are.
I still play EQ2 on occasion. It's incredibly CPU-demanding, even for todays computers.
That's because it doesn't care much about multi-core, it wants as much individual core performance as it can get, and it always will. So for that game, going from an i3 to an i5 to an i7 would have minimal effect.
Versus something like GW2, where it can use up to quad core CPUs effectively - if I go from an i3 to an i5, there's a big improvement. But if I go from an i5 to an i7, I don't see so much past that, because it can't really use anything past 4 cores terribly well.
And then there are games like Tomb Raider - it doesn't take a lot to play that game on reasonable settings. But it has the option to do ridiculous things in the graphics settings that do very little for visual fidelity, and are just there for the purpose of making your computer come to it's knees. Sure, you can claim that cranking all the options to MAX MAX means you have a beastly computer, but realistically everyone is just kinda snickering at you because the game looks almost identical to played on "High", you just had to spend an extra $1,000 in hardware to get there.