Better to upgrade processor or video card?

[braves1090]

Hello,

I'm new here and built a gaming computer a few years ago. The only game I really play anymore is World of Warcraft and I am looking to get back into raiding. I am finding WoW to be pretty laggy anymore and am looking into upgrading my computer. Money is a bit tight right now and I can realistically only afford to upgrade either my processor and motherboard or my graphics card. My current set up is an Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz processor with a Gigabyte motherboard (I can't really remember anything else about it, but can find that out if it is important). My graphics card is a GeForce GTX 760.

If I upgrade, I plan to get an Intel Core i7 - 6700 4.00 GHz processor or a GeForce 1060 or 1070. Which of these upgrades could I expect to be the most effective in terms of increasing performance? If additional information is needed, please let me know and I'll get that to you. Thank you in advance for your help!

Mike

 

[bystander]

If your goal is less lag in WoW raids, a CPU would be more impressive, but you'll have to stick to lower settings. If you want to play at high settings while raiding, a GPU would help you more, but you'll likely have the same lag you get now, assuming you aren't playing at high settings with a GTX 760.

 

[braves1090]

Thank you. I really don't care too much about playing at the highest settings at the moment, I would rather just be able to play an encounter without having the opening sequence lag too much. I think some of the lag can be attributed to the patch that came out today, but even before, I noticed that during the first ten or so seconds of each boss fight the game was almost unplayable due to the lag. So I guess I'll look into a CPU and motherboard.

Do you think an i7 would be necessary? I don't think that WoW is an extremely intensive game, and if I can save a couple hundred dollars that would be nice, but at the same time I'd rather not spend a couple hundred and find myself with the same issues. Would a newer i5 be okay, or should I just suck it up and go for the i7?

Thank you again.

 

[bystander]

In WoW, an i7 would not be necessary, though highest clocked stock cards are usually i7's. That said, if this is only during the first few seconds, the issue might be due to your internet connection, and not your CPU.

 

[bystander]

The first thing I'd try, is playing on the lowest settings you can, and see if you gain FPS while raiding and whether or not they are acceptable FPS. If you do gain a significant amount of FPS, then upgrading your CPU will not help much unless you lower settings. This is the worst case scenario, as you might need both a CPU and GPU upgrade. If it holds steady at your current FPS, then the CPU upgrade is the way to go. If you gained a lot of FPS, then you might just want a GPU instead.

 

[braves1090]

Okay. I'll test it out! Thank you very much! have a great day.

 

[dudeman509]

For anything beyond WoW, I would say it is absolutely time to upgrade the GPU. CPU is still quite competitive with an overclock.