Question Need an Upgrade, CPU or GPU? 300$ max

[Inonothing]

Problem: I recently purchased the Division 2, which I've been looking forward to for a while, and my system is finally holding me back. I want my build to be able to handle new titles on at least medium, but it just isn't cutting it anymore. My CPU is constantly being used at 100% to the point where when I'm in a discord call at the same time, the discord call lags extremely due to computer stress. My PSU leaves plenty of room for upgrades.

The main components are:
CPU: Ryzen 3 1200 (OC'd 3.75 GHz)
GPU: GTX 1050 Ti
RAM: 16 Gigs , 2133
Board: AsRock Pro4 B350m

What I want:
Basically, I want to either upgrade my GPU or CPU, with a max budget of 300$ I want the the part to insure future compatibility and support for new and demanding games. I understand upgrading either part would cause bottle-necking, but I can't afford upgrading both at once. I know upgrading my CPU would most likely be smartest, but I want to wait for the Ryzen 3000 series. I will upgrade the part I don't get in the future, I just can't right now, I'm about to buy a car and money is tight. I basically just want to hear what you guys think, I need performance, and the sooner the better, what do you guys recommend? Any help is appreciated dearly, this forum never disappoints, thank you.

 

[WildCard999]

Your memory is hurting performance, need to have 3000mhz in dual channel (could increase performance up to 20 FPS). Since you want to hold off for Ryzen 3rd gen I'd get this...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6 GB Video Card ($213.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $298.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-17 13:56 EDT-0400

The Division 2 is a tough game to run, I have to keep it at Med settings to keep FPS roughly at 75hz (2560x1080P/75hz monitor, Ryzen 2600/RX 580 4gb).

 

[Inonothing]

Your memory is hurting performance, need to have 3000mhz in dual channel (could increase performance up to 20 FPS). Since you want to hold off for Ryzen 3rd gen I'd get this...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6 GB Video Card ($213.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $298.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-17 13:56 EDT-0400

The Division 2 is a tough game to run, I have to keep it at Med settings to keep FPS roughly at 75hz (2560x1080P/75hz monitor, Ryzen 2600/RX 580 4gb).

Would I be better to just buy the RAM rn, and wait and save up for a better GPU

 

[WildCard999]

It depends on your performance now, if your on Low(est) settings and barely hitting playable (45+ IMHO) FPS then a GPU upgrade should help a bit and the 1060 6gb is a good choice over the 1050 ti.

 

[Inonothing]

It depends on your performance now, if your on Low(est) settings and barely hitting playable (45+ IMHO) FPS then a GPU upgrade should help a bit and the 1060 6gb is a good choice over the 1050 ti.

Its around 45 with rendering problems and occasional stuttering, which I know will be it unplayable with time. will the 1060 be capable of performing in the future though?

 

[WildCard999]

Its around 45 with rendering problems and occasional stuttering, which I know will be it unplayable with time. will the 1060 be capable of performing in the future though?

Well remember, the Division 2 is still a new game so it's going to take some time for Ubisoft to work on performance fixes for it. With Navi coming up and possibly more 16XX Nvidia cards coming up it may actually be a better option to hold off on the GPU as the 1050 ti should handle Low/Med decently. The memory & a aftermarket CPU cooler (for a 4ghz OC) should get you close to 60 FPS.

 

[Inonothing]

Well remember, the Division 2 is still a new game so it's going to take some time for Ubisoft to work on performance fixes for it. With Navi coming up and possibly more 16XX Nvidia cards coming up it may actually be a better option to hold off on the GPU as the 1050 ti should handle Low/Med decently. The memory & a aftermarket CPU cooler (for a 4ghz OC) should get you close to 60 FPS.

I will be OC'ing my CPU to 4 ghz tonight, and ordering the ram as well, I have a 212 evoque so it should be fine, thanks for your suggestions, how do you feel about the 1660 ti, and will the AsRock B350 (not m) support 3000 ram speeds?

 

[mdd1963]

The 1050Ti is adequate for 1080P gaming, although on medium settings....; if you love max quality/ultra detail at 1080P, the GTX1060 (6 GB) is still quite nice

The R3-1200 is going to struggle with only 4c/4t issues in newest games, same as the i5-7600 owners are noticing...

Concur on 'Ryzen likes RAM speeds of 2933 and above' , it's a well known Ryzen factoid....

(If you decide to upgrade your CPU, shoot for the R5-2600 if you can get a good price, but, the R5-1600 is having some truly outstanding sales lately, i.e., as low as $79 at some sites, or, so I read!)

 

[WildCard999]

The B350 will either have the memory as 2933 or 3000mhz, either of those speeds are fine. If you want message me later in like 2-3 hours and I'll double check that memory speed for you. I can lower mine down to 2133, play Division 2 then put it back to 3200 and see how much of a increase I see and let you know.

The 1660 ti is good 1080P/1440P GPU and I've considered it a possible upgrade over my RX 580 however I'm waiting for Navi (rumor July) as a upgrade as I'd rather pair a AMD GPU with my Freesync monitor over a Nvidia card.

 

[Inonothing]

The B350 will either have the memory as 2933 or 3000mhz, either of those speeds are fine. If you want message me later in like 2-3 hours and I'll double check that memory speed for you. I can lower mine down to 2133, play Division 2 then put it back to 3200 and see how much of a increase I see and let you know.

The 1660 ti is good 1080P/1440P GPU and I've considered it a possible upgrade over my RX 580 however I'm waiting for Navi (rumor July) as a upgrade as I'd rather pair a AMD GPU with my Freesync monitor over a Nvidia card.

If you don't mind testing that, I'd be very thankful. I'll look for 3200 speed ram myself. I can't thank you enough
-Chris

 

[WildCard999]

No problem, I think the max support for first gen is 3000 but getting 3200mhz won't hurt anything (it'll either work at 3200 or clock down to 3000/2933) so if the price is about the same as 3000 then I'd snag it. At work for another 48 min and like 35 min drive home but I'll try to get you those numbers ASAP.

 

[WildCard999]

So after a little bit of testing between 2133/3200 on the Division 2 the 2133 actually had a higher FPS of about 3-5 however experienced frequent dips that would go down nearly 20-25 FPS. The 3200mhz was slightly slower by about 3-5 FPS but didn't dip as frequent and when it did the dips weren't nearly as bad, like 10-12 FPS so it's a bit more stable.

For the heck of it I tried this testing with the first Division, 3200 was about 8 FPS faster and like the testing with the Division 2 the dips were less frequent and weren't nearly as bad as when I tried 2133.

So it looks like the 3200 is a better option but also Ubisoft needs to do a bit more performance updates for the Division 2, hope this helps!

 

[Inonothing]

So after a little bit of testing between 2133/3200 on the Division 2 the 2133 actually had a higher FPS of about 3-5 however experienced frequent dips that would go down nearly 20-25 FPS. The 3200mhz was slightly slower by about 3-5 FPS but didn't dip as frequent and when it did the dips weren't nearly as bad, like 10-12 FPS so it's a bit more stable.

For the heck of it I tried this testing with the first Division, 3200 was about 8 FPS faster and like the testing with the Division 2 the dips were less frequent and weren't nearly as bad as when I tried 2133.

So it looks like the 3200 is a better option but also Ubisoft needs to do a bit more performance updates for the Division 2, hope this helps!

You're the best. Thank you. I ordered ripjaws 3200 ram, but should I only run these two sticks and get rid of my 2133? I have one 8 stick and 2 4 sticks of 2133 ram, are they as good as garbage or should I keep some in? Thanks
-chris

 

[WildCard999]

You're the best. Thank you. I ordered ripjaws 3200 ram, but should I only run these two sticks and get rid of my 2133? I have one 8 stick and 2 4 sticks of 2133 ram, are they as good as garbage or should I keep some in? Thanks
-chris

Sell them, the motherboard will go by the slowest stick so it's going to hurt the performance of that Gskill kit you ordered and anyways mixing memory is a bad idea as it may not be stable nor even boot up.