[SOLVED] Upgrade Help

[Xavier Hoyle]

tl;dr Got i5 4690k and rx 580 need to know which to upgrade , i think CPU but not sure if that's best for greater performance.
So basically here are my specs:

CPU: i5 4690k
GPU: Sapphire RX 580 8GB
16GB ddr3 1866 MHz RAM
500gb ssd and some HDDs

I used a bottleneck calculator to see what to upgrade but as I suspected my CPU and GPU are a pretty good match. I figured I should upgrade my CPU tho because it's old and more cores/threads would be a nice thing to have with games these days utilising them. Basically I'm just wondering what would get me the most for my money, a new CPU or a new GPU as i'm pretty stuck. If I upgrade my CPU I am probably going to wait and buy a ryzen 4000 series CPU. If i end up upgrading the GPU then i'm not so sure, there are a lot of developments in that area recently.

Also wasn't really sure which forum to post this in so i've posted it in 2 that I think it would fit in, I hope this is okay

 

[Tioym]

tl;dr Got i5 4690k and rx 580 need to know which to upgrade , i think CPU but not sure if that's best for greater performance.
So basically here are my specs:

CPU: i5 4690k
GPU: Sapphire RX 580 8GB
16GB ddr3 1866 MHz RAM
500gb ssd and some HDDs

I used a bottleneck calculator to see what to upgrade but as I suspected my CPU and GPU are a pretty good match. I figured I should upgrade my CPU tho because it's old and more cores/threads would be a nice thing to have with games these days utilising them. Basically I'm just wondering what would get me the most for my money, a new CPU or a new GPU as i'm pretty stuck. If I upgrade my CPU I am probably going to wait and buy a ryzen 4000 series CPU. If i end up upgrading the GPU then i'm not so sure, there are a lot of developments in that area recently.

Also wasn't really sure which forum to post this in so i've posted it in 2 that I think it would fit in, I hope this is okay

You can upgrade either, RX 580 does play all the current game on 1080p just fine I'm guessing you're not using a high refresh rate monitor and it's 1080p.
If you upgrade CPU, to a 6c/12t like a R5 3600 or 3600X you should be set for even an RTX 3080 as your next GPU upgrade although ofc that GPU is not recommended for 1080p gaming. Point is, you wont bottleneck anything other than maybe the RTX 3090 or if you use CPU intensive programs(Not games for the most part). Alternatively if you switch to 1440p then yes your CPU will handle even an RTX 3070 for gaming atleast but 1080p gaming will require you to upgrade CPU especially if you want to play with unlocked FPS.

If you upgrade your GPU right now you will see performance uplift across the board BUT your CPU will probably bottleneck anything above a 2060 Super I'd reckon. The jump from RX 580 to that isn't big enough to justify it Plus RTX 30-series is basically here. If you're using a 1080p 60Hz monitor then you CAN upgrade your GPU and then just cap your game FPS to 60 and your CPU bottleneck should disappear. If you have a high refresh rate monitor and want to push huge quantities of frames, your current CPU is your bottleneck and will need to be changed first.

Personally I wouldn't buy anything until Ryzen 4000 and RDNA2/Ampere completely launches to public.

 

[Xavier Hoyle]

You can upgrade either, RX 580 does play all the current game on 1080p just fine I'm guessing you're not using a high refresh rate monitor and it's 1080p.
If you upgrade CPU, to a 6c/12t like a R5 3600 or 3600X you should be set for even an RTX 3080 as your next GPU upgrade although ofc that GPU is not recommended for 1080p gaming. Point is, you wont bottleneck anything other than maybe the RTX 3090 or if you use CPU intensive programs(Not games for the most part). Alternatively if you switch to 1440p then yes your CPU will handle even an RTX 3070 for gaming atleast but 1080p gaming will require you to upgrade CPU especially if you want to play with unlocked FPS.

If you upgrade your GPU right now you will see performance uplift across the board BUT your CPU will probably bottleneck anything above a 2060 Super I'd reckon. The jump from RX 580 to that isn't big enough to justify it Plus RTX 30-series is basically here. If you're using a 1080p 60Hz monitor then you CAN upgrade your GPU and then just cap your game FPS to 60 and your CPU bottleneck should disappear. If you have a high refresh rate monitor and want to push huge quantities of frames, your current CPU is your bottleneck and will need to be changed first.

Personally I wouldn't buy anything until Ryzen 4000 and RDNA2/Ampere completely launches to public.

I'm with you 100%, I was going to wait for Ryzen 4000 and RDNA2 to launch before I buy anything anyway. I game at 1080p and am looking to also buy a 144Hz monitor (1080p still) so frames is what i'm looking for. I also stream and was wondering what would be best to upgrade to increase my performance while streaming as it is a noticeable drop, it doesn't matter if I encode with my CPU or my GPU however I think my system does better in general when I stream with my CPU if that helps. Also when I do upgrades I like them to be pretty future proof which is another reason I was edging towards waiting for Ryzen 4000 and getting one of those CPUs.

 

[Tioym]

I'm with you 100%, I was going to wait for Ryzen 4000 and RDNA2 to launch before I buy anything anyway. I game at 1080p and am looking to also buy a 144Hz monitor (1080p still) so frames is what i'm looking for. I also stream and was wondering what would be best to upgrade to increase my performance while streaming as it is a noticeable drop, it doesn't matter if I encode with my CPU or my GPU however I think my system does better in general when I stream with my CPU if that helps. Also when I do upgrades I like them to be pretty future proof which is another reason I was edging towards waiting for Ryzen 4000 and getting one of those CPUs.

Currently, you have an AMD GPU which are known for having a bad stream encoder. Nvidia is way ahead of the competition with their encoder. If you streaming is important to you then I recommend a 6c/12t AMD 4000 CPU with an RTX-30 Series card, maybe a 3060 since you're planning 1080p gaming although definitely have to wait for further results and reveal. Unless AMD comes out with a new encoder for their Big navi line-up you're better off going Nvidia.
If you insist on streaming with your CPU instead of your GPU then you can buy any GPU that gives you the frames you need and try for an 8c/16t AMD 4000 CPU. Again, unless you stream atleast weekly, this isn't gonna be worth the spend since the that much CPU power really isn't needed for gaming, so when you're not streaming it's just 10% CPU usage with 100% GPU usage. I do prefer a GPU bottleneck that way GPU can push as much frames as it wants but this is a bit too much for me atleast. You cant go wrong but I'm sure you could spend money in a better way, the worst thing you want to do is over-spend on a CPU and then end up having to change GPU an year down the line cause new games came out and you bought a budget GPU which cant hold 144 fps. If you have money, do whatever you want to do honestly.
Future proofing doesn't exist honestly but I'm sure if you pick your parts among the Mid-tier GPU/CPU that are going to be released soon then I doubt you'll need to change anything for another 3-4 years but I wouldn't expect more than that.

 

[Xavier Hoyle]

Currently, you have an AMD GPU which are known for having a bad stream encoder. Nvidia is way ahead of the competition with their encoder. If you streaming is important to you then I recommend a 6c/12t AMD 4000 CPU with an RTX-30 Series card, maybe a 3060 since you're planning 1080p gaming although definitely have to wait for further results and reveal. Unless AMD comes out with a new encoder for their Big navi line-up you're better off going Nvidia.
If you insist on streaming with your CPU instead of your GPU then you can buy any GPU that gives you the frames you need and try for an 8c/16t AMD 4000 CPU. Again, unless you stream atleast weekly, this isn't gonna be worth the spend since the that much CPU power really isn't needed for gaming, so when you're not streaming it's just 10% CPU usage with 100% GPU usage. I do prefer a GPU bottleneck that way GPU can push as much frames as it wants but this is a bit too much for me atleast. You cant go wrong but I'm sure you could spend money in a better way, the worst thing you want to do is over-spend on a CPU and then end up having to change GPU an year down the line cause new games came out and you bought a budget GPU which cant hold 144 fps. If you have money, do whatever you want to do honestly.
Future proofing doesn't exist honestly but I'm sure if you pick your parts among the Mid-tier GPU/CPU that are going to be released soon then I doubt you'll need to change anything for another 3-4 years but I wouldn't expect more than that.

Firstly, thank you for all your help, as I say i'm usually the person people go to to ask these kinds of questions but I was really stumped as it's been a while since I've upgraded. I'm pretty sure i'm going to be getting one of the ryzen 4000 series CPUs to begin with which should be capable of streaming and then when I have the funds to buy a new graphics card I will see what is best for my budget at the time.