Upgrading: GPU or RAM?

[Darkrose]

Looking to give my current system a bit of a boost. Not having any serious issues, just want a little improvement. Upgraded the CPU and GPU both a few months ago, but now I'm looking at the new GPUs out...

Current system
Gigabyte GA-990FX-UD3
AMD FX-8320 (@4.7Ghz)
8GB G. Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600
Radeon HD 7870 video
Corsair H100i AIO CPU cooler

Right now I'm looking at either one of the new Radeon R9 cards, probably a 280X or 290X (not an nVidia fan), or going to 16 GB memory, either by adding another 8 (4x4GB) or just totally swapping for a 2x8GB pair...

The memory would be the cheaper option, and thinking I could probably get a little better boost if I also upgraded to faster memory, either 1866 or 2133... (so it would have to be the 2x8GB stick route).

Is there any benefit to running a 4 stick setup instead of 2, since it's only dual channel?

Am I correct thinking memory would be a better bang for my buck at this point?

 

[Gam3r01]

Memory would not improve your performance.
The increased speeds dont mean much in terms of performance over 1600MHz, and 16GB is not really necessary at this point. The only time ram impacts performance is when you are maxing out. Then an upgrade may help.

A graphics card upgrade would be the best option for you.

 

[wss_003]

for gaming the gpu will be by far the better upgrade you wont see much over a few frames with faster ram and 8gb is more than enough, and with dual channel there's no need to run more than 2 sticks unless you want more memoriy and cant get a 2 stick kit

 

[TNT27]

A GPU upgrade would get you a much more noticable difference in performance. You wont notice hardly any difference upgrading memory unless you are the type to open many programs at once. Also dual channel is better to have than quad channel, as more memory channels is harder for the cpu to manage, and it also leaves the option of upgrading even more.

 

[wss_003]

quad channel is not an option unless you run ddr4 memory you can have 4 sticks installed but its still only dual channel

 

[Darkrose]

Well, looks like my thinking was wrong then. I knew that RAM wouldn't be a huge boost as I don't tend to max it out anyway, but it's also half the price.

Haven't built a system in a while so haven't been keeping up on GPUs, so might need to ask more questions in a new thread...

Thanks!

 

[Gam3r01]

R9 290, 290x, or a GTX card (970 or 980) would be good options.
I know you said no Nvidia, but sometimes its worth a shot.

 

[TNT27]

only Nivida card worth the money is the 970 really. Anything else a amd card will give better performance for the money.

 

[wss_003]

used 280x are cheap right now

 

[Icaraeus]

A 280X will give you barely any improvement over the HD 7870.

 

[wss_003]

the 290x are going for 240ish used also

 

[Darkrose]

Really wasn't looking to drop that much, so will probably either wait until newer faster cards come out, or until I have a game that really strains my system... At the moment I can run everything I own at High or Ultra with no issues, just always looking for a little more... If I can get a little more economically...

 

[TNT27]

Yeah, id wait for the 390x coming soon, from what ive read its got insane specs and HBM memory= Insane bandwidth/speed memory, much faster than gddr5, could allow easy 4k gaming.

 

[Darkrose]

Right on, thanks for the advice all!