Question Do I upgrade my CPU or GPU

[Scariness6981]

I have a GTX 1660 Super and a Ryzen 5 3600. I'm looking to upgrade my GPU and my CPU, but I can only afford one at a time. For the CPU, I was considering the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (I use a lot of virtual machines), and for the GPU, I was looking at the RTX 3060 or RX 6700 XT. I am probably going to buy used unless there is a better deal new and will be purchasing from eBay, New Egg, Amazon, Facebook Marketplace. I don’t want to spend more than $700 on the upgrade in total. . I play Spider-Man Remastered, CS2, Battlefield 2042, God of War, BattleBit Remastered, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Which one should I update first, and are these good choices?

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Please follow the stylization of this thread;

*How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice*

How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice First off, respect where respect is due - this is an adaptation of the Animal's *How To Ask For New Build Advice* Sticky. I created this because there's a lot of posts nowadays asking for upgrade advice both on here and on the CPU forums, and I feel...

forums.tomshardware.com

We would be well informed if you included your current system specs, your location, your preferred site for purchasing parts and your budget for your.

 

[TerryLaze]

Well you can reduce resolution and quality settings to get more FPS out of an old GPU but you can do very little to make a CPU run much faster.
So CPU should be the priority.
On the other hand if you care more about how pretty a game looks than how well it runs the the GPU makes more sense.

Bottom line, it depends on you.

 

[boju]

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-1660-super.c3458

See relative performance chart. 6700XT is in a different ball park compared to 3060.

Your cpu can handle much more than 1660s. Hell, even second gen i7 be a good match configured with 1660s or even 1080Ti as was with my experience with 2600k at 4.5 playing in 1440p. 1080p wasn't taxed all that much more really. Ryzen 3600 would be similar expectations, probably more being more modern.

Upgrade gpu first, you'll get way more enjoyment in the meantime before you upgrade cpu. Depending on your psu situation, if it's crap unit with 3yr warranty or less don't use it, not with these calibre of graphics cards, they draw more and tendency to power spike a lot higher. I wouldn't use anything less then a well known tier A, minimum 7yr warranty 750w unit with your intended upgrades. I'm currently running 3080Ti (11700k default turbo) with 850w Corsair Rmx and it's been fine, no reboots.

Psu tiers.

PSU Tier List rev. 17.0g - Cultists Network

PSU Tier List will help you to choose the best PSU out of hundreds of models on the market. From budget to the highest end Power Supplies.

cultists.network

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I have a GTX 1660 Super and a Ryzen 5 3600. I'm looking to upgrade my GPU and my CPU, but I can only afford one at a time. For the CPU, I was considering the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (I use a lot of virtual machines), and for the GPU, I was looking at the RTX 3060 or RX 6700 XT. I am probably going to buy used unless there is a better deal new and will be purchasing from eBay, New Egg, Amazon, Facebook Marketplace. I don’t want to spend more than $700 on the upgrade in total. . I play Spider-Man Remastered, CS2, Battlefield 2042, God of War, BattleBit Remastered, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Which one should I update first, and are these good choices?

Hey there,

Well, let us know your full system specs, including mobo and PSU. Without that we can't give an accurate answer.

You don't want to pair a 5950x with a weak mobo, which may cause throttling. You need a strong B450/B550 to handle higher end chips.

I'd be suggesting CPU first, as @TerryLaze intimated. Prob going for a 5700x3d, if you only concern is gaming. Then sell your current GPU to offset the cost of a more modern card. Any nVidia 30xx series above the 3070 would be a good choice. Particularly if you are gaming on 1080p. If 1440p or above, then you need something with 16gbs vram.

 

[geofelt]

My stock approach to this perennial question:

Some games are graphics limited like fast action shooters.
Others are cpu core speed limited like strategy, sims, and mmo.
Multiplayer tends to like many threads.

You need to find out which.
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To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You should also experiment with removing one or more cores/threads. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of threads to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many threads.
If you see little difference, your game does not need all the threads you have.



It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system,
and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
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