Question What to upgrade? My Cpu? Gpu? or Ram?

[Not Winn]

My Specs:
i7 7700
GTX 1060 3gb
16gb ram at 2400
550W powersupply
around 55-65 Celsius underload

My problem:
I play fortnite competitively at 1080P 144Hz. locked frames at 160. However i keep getting frame drops, its never consistently 160. also sometimes huge frame drops down to like 40-60 late game. At first i thought it was the cooling of my pc so i upgraded from stock cooler to heat sink and now get 55-65 max temp under load. So thats def not the problem. So my question is, are these frame drops because of my i7 7700 (non K) or gtx 1060 3gb. I play on all low and near settings

 

[Phaaze88]

1 or 2 sticks of ram?
Motherboard and gpu drivers updated?

Running anything in the background while playing? Browser left open as well?

 

[Hellfire13]

1060 3gb is not your 144hz card, no matter how low your settings are. You need a better card like a 1070 or 1660ti for 144hz consistent.

 

[Not Winn]

1 or 2 sticks of ram?
Motherboard and gpu drivers updated?

Running anything in the background while playing? Browser left open as well?

1 Stick of ram. nothing in the background. when im playing and open asus program. tells me cpu is working around 70+% mean while gpu around 50%. leads me to believe cpu is being limiting factor?

 

[Phaaze88]

Cpu and ram, actually.
1 stick of ram is not ideal for gaming setups. This is especially so in games that more cpu heavy, like Fortnite, or other mass multiplayer games.
During the times you experienced the drops to 40-60fps is where having dual channel ram would've helped.
The cpu and ram affect your lows and overall average fps.

Just using this as a reference: https://www.gpucheck.com/en-usd/gpu/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-3gb/intel-core-i7-7700-3-60ghz/low (scroll down to Fortnite)
But your setup is capable of 120fps on that game on low. *Results will vary some depending on setup, programs and software installed, etc.

 

[logainofhades]

Definitely a new GPU, and a matching stick of ram, for dual channel.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Duplicate thread: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/i9-9900k-with-1060-3gb-or-rtx-2060-super-oc-with-i7-7700.3522857