[SOLVED] Do I upgrade my motherboard and CPU or RAM and GPU?

[TaylorSwiftVEVO]

Hello,

I am currently running an i5 6600k with 16gb ram and a gtx 970.

I have a budget of around £400 just a little over is okay, i'm thinking of getting a cheap z370 motherboard e.g msi z370-a and the intel i7 8700 which will cost me around £410. Since when i play games my CPU is always at 100%
But I am also thinking of getting more ram, another 2x8 kit and the rtx 2060 or the gtx 1660 ti which would be around £420 or less.
The reason i need more ram is, currently with normal usage i'm at 70% and maxes out when gaming, i guess i like to have a lot of tabs open.

I am undecided as to which option to go with, ideally I would like to get more ram and a new gpu but i think my cpu is not happy being at 100%.

Thanks for any input in advance =]

 

[THEearthISFLAT]

taylor swift? nevermind.... you will probably have to upgrade both options at some point, as if you upgrade just the CPU and MB or vice versa, you will have an unbalanced system, it will work but then you'll run into bottleneck issues which aren't the end of the world.

 

[jamesanyoung]

If you are going to upgrade everything eventually, start with the Mobo and CPU.

 

[tennis2]

What games are you playing?

Monitor resolution?

Have you overclocked your CPU yet?

 

[TaylorSwiftVEVO]

What games are you playing?

Monitor resolution?

Have you overclocked your CPU yet?

I'm currently playing Apex Legends with low settings. I was overclocking but stopped as it was causing the game to crash a lot. I play other games but they are not as resource intensive. I play on 1080p with a 144hz monitor.

 

[mgallo848]

When you play games on low settings you're taking the workload off the GPU and putting more on the CPU. Try raising the game settings and you see the usage go up on the GPU.

 

[logainofhades]

What is the speed of your ram? If it is fast enough, you might want to consider Ryzen, for better multi-threaded performance. Games are starting to take advantage of more cores/threads. The i7 8700 is a good choice, just more expensive. More ram really isn't going to help you. Only case I would buy ram, is if you went Ryzen, and your current ram is slower than DDR4 3000. You could then repurpose, or sell the hardware you replace, to put towards a new GPU.

 

[TaylorSwiftVEVO]

What is the speed of your ram? If it is fast enough, you might want to consider Ryzen, for better multi-threaded performance. Games are starting to take advantage of more cores/threads. The i7 8700 is a good choice, just more expensive. More ram really isn't going to help you. Only case I would buy ram, is if you went Ryzen, and your current ram is slower than DDR4 3000. You could then repurpose, or sell the hardware you replace, to put towards a new GPU.

I currently have 2400MHz DDR4 ram

 

[logainofhades]

Yea, you would need new ram, for Ryzen.

Ryzen 5 rig

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£145.50 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty B450 GAMING K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (£76.97 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£85.35 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £307.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-12 21:09 GMT+0000



You do not need Z370 with a non k 8700.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor (£290.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - B360 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£87.13 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £378.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-12 21:06 GMT+0000

 

[TaylorSwiftVEVO]

Yea, you would need new ram, for Ryzen.

Ryzen 5 rig

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£145.50 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty B450 GAMING K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (£76.97 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£85.35 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £307.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-12 21:09 GMT+0000



You do not need Z370 with a non k 8700.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor (£290.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - B360 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£87.13 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £378.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-12 21:06 GMT+0000

So it would be better for me to upgrade my cpu and motherboard first and get a new gpu later on?
Also is there any key differences between b360, h370, z370 and z390 motherboards, i figured if i got a z370 or z390 board i could later on upgrade to a k version cpu.
like if i got a z390 board i could still use the 8700 and upgrade to a better cpu in the future.

Thanks.

 

[logainofhades]

The best you are going to see, for Z370/Z390, is most likely a very expensive 9900k. Intel has a history of socket, and/or chipset requirements for their next gen CPU's. With AMD you will see at least one more gen of processors, as they are coming out mid year, and possibly higher core counts. A low end Z370/390 board won't handle a 9900k, as it is quite power hungry. I am sure the rumored Ryzen 9 will be fairly power hungry as well, as they will have more than 8 cores, so a higher end x470 would be the way to go if you think you will want to go beyond an 8 core.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-3000-everything-we-know,38233.html

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-3000-specification-price,38731.html

 

[TaylorSwiftVEVO]

The best you are going to see, for Z370/Z390, is most likely a very expensive 9900k. Intel has a history of socket, and/or chipset requirements for their next gen CPU's. With AMD you will see at least one more gen of processors, as they are coming out mid year, and possibly higher core counts. A low end Z370/390 board won't handle a 9900k, as it is quite power hungry. I am sure the rumored Ryzen 9 will be fairly power hungry as well, as they will have more than 8 cores, so a higher end x470 would be the way to go if you think you will want to go beyond an 8 core.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-3000-everything-we-know,38233.html

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-3000-specification-price,38731.html

Thanks a lot, I will go with your earlier suggestion of the ASRock B360 Pro4 and the Intel i7 8700 as i'm not too familiar with AMD.