What should I upgrade?

[elysiumestar]

My specs -
ASUS 60hz Monitor 1920x1080
ASUS B85M-G MoBo
i5-4590
GTX 970 4gb
630W BeQuiet BN182
8gb DDR3 ram
120gb SSD
1tb HDD

Looking to upgrade CPU or GPU, I'm only able to upgrade one at this time, any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[aquielisunari]

is what I have. I'm upgrading to the 1080. I am also upgrading to a 16GB kit. I have two modules. Adding two more may or may not work. The only sure way of ensuring compatibility is to buy RAM in kits. A 16GB kit is preferred over two separate 8GB kits or a single 8GB module which is worse because that negatively affects your RAM speed and a slight FPS reduction.

It's up to your budget. Anything from the 1070 on up will be a worthwhile upgrade as long as it isn't overpriced. Cryptocurrency is still inflating some pricing.

 

[envy14tpe]

Just upgrade the SSD. At that monitor...no reason to upgrade CPU or GPU.

 

[lperreault21]

is what I have. I'm upgrading to the 1080. I am also upgrading to a 16GB kit. I have two modules. Adding two more may or may not work. The only sure way of ensuring compatibility is to buy RAM in kits. A 16GB kit is preferred over two separate 8GB kits or a single 8GB module which is worse because that negatively affects your RAM speed and a slight FPS reduction.

It's up to your budget. Anything from the 1070 on up will be a worthwhile upgrade as long as it isn't overpriced. Cryptocurrency is still inflating some pricing.

A GTX 1060 6gb or a RX 580 would be much better

 

[aquielisunari]

@elysiumestar Is this upgrade for gaming?

Personally I am going to get the Vive. What should I upgrade? Upgrading my SSD will offer more storage. I don't understand that one either. The OP has a 1TB drive for storage and most games. A few games can go on that SSD. What kind of gaming performance increase would there be going from a 120GB SSD to a 500GB SSD?

 

[elysiumestar]

@elysiumestar Is this upgrade for gaming?

Personally I am going to get the Vive. What should I upgrade? Upgrading my SSD will offer more storage. I don't understand that one either. The OP has a 1TB drive for storage and most games. A few games can go on that SSD. What kind of gaming performance increase would there be going from a 120GB SSD to a 500GB SSD?

Yeah for gaming

Also, I've had my pc for around 4 years now and its getting noticeably slower with gaming, I did a fresh install of windows but it hasn't changed much

 

[aquielisunari]

The 1070 or better is still my recommendation.

It would be nice if you had a Z97 motherboard. Right now the speed is capped at 3.7GHZ. I can easily OC my 4690K up to 4.4GHz. Once I have my 1080 it'll be interesting to see what an OC will do for the FPS. The 970 is most certainly getting long in the tooth.

 

[aquielisunari]

The 1070 or better is still my recommendation.

It would be nice if you had a Z97 motherboard. Right now the speed is capped at 3.7GHZ. I can easily OC my 4690K up to 4.4GHz. Once I have my 1080 it'll be interesting to see what an OC will do for the FPS. The 970 is most certainly getting long in the tooth. To be clear that change is just a 1 number change. It's an ultra-simple OC. I haven't found its wall yet.

 

[elysiumestar]

The 1070 or better is still my recommendation.

It would be nice if you had a Z97 motherboard. Right now the speed is capped at 3.7GHZ. I can easily OC my 4690K up to 4.4GHz. Once I have my 1080 it'll be interesting to see what an OC will do for the FPS. The 970 is most certainly getting long in the tooth. To be clear that change is just a 1 number change. It's an ultra-simple OC. I haven't found its wall yet.

Yeah part of the reason I was going to upgrade my CPU first was for a new MoBo and DDR4 and to get a M.2

 

[aquielisunari]

The 1070 or better is still my recommendation.

It would be nice if you had a Z97 motherboard. Right now the speed is capped at 3.7GHZ. I can easily OC my 4690K up to 4.4GHz. Once I have my 1080 it'll be interesting to see what an OC will do for the FPS. The 970 is most certainly getting long in the tooth. To be clear that change is just a 1 number change. It's an ultra-simple OC. I haven't found its wall yet.

Yeah part of the reason I was going to upgrade my CPU first was for a new MoBo and DDR4 and to get a M.2

I thought about that months ago and decided against it. The 45/4690 are both still okay processors for today's games. The 4790 would be the only upgrade I would consider if I had money to burn. ~$150 for RAM, $100+ for the board and then $250+ for the CPU? The math and answers on here and other forums say that the GPU is where one should put their money. In another couple of years that would be a good move. It's what some 2500K owners are doing. Some are still using that historically awesome chip today, albeit heavily OCd. I don't have money to burn so that $500 goes to a 1080.

As a gamer the SSD is just fine. Okay, it is relatively small when one looks at the space some games need. My most recent purchase was the 52GB+ Sniper Elite 4. A 500GB would be more appropriate. If you were doing a lot of productivity work like PS, CAD or lots of editing and rendering the M.2 drive would be a good move. As a gamer the benefit of the SSD is primarily faster load times. It doesn't do a thing for FPS. I do have a few regular games on my SSD. I have a few dozen VR games on there for when I purchase the Vive. I might move them over to a HDD if there isn't a noticeable performance change. Hitching can be bothersome.