[SOLVED] Should I upgrade my card or spend big on the CPU?

[Reverend2100]

I'm building a new PC for work and play: Photoshop (I work on huge files of 5gb and more), 4k gaming and VR (more VR than pancake now), but I'm totally out of touch regarding components...

My budget could stretch to either:
i7 9700F
RTX 2070

or
i9 9900K
...and keep my existing GTX 1070

As far as I can see, the RTX2070 isn't a massive upgrade on the GTX1070, so maybe I'm better off keeping my current card and spending as much as I can on the CPU?

Advice much appreciated!

 

[Shektron]

Unless you already have an Intel motherboard or you only want to go for Intel, I would strongly suggest getting the Ryzen 5 3600 with an RTX 2080 - it comes to about $800 total, while the 9700F and 2070 come to about $845. So you're saving money AND getting a better GPU. For 4K gaming, you don't need a processor with high single core performance, so Ryzen will perform just as well as any Intel chip, and it will be better in multi-threaded workloads(don't know if Photoshop comes under that or not). But for 4K gaming, neither the 1070 nor the 2070 is sufficiently powerful, while the RTX 2080 can handle it pretty well.

What do you have right now, and what is your total budget?

 

[Reverend2100]

Well my total budget is roughly £1300 / $1600. This for everything - case, mobo, RAM, CPU, PSU, etc ... and maybe GPU.

As I understand it, the Intel i9 series is the best processor for Photoshop, so I'm not convinced about moving to AMD.

 

[Shektron]

Does this budget include storage?

 

[Shektron]

Just slightly over budget with storage, if you're absolutely limited to $1600, there's room for downgrading a few things, so it's still possible. Pretty good build overall though, will slice through 4K gaming and Photoshop:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($474.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 120 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($69.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z390 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($139.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA Ultimate SU800 512 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($42.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB DUAL EVO Video Card ($602.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($77.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1636.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-03 06:59 EDT-0400

 

[Reverend2100]

Wow, what an amazing reply You've just done all the work for me! This build looks great - and yes I have so much storage already so I won;t need that - although I'm keen on these new PCIE SSD cards for the OS (any opinion on those).

Thanks very much for your help Shektron!

 

[Shektron]

Wow, what an amazing reply You've just done all the work for me! This build looks great - and yes I have so much storage already so I won;t need that - although I'm keen on these new PCIE SSD cards for the OS (any opinion on those).

Thanks very much for your help Shektron!

Glad you found the reply useful .

The PCI-E SSD's are indeed faster than SATA SSD's. but I'm honestly not so experienced in those since I don't have any hands-on experience with them, so I can't say if there is a real world difference or not - perhaps someone else can enlighten you upon the subject. But from what I've heard and seen, they are indeed faster, so if you're curious and have the budget for them, know that it wouldn't be a complete waste investing in them. I cannot comment any further, unfortunately.

 

[4745454b]

Biggest issue with them when they first came out is lack of boot support. They were fine as a data drive, but your system might not boot from PCIe. Probably been fixed by now but it wouldn't hurt to check your board support.

I went looking for reviews on Adobe PS and Ryzen 3 vs Intel. Didn't really see anything that shows Ryzen doing badly. Yes, Intel still has a slight edge in core speed, but considering you get more cores that usually offsets that. What reviews did you see showing Ryzen doing badly?

 

[OllympianGamer]

Just slightly over budget with storage, if you're absolutely limited to $1600, there's room for downgrading a few things, so it's still possible. Pretty good build overall though, will slice through 4K gaming and Photoshop:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($474.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 120 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($69.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z390 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($139.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA Ultimate SU800 512 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($42.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB DUAL EVO Video Card ($602.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($77.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1636.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-03 06:59 EDT-0400

Good build, would personally throw in faster ram.

 

[Shektron]

Good build, would personally throw in faster ram.

Intel doesn't depend too much on the faster RAM, plus 2666 MHz can usually be easily overclocked to 3000 MHz, beyond which gains are barely noticeable, even more so on Intel chips.