[SOLVED] What’s a good upgrade?

[ManThunder]

Hey everyone I’m running
I7-4770
EVGA 980 SC
32GB Corsair Vengeance
MSI Z87-G45 gaming motherboard

Problem is I haven’t able to play most games without experiencing low FPS, on low graphics it just gets 60fps if that on some games.
Question is what does everyone think is good upgrade to try get better performance in game?
I’m in Australia and budget is 1-2k
Cheers

 

[tennis2]

What's your upgrade budget?
What country are you shopping in?

 

[ManThunder]

What's your upgrade budget?
What country are you shopping in?

Australia
1-2k

 

[tennis2]

What case, PSU, storage (SSD / HDD), and monitor do you currently have?

 

[ManThunder]

What case, PSU, storage (SSD / HDD), and monitor do you currently have?

Just normal, 2TB hard drive, 120gb ssd for the OS, 850GS EVGA PSU, thermaltake score V71

 

[tennis2]

Ok, a GTX980 is about equal to an RX590 or GTX1660 (non-super) or RX5500XT (kinda). Not bad for 1080p gaming on high settings at >60fps easy. By lowering your detail settings, you're making it easier for the GPU, but your CPU is holding you back.
CPU tells the GPU what to draw.
GPU draws the picture and sends it to the monitor
If one doesn't finish its task before the other, the system has to wait. You can see this if you open MSI Afterburner [which you're likely using as an Nvidia user] and set it to display CPU and GPU usage % in-game. You'll probably see that your CPU is pegged at 100% and your GPU is...not.

Other helpful information. Intel has launched their 10th gen CPUs. They're good, but consume a lot of power. Most people are looking forward to AMDs Ryzen 4000 series launch (September or sooner). Of course, that doesn't mean you can't get a good system upgrade now.

AMD and Nvidia are launching new GPU in September - November also.

What I would do is to upgrade your CPU first (which will require a new mobo and RAM also). See how that works for you. If you're still not satisfied, you can go for a GPU upgrade also. All that will easily fit within your budget. Here's a taste:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($528.00 @ Shopping Express)
Motherboard: MSI B450M MORTAR MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($172.50 @ Device Deal)
Memory: G.Skill Flare X 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($209.00 @ Skycomp Technology)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($239.47 @ Amazon Australia)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card ($644.00 @ Amazon Australia)
Total: $1792.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-04 11:04 AEST+1000

The 5700XT (or similar RTX2070/2070 Super) represents approximately 75% more GPU performance than your GTX980. Those cards are more suitable for 1440p resolution gaming. If you get an RTX2070/2070 Super, enabling ray tracing (in games that support it) REALLY drops FPS, so you could enable some level of ray tracing to still have plenty playable FPS at 1080p resolution. Some would also argue that with next-gen consoles coming out this year, gaming graphics may see a rise in difficulty, so this class of GPU is bound to have plenty of left-over muscle to handle 1080p gaming for the foreseeable future.