Upgrade CPU or GPU ?

[_HyperX_]

Current PC specs if needed:
AMD Atlhon II X4 860K @3.7GHz
ASUS STRIX GTX 960 2GB
8GB DDR3 Memory (RAM)
1TB Hard Drive
600W EVGA PSU

I was considering buying a GIGABYTE GTX 1060 6GB but realised it would be badly bottlenecked by a Athlon 860k , however i was going to upgrade My CPU and mobo to a Intel Core i3 6100 and a GIGABYTE Ga-H110M-S2H DDR3 and was wondering if i should get the GTX 1060 then buy the CPU later on or would it be more beneficial if i got the CPU and Mobo first?

Thanks a lot

 

[McKennan McCall]

Upgrade your MOBO and CPU first. You should probably buy an i-7 if you're gonna buy a graphics card that high end. If you're gonna use this tech to play games, most games are more processing heavy than graphics heavy as of late.

 

[_HyperX_]

Upgrade your MOBO and CPU first. You should probably buy an i-7 if you're gonna buy a graphics card that high end. If you're gonna use this tech to play games, most games are more processing heavy than graphics heavy as of late.

I feel like a i7 Is pretty overkill for a 1060 i seen a benchmark video of GTA V the 1060 with a Athlon runs at around 48FPS where as with the i3 6100 it runs at over 80 FPS , I7's are generally put in systems with GTX 1080's etc , Also i do have a budget

 

[kraelic]

Consider a G4560 (half price I3-6100 essentially), B250 motherboard, and 8GB 2400 DDR4 and the 1060GTX 6GB. All for about $400. Then you have an upgrade path later on for the 6 core coffeelake CPU

http://www.techspot.com/review/1325-intel-pentium-g4560/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUapuF0y30s

The G4560 does not have enough oomph to fully drive the 1060, but does very well especially considering the price for tight budgets. You would need a I5 or better to drive a 1080 GTX

 

[_HyperX_]

Consider a G4560 (half price I3-6100 essentially), B250 motherboard, and 8GB 2400 DDR4 and the 1060GTX 6GB. All for about $400. Then you have an upgrade path later on for the 6 core coffeelake CPU

http://www.techspot.com/review/1325-intel-pentium-g4560/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUapuF0y30s

The G4560 does not have enough oomph to fully drive the 1060, but does very well especially considering the price for tight budgets. You would need a I5 or better to drive a 1080 GTX

Is it worth me paying the extra money just to get new RAM when i could reuse my old RAM and save money?

 

[kraelic]

GIGABYTE Ga-H110M-S2H DDR3 is interesting, what voltage is your current ddr3? You need 1.35V DDR3L or 1.5V DDR3. The latest BIOS F20A would also support the G4560, but you need the BIOS updated before using the kabylake G4560. A PC shop should be able to do this for a small fee with a skylake cpu.

Early DDR3 with 1.7+ volt was putting strain on the integrated memory controller in sandy bridge causing some failures, Skylake and Kabylake are designed for 1.2V ddr4 so 1.35 is a slight overvoltage and 1.5 is probably close for the IMC as 1.5 ddr3 was recommended not to go past 1.65 for 2nd gen.

 

[_HyperX_]

GIGABYTE Ga-H110M-S2H DDR3 is interesting, what voltage is your current ddr3? You need 1.35V DDR3L or 1.5V DDR3. The latest BIOS F20A would also support the G4560, but you need the BIOS updated before using the kabylake G4560. A PC shop should be able to do this for a small fee with a skylake cpu

Is it not possible to update the BIOS my self by using a flashdrive?

 

[JamesSneed]

One more week and we should have AMD Ryzen out in the wild. Should be a good time to do a mobo / cpu refresh.

 

[kraelic]

Kabylake will not post without the update it seems. Hence the needing the update first before installing the CPU. And very few boards can bios flash without a CPU

 

[kraelic]

One more week and we should have AMD Ryzen out in the wild. Should be a good time to do a mobo / cpu refresh.

and Zen also requires DDR4

 

[_HyperX_]

Kabylake will not post without the update it seems. Hence the needing the update first before installing the CPU. And very few boards can bios flash without a CPU

i dont know too much about PC's i just remember i was able to update my BIOS using a flash drive when i went from a AMD A6 6400k to a Athlon 860k


Intel seems a lot more complicated over AMD

 

[kraelic]

Did you update the bios with the a6 before installing the 860k? kind of the same thing if so, need a skylake to update for kabylake support and it isn't worth buying a chip even celeron skylake to flash a bios that a shop should do for much less than a $40 cpu.

 

[_HyperX_]

Did you update the bios with the a6 before installing the 860k?

No i believe i installed the 860k and it wouldnt load into windows then realised i needed a BIOS update so i installed one onto a flashdrive using my laptop and entered the BIOS on my PC then it let me choose the new BIOS