Question Need Suggestions About Upgrading my setup

[Piyush Sharma98765]

I have a setup of i 9900kf with xi code motherboard and rtx 2080, 32 gb ddr4 at 3800 mhz with lg 27 inch 1440p monitor (180 hz) , i am planning to upgrade my setup but i can only afford either a new cpu or new gpu, the cpu i have in my budget is i5 14600k with a decent motherboard or a 5060ti or a 9060xt 16 gb graphic card, which component should i upgrade first? i usually play casual games like delta force, battlefield or new released titles and do video editing

 

[Lutfij]

which component should i upgrade first?
Users are advised to stylize their thread with info asked of in this thread;

*How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice*

How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice First off, respect where respect is due - this is an adaptation of the Animal's *How To Ask For New Build Advice* Sticky. I created this because there's a lot of posts nowadays asking for upgrade advice both on here and on the CPU forums, and I feel...

forums.tomshardware.com

and the community will chime in with worthwhile suggestions.

Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model.

and do video editing
Video editing us done a lot of app's, which one(s) are you working with?

 

[Piyush Sharma98765]

sorry about that

CPU: i9 9900kf
CPU cooler: corsair icu h150i cpu cooler 360mm radiator
Motherboard: asus rog xi code
Ram: 32 gb gskills ripjaw oc to 3800 mhz
SSD/HDD: samsung 970 evo 1 tb m.2
GPU: evga rtx 2080 oc edition
PSU:corsair rmx 1000w psu
Chassis: deepcool full atx
OS: win 11 64 bit
Monitor: LG 27GS75Q-B Ultragear QHD (2560x1440) Gaming Monitor, 27 inch

these all parts are bought in 2020 except the monitor that is bought recently 1 month ago

can you tell which component should i buy

games: delta force,battlefield etc
editing software: photoshop,premiere pro, davinvi heavy editing with apps at 4k

 

[JayGau]

A 9900k and a 2080 is a pretty good match, but it's gonna be hard to get a significant improvement by upgrading only one of these. The 5060 ti shows about 20% better performance than the 2080, so nothing really astonishing, but if you get a better card like a 5070 or a 9070, the 9900kf will become a bottleneck.

On the CPU side, the i5-14600 is significantly better than the 9900k, but the 2080 will likely become the bottleneck in this case. And if you upgrade the CPU to a 14th gen, you also gonna have to replace the motherboard (and you should also get a DDR5 RAM kit if you do that).

Upgrading an old system usually requires to replace multiple parts. Upgrading only one thing usually doesn't bring much better performance since the rest will hold it back.

 

[geofelt]

My stock approach to this perennial question:

Some games are graphics limited like fast action shooters.
Others are cpu core speed limited like strategy, sims, and mmo.
Multiplayer tends to like many threads.

You need to find out which.
------------------------------------------------------------
To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
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.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You should also experiment with removing one or more cores/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 less than you have.
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.



It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system,
and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
-------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Why_Me]

I have a setup of i 9900kf with xi code motherboard and rtx 2080, 32 gb ddr4 at 3800 mhz with lg 27 inch 1440p monitor (180 hz) , i am planning to upgrade my setup but i can only afford either a new cpu or new gpu, the cpu i have in my budget is i5 14600k with a decent motherboard or a 5060ti or a 9060xt 16 gb graphic card, which component should i upgrade first? i usually play casual games like delta force, battlefield or new released titles and do video editing

Look for a board that supports PCIe 5.0 for the gpu seeing how these new AMD and Nvidia cards support PCIe 5.0.

Example:
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-Z790-P-WIFI-DDR4

PCPartPicker Part List

Motherboard: *MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($159.99 @ B&H)
Total: $159.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-10 18:17 EDT-0400