What to do? Buy an I7 4970k or the GTX 970?

[LordVerdo]

Hey Tom's Hardware, so my Birthday is coming up and I've decided I'm gonna be a little dangerous and spend some moolah on a new PC upgrade. But the thing is, I'm at an impasse on deciding what to do. Money isn't an issue here, however, I'm trying to decide what will benefit me the most in the now, the I7 4790k or the GTX 970. Currently, my rig includes:

FX8350 @ 4.8GHZ with H100i
R9 280x Dual-X
16 GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM @2000MHZ
RM 850 PSU
And storage isn't important haha.

So the thing is, yes, I game but I also do some heavy video editing from time to time. My question to you guys would the I7 be worth the upgrade (yes I know I'm going to need a new motherboard but a Microcenter is nearby with some great combo deals) or would the GTX 970 be worth the upgrade. What concerns me most about the GTX 970 is the bottleneck of the FX8350 (since my CPU GHZ level is so high would the bottleneck even be that bad), but then, on the CPU side, with DirectX 12.1 coming soon, would an I7 even outperform the FX greatly?

Anyway, some help would be great! Thanks 😀!

 

[DasHotShot]

Firstly your CPU wouldn't "bottleneck" your GPU...curse the damned **** who spread this idiotic myth and infected large parts of our community.

Secondly, for Gaming you would notice the biggest difference on the GPU side, without a shadow of a doubt. It's only for "heavy" editing where the CPU and RAM are crucial.

The step up from a 280x to a 970 is good, however absolutely not day and night. You'd want to aim for a 980 when it becomes cheaper. Saying that..
This is a bad time to buy either really...as there are new GPU's days away (Green and then Red) that will affect the market one way or another.

Then in September the Skylake i7-6700 will be released...pitty the fool who will have recently bought a 4790k for the same/similar price probably.

 

[LordVerdo]

Right, I see. Hmmm, well I've always been interested in the idea of doing SLI with the GTX 970s. I'm not all about 1440p or 4k, I'm content with 1080p so the 3.5VRAM issue doesn't bother me. But, to me, since I am impatient when it comes to purchasing things of my liking haha, you'd recommend going with the GTX over the i7 since new i7 architecture is coming?

 

[G-STAR01]

I think it's more to do with the fact that you'd notice more of a difference with the GTX 970 as opposed to the i7.
As DasHotShot said, your current CPU isn't a bottleneck.
An alternate route would be to get another R9 280X for cf.

If you don't have an immediate need for it, it might be better saving up and getting something a lot better later.
The upcoming CPU/GPU's will affect the market ofc.

 

[LordVerdo]

Now, the reason why I am concerned with the whole bottleneck thing, which it seems to be the entire PC community is divided on this subject, I've scene I5's with the GTX 970 in Battlefield 4 compared with the FX8350 and the I5 absolutely destroys the FX when it comes to FPS.

 

[LordVerdo]

Screw it I'm just gonna go with the 970 😀! I was looking at more tests and, to be honest, the FX, in most games, is only a few FPS behind an i7 with a 970. Thanks guys!

 

[DasHotShot]

It's a fair point, however there will be game where your CPU matches it comfortably.

From where we are sitting, the greatest short/mid terms benefit will be seen with a GPU upgrade.

CPU's outlive GPUs interms of relevance these days, more than ever

 

[LordVerdo]

Thanks for the insight! For me, right now, the rendering speeds of the FX are good enough too. And, well, as you mentioned, with new processors coming soon, I can just wait it out. I think my R9 280X dual-x is on its last legs anyways.