Need help with Upgrading aging gaming PC.

[Auzike]

Good Day!

So I am considering upgrading my gaming PC. I built it about 5-6 years ago and it has handled everything fine up until the past year. I am currently saving for a wedding however (newly engaged) and it would not be wise of me to drop $1000+ on an entirely new system.

The guidance I am looking for, is whether or not I would get a benefit out of simply upgrading my GPU and keeping the rest of my system as is. I can justify $500 on video card, but do not want to spend that kind of money and not see the gains due to being bottlenecked by current CPU / RAM / MOBO.

Asking for some guidance here, see current specs below. Thanks in advance for any help and happy holidays!

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 6CPUs 3.3GHZ
RAM: 8GB DDR2 RAM
GPU: AMD 6970 4848 MB

If you require any additional information please let me know. Just wondering as mentioned above if I would see any benefit from something like a GTX 970 or not keeping current ram and CPU.

Cheers!

 

[GObonzo]

you will see a huge improvement with every aspect of your upgrade in modern games. your whole platform is quite a bit behind for modern games at good settings.
i would start with motherboard, cpu, memory, and power supply. but, would also get a newer more powerful GPU asap.
what you should purchase is depending on how long you plan on using this upgraded system and what settings you'd like to achieve over this amount of time.

i would recommend you get a Z170 motherboard, 8GBs of DDR4, and an i5 6000 series CPU. this will offer some of the best price vs performance ratio and leave you open to further upgrades much longer than most other currently available platforms.

for the GPU, it really depends on what settings you want to play and for how long until you add another card or replace.
-if you just want decent in-game settings with <60 fps at 1080p for another year+ then a R9 380 or GTX 960 should suffice for most newer titles.
-if you want ultra settings with >60 fps at 1080 or 1440p then a R9 390X or GTX 980.
-for a good middle ground, R9 390 or GTX 970.

but, your current setup will bottleneck either of these cards. so i would get it up to speed first.