Help me decide

[Mislav_1]

Hello there. My monitor broke not too long ago and I was planing on getting a new monitor AOC 24G2U/BK , 24" 144Hz
, but I just started to question should I get monitor that has 144hz even if half of the games I play are not even going up to 144 fps, I started looking for new CPU and motherboard upgrade maybe.

My old monitor was PHILIPS 244E5QHAD, 24", 60Hz

My current:
CPU: Intel i5 7600 3.5GHz
Motherboard: ASRock Z270 Pro4

New parts that I would get instead of monitor:
CPU: Intel i5 10600K 4.10 GHz
Motherboard: MSI MPG-Z490-GAMING-PLUS

I did ask some of my friends what should I get first, monitor or cpu or motherboard. They said monitor and one said that I should wait for gen 4 Intel boards and that this board is overkill for i5 (I do plan on upgrading at some point to i9).

My budget is $550 (3520 HRK), with that I can get a monitor and CPU barely (and I can wait for gen 4 of Intels boards) or should I buy CPU and Motherboard. Thanks for reading and helping me what to get

 

[Aeacus]

I'd go with new 144Hz monitor, despite that your current hardware can't output 144 FPS. Reason behind it is your upgrade plans since when you have 60 Hz monitor, there is no point to get any better hardware (especially GPU). Since all your better performance will be held back by 60 Hz monitor.

If you'd already have the 144 Hz monitor then you can easily upgrade your hardware knowing that they aren't held back by your monitor.

Though, what i'm most interested is what GPU you have? Since upgrading only the GPU can be enough to get 144 FPS with 144 Hz monitor.
For example, in my Skylake build (full specs with pics in my sig), i have i5-6600K with GTX 1660 Ti GPU and i also have 144 Hz 1080p monitor. While my CPU is a bit slower than yours, my GPU is enough to get me 144 FPS at 1080p.

 

[Mislav_1]

I'd go with new 144Hz monitor, despite that your current hardware can't output 144 FPS. Reason behind it is your upgrade plans since when you have 60 Hz monitor, there is no point to get any better hardware (especially GPU). Since all your better performance will be held back by 60 Hz monitor.

If you'd already have the 144 Hz monitor then you can easily upgrade your hardware knowing that they aren't held back by your monitor.

Though, what i'm most interested is what GPU you have? Since upgrading only the GPU can be enough to get 144 FPS with 144 Hz monitor.
For example, in my Skylake build (full specs with pics in my sig), i have i5-6600K with GTX 1660 Ti GPU and i also have 144 Hz 1080p monitor. While my CPU is a bit slower than yours, my GPU is enough to get me 144 FPS at 1080p.

My current setup:
Motherboard: ASROCK Z270 PRO4
GPU: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB TURBO
CPU: Intel i5 7600 3.5GHz
RAM: HyperX Predator Black 16GB Kit 3000MHz DDR4
HDD: Western Digital 2x500GB
SSD: Kingston SSD SV300S37A/120G
SSD M.2, NVMe: Kingston SSD SA1000M8/240G
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

 

[Aeacus]

GPU: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB TURBO

While GTX 1060 6GB is good GPU for 1080p gaming, it doesn't push the FPS much over 60. Here, GTX 1660 Ti is enough to get 144 FPS in most games at 1080p.
Getting any better GPU than GTX 1660 Ti, e.g RTX 2060 and up or RTX 3060 and up would make sense if you'd buy 1440p (2K) monitor.
GTX 1060 6GB vs GTX 1660 Ti comparison: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-6GB-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1660-Ti/3639vs4037

Btw, before i got my GTX 1660 Ti, i too had GTX 1060 but 3GB version.

There are only 2 reasons to go for better CPU:

1. You need additional cores/threads (e.g for video rendering)
2. Your CPU is maxed out (100%) during heavy load (e.g gaming)

Here, i don't think you'd need to upgrade your CPU and spend additional money for the MoBo as well. Instead, getting better GPU + 144 Hz monitor is enough to get better performance in games, since your current CPU is already a good CPU for gaming.

 

[Mislav_1]

I am not planning on playing games above 1080p. If I will be getting any new GPU it will be one of new ones 3070 or 3080.

 

[Aeacus]

3070 or 3080.

With either of the two GPUs, you'd be looking at minimum of 1440p (2K) monitor while 4K monitor would be preferred. Else-ways, you'd be wasting GPU performance to play just on 1080p.

It's like when you buy Lamborghini Aventador, which is designed to go fast (top speed 349 km/h) and all you do is driving it only 60 km/h. A lot of wasted performance and money as well.