[SOLVED] Upgrading old hardware: CPU, or GPU?

[aigram]

Hello,
I currently have an i5-3570K running with a EVGA GTX 970 FTW+, and am looking to upgrade my CPU to either a i7 3770K, or upgrade my GPU to a EVGA GTX 980 Ti.
Which upgrade gets me the most bang for my buck? I game at 2K on some blockbusters like Battlefield 1, Star Wars Battlefront, Tomb Raider, etc.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Bad thing is 980ti is only what 4gb? I think bf1 for example is more cpu heavy. Don't know about battlefront or tr, but assuming battlefront probably is since I think they used the same ppl as bf1.

A 980ti is only about as good I think as a gtx 1060 6gb. You are talking old hardware. I think if you aren't moving to a new board/cpu/ram for a while, go with the i7. Newer GPUs are still being released, so maybe get the i7 and save up and see if a GPU come out you want. If nothing else, you could also get something like a an RX 570 or RX 580.

I don't know though that either a 970 or 980 is going to do great at 1440p. So I hesitate to say either one. Probably the lowest you should look at for 1440p is a gtx 1070 or Vega 56.

What kind of budget do you have?

 

[aigram]

I don't think that a 980ti is as good as a 1060; It's significantly better, according to PassMark. In fact a 1060 doesn't rank much higher than my current 970. The heart of my question is whether or not a hyper-threaded CPU will make a noticeable difference in game performance, or if more VRAM and faster I/O in a GPU will make the most difference. A 980ti comes with 6gb of VRAM.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Ah. I'm more used to the newer cards. But if that is the case, then I would say in that case, get the 980ti. However, I would still look toward saving towards a newer cpu/ram/motherboard. Games I think are starting to finally take advantage of more cores/hyper threading.

I suppose you could get the 980ti, then sell your 970, then use the proceeds to get the i7 you looked at. That should be enough to tide you over a year or 2 and give you time to save up for a full upgrade later, but still max out your budget today.