[SOLVED] Should I upgrade my CPU or GPU (I7-3770-GTX 970)

[HarryGRGamer]

Hey there!

I'll try to keep this question short, I'm planning to upgrade my PC however I'm conflicted into two paths, and I don't know which to choose I've got an old case with usb 2.0 ports which I kind off want to replace at some point

The game I'm looking forward to play is Cyberpunk 2077 and I want to have a smooth experience at 1080p 75hz with high settings, I finished RDR2 with my build but I had to search through websites and reddit forums so I could have a decent experience while also making the game look acceptable even though the game was optimized poorly but you get the point.

Also I want to get into VR at some point later in the future and try out Half Life Alyx and Boneworks.

My budget is around 400-420$

Option A: Buying 2 8GB RAM dimms (2133mhz), and a GTX 1660super (or ti) keeping my i7-3770 my case and my motherboard

Option B: Buying a new case, new motherboard (Asus Prime B450M-K) DDR4 ram, new CPU (Ryzen 5 3600) and staying with my GTX 970 without getting a GTX 1660s or ti

Thank you for your time.

PC Specs

I7-3770 non k
GTX 970
8GB DDR3
Corsair VS550
asus p8h61-m lx3 plus r2.0
2x HDD's (5400RPM)
and a SSD boot drive 250GB (Samsung Evo)

 

[Lutfij]

Upgrading our CPU would mean that you will need a new CPU, motherbaord and ram combo since the highest i7 you can drop in that board is an i7-3770K and overclocking that will result on just a lot of heat.

You will also need to upgrade the PSU, not just the CPU(motherboard and ram included) and the GPU. Just for the sake of relevance, how old is the PSU?

 

[logainofhades]

You are going to want an SSD, for your game library.

 

[HarryGRGamer]

Upgrading our CPU would mean that you will need a new CPU, motherbaord and ram combo since the highest i7 you can drop in that board is an i7-3770K and overclocking that will result on just a lot of heat.

You will also need to upgrade the PSU, not just the CPU(motherboard and ram included) and the GPU. Just for the sake of relevance, how old is the PSU?

I'm aware I mentioned that above that I'll need a new Motherboard and DDR4 ram sticks and new CPU

Also I know my VS550 isn't top tier quality (it's kind of bad) however I'm positive enough that even if I change my GPU i'll be able to power it nicely

 

[HarryGRGamer]

You are going to want an SSD, for your game library.

Funny enough, I might also need to get a 500GB SSD at some point there's a lot pilling on that I need to upgrade

 

[ScrewySqrl]

upgrade both CPU \and GPU here just a little above your $400 budget:


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($151.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($71.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: GeIL EVO SPEAR Phantom Gaming 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 580 8 GB Phantom Gaming D Video Card ($183.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $462.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-02 14:51 EDT-0400

this should run CP2077 at high/ultra settings at 1080p. It won't do the Ray tracing, but everything else shoudl be good.

 

[Joseph_138]

I'm aware I mentioned that above that I'll need a new Motherboard and DDR4 ram sticks and new CPU

Also I know my VS550 isn't top tier quality (it's kind of bad) however I'm positive enough that even if I change my GPU i'll be able to power it nicely

You'll need at least a 6th gen Intel based motherboard as that is the first generation to support DDR4 memory. Unless you can get it super cheap, though, you're better off building something with a Core i3-10100 or Ryzen 3 3300X that you can upgrade to a faster processor later, because it's going to cost you about the same. 6th/7th gen Core i7's aren't cheap. They will cost you from $200-$250 most of the time on ebay and they are the only ones comparable in performance to the new chips I mentioned above. Old i5's and i3's aren't even close and you'll be stuck on a dead architecture with no upgrade path later.