Question Upgrade my CPU or GPU?

[yar2000]

Hey everyone!

I was wondering what I should upgrade first; CPU or GPU.
My current setup is:
-i5 7500
-6GB GTX1060, MSI Gaming X edition
-16GB of RAM

I did some research into the upgrades and I don't want to upgrade a little bit, for instance from my 1060 to a 1070 or from my i5 7500 to a Ryzen 3600.
With that in mind, the upgrades I would probably choose are a Ryzen 3700X as a CPU, this does mean I need a new motherboard which I kept in mind, and for GPU I would probably get the new RX 5700 XT. With this GPU I'd need a new PSU for sure, and with the CPU I wouldn't.
I feel like getting either of these without the other isn't the best but I was wondering what I should choose if I end up upgrading. Like I said, I don't want to compromise because if I spend a lot of money I might as well get something that's a significant upgrade and get the other thing in the future.

The weird thing is, all the benchmarks show the CPU doesn't improve frames that much, however when my friend upgraded his i5 6400 to an i7 9700K his frames doubled with the same GPU as mine on games like CS:GO, the new Battlefront 2, and some other games we tried. This really made me struggle to make a choice as to what I'll buy.

I'll be using a 240Hz monitor at 1080p so there probably won't be any useless over-performance in most AAA games since you do actually notice the difference in frames. I do not use my PC for video or photo editing at all, its pretty much only games and browsing. I am not in a hurry since I will go on a trip for 4 weeks in a few days' time, so I can wait until the "aftermarket" GPU variants release with their custom cooling, and the price of the 3700X finally drops to the US MSRP in Europe, so that will not be a problem.

Thanks in advance to anyone who gives me some useful input!

 

[boju]

Cs go is a two thread game so the extra cores the 9700k has won't make a difference in this game vs your cpu but improvements the i7 has is better IPC, doing more per clock cycle hence the fps increase. Zen2's IPC is on par with Intel's 9700k/9900k so you won't be disappointed going Ryzen.

If want to do it right get 3700x or 3800x and a 5xx board for better power delivery for these cpus. Wait a couple of months before buying a 5xx series board to allow any bugs to be ironed out.

Get 32GB ram between 3200~3600. Capacity for less IO activity vs 16GB from ssd = less stutters, and speed = again less stutters allowing the cpu process more and not having to wait as much on slower ram.

The cpu needs to prepare frames for the gpu and in cpu intensive AAA games, high frame rates can elevate cpu usages to high levels potentially causing stutters being overworked - cpu can't do much more so performance can degrade.

See to understand cpu frame pre-rendering

 

[yar2000]

Cs go is a two thread game so the extra cores the 9700k has won't make a difference in this game vs your cpu but improvements the i7 has is better IPC, doing more per clock cycle hence the fps increase. Zen2's IPC is on par with Intel's 9700k/9900k so you won't be disappointed going Ryzen.

If want to do it right get 3700x or 3800x and a 5xx board for better power delivery for these cpus. Wait a couple of months before buying a 5xx series board to allow any bugs to be ironed out.

Get 32GB ram between 3200~3600. Capacity for less IO activity vs 16GB from ssd = less stutters, and speed = again less stutters allowing the cpu process more and not having to wait as much on slower ram.

The cpu needs to prepare frames for the gpu and in cpu intensive AAA games, high frame rates can elevate cpu usages to high levels potentially causing stutters being overworked - cpu can't do much more so performance can degrade.

See to understand cpu frame pre-rendering

Alright, I'll have a look at this when I can! Thanks!!