Time for an upgrade

[spearo24]

I'm looking to upgrade my system and I'm trying to make the best use of my roughly $500 budget. My current specs are:

CPU- i5-4670K
MOBO- Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
GPU- Asus R9-280X
8GB Ram

I've got a good PSU and a 120GB SSD as well. I want to upgrade my GPU, but I'm ashamed to say I'm still using the same Acer X223W monitor from probably 2 builds ago. I was thinking along the lines of a 1080 144hz monitor and a 480X card. Or should I go with a different card, a 1080 60Hz monitor and more RAM? The more I think about it the more options I come up with, and at this point I just want to make sure I'm making the right choices. I'm open to any and all suggestions.

 

[dontlistentome]

The way I do it is to ask myself why do I feel I need to upgrade. Why do you feel you need an upgrade? What is it about your current setup that you don't like? Or is just that you feel like spending some money?

 

[spearo24]

What is it about your current setup that you don't like? Or is just that you feel like spending some money?

I've had this setup for a couple years now and never really felt I was getting the "full experience" when gaming. Old monitor, never could really play games maxed out, etc. That's why I'd like to update my monitor and gpu I think. I'm having knee surgery in a couple weeks and will be home for 6-12 weeks. Figured I'd make the most of my time and get back into gaming to help keep myself occupied.