What should I upgrade first, my gpu, or my cpu?

[LoneWolfFTE]

So I have a Intel Pentium G3258 and a PNY GT610. I plan on getting either a i7 4770k or a 4790k and a GTX 970. Which cpu has the best price to performance, and should I upgrade the cpu first, or the gpu.

My Specs:

Intel Pentium G3258
Asrock Z97 Extreme 4
PNY GT610
Corsair CX500

 

[popatim]

The cpu price wont change alot but the gpu has potential to come down quite a bit if you wait for Nvidia's upcoming Pascal release.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

both eventually, but gpu first

 

[tsnor]

The Pentium G3258 is strong enough for most games. The GT610 is hopeless, it is not a gaming card.

Your first move should be video. Use this table of video performance (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html) then consider how much you really want to spend. A $150 video card will be a huge improvement, like this one: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asus-geforce-gtx-950-strix,4270.html But if you want to spend the money for the gtx 970 go for it. It'll be great. Note if you budget is only $100 you can still get a video card that will be hugely better than the gt 610 you have.

Second move should be to OC the pentium G3258 up to 4 ghz or so. Your MB supports this and almost all the G3258 chips will hit 4ghz at low, relatively safe voltage like 1.2 volts.

If you want still more gaming performance than the G3258 offers, I think the i5-4690 is the best price/performer that fits your board. The additional strength of the i7 CPUs typically does not help gaming.

 

[tsnor]

gt 610 review "At the bottom of the 600 series retail stack is the GeForce GT 610, which is a rebadge of the GT 520. This means it’s either a GF119 GPU or cut-down GF108 GPU featuring a meager 48 CUDA Cores and a 64bit memory bus, albeit with a low 29W TDP as a result. This is truly a rock bottom card meant to be a cheap as possible upgrade for older computers, as even an Ivy Bridge HD4000 iGPU should be able to handily surpass it." http://www.anandtech.com/show/5845/nvidia-launches-fermi-based-geforce-gt-610-gt-620-gt-630-into-retail

Good news is once you update your video card you will have shocking better gaming performance.