Upgrade Decisions. CPU GPU Both?

[ohyouknow]

Long time lurker but I've come to a time when I want to improve my now oldish computer. I have

FX 8120
GTX 670 TOP edition
Various SSD's, etc.

I picked up a new monitor that is 1440p and am wondering if I would be better off upgrading my GPU for this or getting a new cpu as I do like to edit etc. I know that I would need upgrade both gpu and my cpu eventually but this is more of an incremental upgrade that I plan to do over time. I know that a GPU provides extensive performance upgrade from a purely gaming standpoint but am somewhat eager to see what AMD brings to the table when they release their VEGA line.

Any thoughts and perspectives would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[chemmajorp53]

I'd upgrade both soon if you're not getting the performance you want, there's a lot of quality hardware coming out and currently out. Vega is probably a ways out, AMD is releasing the RX 570 and RX 580 (refreshes of the 470 and 480) in a few weeks so I'd imagine they won't be doing 2 releases in close proximity. As for the CPU, the 1500X and 1600X from the Ryzen 5 lineup come out tomorrow and look like pretty good values to be honest, I'd get one of those and a B350 motherboard with some fast RAM if you can. As far as the graphics card goes, you'd probably want something like a GTX 1070 that will allow you to game for a while at 1440p without upgrading.

 

[Ecky]

Your CPU caps your framerate. If lowering your graphical settings doesn't improve FPS and it's lower than you want it, it's time for a new CPU.

Your GPU is what allows you to crank up the graphical settings. If you're dissatisfied about having to turn the settings down to get the fluidity you want, you're more in want of a new GPU.

 

[ohyouknow]

I'd upgrade both soon if you're not getting the performance you want, there's a lot of quality hardware coming out and currently out. Vega is probably a ways out, AMD is releasing the RX 570 and RX 580 (refreshes of the 470 and 480) in a few weeks so I'd imagine they won't be doing 2 releases in close proximity. As for the CPU, the 1500X and 1600X from the Ryzen 5 lineup come out tomorrow and look like pretty good values to be honest, I'd get one of those and a B350 motherboard with some fast RAM if you can. As far as the graphics card goes, you'd probably want something like a GTX 1070 that will allow you to game for a while at 1440p without upgrading.

Ah true. Thanks for the input. Unfortunately I know that I probably can't use the B350 platform as I need quite a few sata ports for my drives. I didn't know that they come out tomorrow, should be interesting.

 

[ohyouknow]

Your CPU caps your framerate. If lowering your graphical settings doesn't improve FPS and it's lower than you want it, it's time for a new CPU.

Your GPU is what allows you to crank up the graphical settings. If you're dissatisfied about having to turn the settings down to get the fluidity you want, you're more in want of a new GPU.

Aye, My monitor is capped at 60 hz so sadly I won't be able to take full advantage of massive frame increases.

 

[chemmajorp53]

6C/12T and a 4GHz turbo clock (probably only for one core but it should be easy to OC it to 4GHz on all 6) for $249 sounds pretty good to me. Also, even if you're capped at 60Hz an FX 8120 is going to struggle to even get 60 in a lot of newer games.

 

[ohyouknow]

1700x with $100 off mobo at Microcenter... too good to pass up lol