Need help upgrading

[awen3]

Hey guys I’m in a bit of a pickle

I am currently looking to upgrade my setup in 1 of 2 ways

1. Upgrade cpu and mobo to ryzen 5 1600 and x370
2. Upgrade current monitor to a 27” 144hz 1440p 1ms curved (msi mag27cq)

Option 1 would be about ~$150 aud cheaper. Price kinda matters (broke 14 year old kid)

My current setup is as follows
Cpu- i5 6400
Mobo- gigabyte h110m
Ram- 2x4 2133
Gpu- strix rog 1060 6gb oced to 2114 core and 4799 mem
Storage- 120gb ssd and 1tb wd blue
Psu- 650 watt bronze
Monitor- 27” 1080p 60hz 5ms (BenQ EW2750ZL)

I mostly play games like destiny 2- maxed 100fps, fortnite mixed 120+fps, pubg mixed 90fps, Warframe maxed 100+fps, r6, tf2, want to get bf1,5 and other similar games. I am 100% willing to turn settings down.

What I know of is that if I choose upgrade path 1 then I will not be able to see much of a difference because of the limitations of my monitor and also my ram is not fast enough to utilise ryzen to its full potential.

But if I upgrade my monitor I am worried that my pc can not provide enough horsepower to reach 144hz at 1440p. If I can not push enough power I can always switch back to 1080p at 144hz.

What do you guys think I should do? I am open to all opinions.

 

[profoundnoah]

Upgrading to the 1600 would have little benefit aside from if you wanted to start streaming. A 27 inch 1440p panel is greatly out of place here. Your setup is ALRIGHT for the time being. Not even the 1080 Ti can push a constant 144FPS in some titles. I would recommend waiting until the new 11-series comes out. If you see good performance for a reasonable price, pull the trigger. Otherwise, you can always look at the new CPU's of the time and see if you find something you like. I think you should upgrade your system in this order:

GPU/RAM (at the same time if possible)
CPU (Something like the i5 9000-series chip when it comes out)
Monitor (New options will always appear, plus price drops and all)

 

[awen3]

I currently can’t reply to you because I’m on mobile atm and there is no reply button but thanks for your reply.

I only just upgraded to the 1060 and I am not looking to upgrade for another year or more.

I really would like to upgrade my monitor as the gameplay is not as smooth as I would like. I have tried overclocking it and the furthest I got was 75hz but it made the monitor for some reason discoloured.

Do you think upgrading to a high quality 1080p panel like an ips one with a 144hz refresh rate would be better?

 

[geofelt]

What you buy with ryzen 1600 will be more threads, from 4 to12.
But, the single thread performance is essentially the same.
For a rough idea of differences between processors, compare the passmark total and single thread ratings.
Very few games can take advantage of more than 4 threads.
Try an experiment to see how well you do with three 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 three.
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.

If you favor fast action shooters, the graphics card is your most likely limitation.
To test this,
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
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.

Games such as sims, mmo, and strategy tend to depend on the performance of the single master thread.

If you favor multiplayer games, then that is where many threads are most helpful.

If you want to upgrade the cpu, you have options.
Here is the CPU support list for your motherboard:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-H110M-DS2-rev-10#support-cpu
The strongest will be the I7-7700K.
You can not overclock the K suffix processors on your motherboard, but the base clock rates of the K series will be higher than their non overclocked counterparts.


With ryzen, not only do you need a new motherboard, but possibly DDR4 ram also.
Ryzen is picky about ram so you would need to verify that you current ram kit is on the prospective motherboard's ram QVL support list.

Since you are willing to lower settings, I think I would opt for the new monitor.
A larger, curved monitor will give you a more immersive gaming experience.
And... keep the old monitor as a side monitor for such things as email and performance monitors.
The static nature of those things will not impact your gaming.

 

[awen3]

Thanks for the reply geo,
I will go for the monitor after all.
I am also going to upgrade my mobo and cpu later on (most likely next year) what do you think would be the best option. Potentially an 8th gen i5 when it drops in price or something like a i5 6600k or 7600k? What would be the best price to performance option?

 

[geofelt]

Next year, we will have different choices available.
Intel will have 9th gen processors available, and ryzen will have a response(or vice versa)

If you are buying new, the latest gen will be your best option.
You tend to get more for your money.
Older gen 7600k/6600K could be ok if you are buying used.
They will be sold on a price/performance basis used.
Intel does not drop prices on older gen processors. Possibly, a retailer will reduce their margin.

My guess is that you will be looking for a I5-9600K and a Z390 motherboard.

 

[awen3]

Thank you so much for your help, greatly appreciated.