What upgrade first CPU or GPU?

[kerberos_42]

Hi guys.
Well, I'll upgrade both eventually but I see no reason to wait once I can already buy one of them.

I have a i5-2400 3.1GHz and I can acquire a i5-8400 2.8GHz
My GPU is a GeForce GT 730 and I can buy a GeForce GTX 1050

So what do I do?

Also I have 4Gb RAM and I'll upgrade to 8Gb but I assume the other two upgrades should come first.

My ultimate plan is to run Resident Evil 2.

 

[WildCard999]

With the 8400 you'd need a new motherboard (different socket) & DDR4 memory. As for the 1050 it comes down to how much your paying for it as for around the same cost you could probably get the RX 570 4gb which is a much better GPU.

 

[kerberos_42]

Around here I can find a RX 550 for around the same price but a RX 570 is 35% more expensive. In this scenario I would keep the GTX 1050 tho.

I forgot about the motherboard... so I'll have to add a 3rd part on this that is mb + ram.

 

[Merpell]

Assuming you can afford the cpu + mobo + ram, you should get those first and save up for a better gpu (1060 or better) as a 1050 would most likely not give you very good results in RE2 anyway.

 

[kerberos_42]

yeah I can buy them but maybe not all at once XD
Ok, I think I'll save a bit more for mb and ram and acquire with the CPU then later save for a better GPU.

I thought I could upgrade something now and already feel some improvement on games but you guys are right I'll have to save a bit more for mb.

 

[WildCard999]

Since your looking at the 8400 I would consider the 9400F as it's cheaper. Just make sure whatever motherboard you snag has a updated BIOS to support the 9th gen.

What is your absolute maximum you could spend right now on upgrades.?

 

[ElectrO_90]

You can go down the AMD router which is generally cheaper and faster and more futureproof than the Intel chipsets.

 

[bennybart03]

Go on ebay and do some looking around. Nothing wrong with buying used hardware. Just make sure it's in good condition. And AMD is way cheaper and just as good as Intel

 

[WildCard999]

Go on ebay and do some looking around. Nothing wrong with buying used hardware. Just make sure it's in good condition. And AMD is way cheaper and just as good as Intel

Agreed, you may be able to find a used Ryzen 1600/B350 MB for cheap.

 

[kerberos_42]

Since your looking at the 8400 I would consider the 9400F as it's cheaper. Just make sure whatever motherboard you snag has a updated BIOS to support the 9th gen.

What is your absolute maximum you could spend right now on upgrades.?

Well that's hard to say cos I'm not in US so I'll buy with my country currency.
Doing the conversion I can say that a 8400 is U$215 here and the GTX 1050 for U$200. A good 8Gb ram here is U$ 75.
I assume that I'll pay here more than you guys do on US. But I can try say that I can spend 200~300 on each CPU and GPU and more 200 for mb.

Hey I'd like to thank you guys for all the replies. Any suggestion or advice is super welcome.

 

[kerberos_42]

You can go down the AMD router which is generally cheaper and faster and more futureproof than the Intel chipsets.

I had a bad experience 3y ago with ADM, super heat.
That doesn't mean that will happen again right? I'll take a look on ADM here too, thanks

 

[ElectrO_90]

Well that's hard to say cos I'm not in US so I'll buy with my country currency.
Doing the conversion I can say that a 8400 is U$215 here and the GTX 1050 for U$200. A good 8Gb ram here is U$ 75.
I assume that I'll pay here more than you guys do on US. But I can try say that I can spend 200~300 on each CPU and GPU and more 200 for mb.

Hey I'd like to thank you guys for all the replies. Any suggestion or advice is super welcome.

Never do a conversion from your currency to US, everything in the US is cheaper.
You need to state your country and your cash - not another countries currency.

 

[WildCard999]

Well that's hard to say cos I'm not in US so I'll buy with my country currency.
Doing the conversion I can say that a 8400 is U$215 here and the GTX 1050 for U$200. A good 8Gb ram here is U$ 75.
I assume that I'll pay here more than you guys do on US. But I can try say that I can spend 200~300 on each CPU and GPU and more 200 for mb.

Hey I'd like to thank you guys for all the replies. Any suggestion or advice is super welcome.

If you could give us a budget & website or PCPer country we may be able to find a way to do both platform upgrade & GPU.

 

[kerberos_42]

If you could give us a budget & website or PCPer country we may be able to find a way to do both platform upgrade & GPU.

Well lets see if I can help myself on this.

I'm brazilian so I'll buy things here in brazilian Real. I think I'm willing to spend up to or around R$ 800 on each CPU and GPU plus another R$ 800 on motherboard+RAM. So my total budget available is R$ 2400. Of course I'd be happy if I could spend less than that

I'll link a website where I could buy those things. There are others but I think this one is the one that requires less portuguese knowledge to navigate. Prices don't change much. I could link a website for used hardware but I think that would prove difficult to navigate for you guys.

For GPU: https://www.pichau.com.br/hardware/placa-de-video?product_list_limit=48

For CPU: https://www.pichau.com.br/hardware/processadores?product_list_limit=48

For Motherboard: https://www.pichau.com.br/hardware/placa-m-e?product_list_limit=48

For RAM: https://www.pichau.com.br/hardware/memorias?product_list_limit=48

Btw, I don't need anything fancy. I aim more to somehting that have longevity and can support a good portion of the games of near future.

 

[cryoburner]

If you were to upgrade one component first, a graphics card would make the most difference to gaming performance. The GT 730 is quite low-end compared to current hardware, and only performs around the level of Intel's current integrated graphics. A GTX 1050 would offer several times the performance, and a Radeon RX 570 would be notably faster still (about on par with a 1060 3GB).

Your CPU is also kind of low-end by current standards, but is arguably capable of running most modern games, and isn't too far behind current entry level quad-cores like a Ryzen 2200G at stock clocks. 4GB of RAM would be a limitation though, as a lot of games want at least 8GB at this point.

I had a bad experience 3y ago with ADM, super heat.
That doesn't mean that will happen again right? I'll take a look on ADM here too, thanks

For some years there, AMD's CPUs were kind of inefficient and required more power to achieve a given level of performance, resulting in them being harder to cool. This isn't the case for AMD's newer Ryzen processors though, which are on par with Intel's in terms of efficiency.

As for their graphics cards, they are are currently somewhat less efficient than Nvidia's though, which might be worth keeping in mind in a warm climate. Even so, a card like an RX 570 shouldn't be too bad in terms of power draw. It does draw around twice as much power under load as a GTX 1050, but it also provides around 75% more performance when not limited by CPU performance. Compared to the similar-performing 1060 3GB, it only draws around a third more power, which arguably isn't too bad.

AMD will have new cards coming out some months from now that will be built on a new manufacturing process that should be more efficient though. Nividia is currently in the process of releasing a new generation of cards themselves, and there will soon be a GTX 1650 out, which should be the successor to the 1050/1050 Ti, though I don't know how pricing will compare in your region.

 

[ElectrO_90]

You may want to use www.newegg.com and put that you are in Brazil, then you can find the best prices.

 

[kerberos_42]

If you were to upgrade one component first, a graphics card would make the most difference to gaming performance. The GT 730 is quite low-end compared to current hardware, and only performs around the level of Intel's current integrated graphics. A GTX 1050 would offer several times the performance, and a Radeon RX 570 would be notably faster still (about on par with a 1060 3GB).

Your CPU is also kind of low-end by current standards, but is arguably capable of running most modern games, and isn't too far behind current entry level quad-cores like a Ryzen 2200G at stock clocks. 4GB of RAM would be a limitation though, as a lot of games want at least 8GB at this point.

Ok based on that you think I should upgrade graphics card first plus a boost to 8Gb RAM, right?

It does draw around twice as much power under load as a GTX 1050, but it also provides around 75% more performance

That's hard to decide, so you confirm that AMD cards will heat more based on double power use?
Here on winter we get near 0°C and on summer it can gets to 40°C so I don't want to lose my graphics card just because sun want it.
On the other hand, those 75% extra performance could prove valuable once it'd add longevity to the hardware. I think I'll stay for Nvidea for now bth.

So, a good plan is to buy first a graphics card + extra 4Gb ram + a new motherboard to accommodate everything?

 

[ElectrO_90]

I live in a country that is generally 30-38'C every day, Always used AMD, never had a problem.
Not sure why you are scared of heat, ALL gpu's get hot, the power draw only really effects your electric bill.
You do seem rather paranoid, which you need to lose.

 

[cryoburner]

That's hard to decide, so you confirm that AMD cards will heat more based on double power use?

They don't use double the power for a given level of performance though. A 1050 is a lower-end card offering less performance, which is the main reason it uses so much less power than an RX 570. As I said, a better comparison would be to a GTX 1060 3GB, which offers similar performance to an RX 570. The GTX 1060 will typically draw around 120 watts under load, while an RX 570 will draw around 150-160 watts. So, it does draw more power than a card with similar performance from Nvidia, but not exactly by an extreme amount, and either card's temperatures can vary significantly depending on what sort of cooler the card has.

 

[kerberos_42]

They don't use double the power for a given level of performance though. A 1050 is a lower-end card offering less performance, which is the main reason it uses so much less power than an RX 570. As I said, a better comparison would be to a GTX 1060 3GB, which offers similar performance to an RX 570. The GTX 1060 will typically draw around 120 watts under load, while an RX 570 will draw around 150-160 watts. So, it does draw more power than a card with similar performance from Nvidia, but not exactly by an extreme amount, and either card's temperatures can vary significantly depending on what sort of cooler the card has.

So, itsn't that much power indeed. Once several of you guys are telling me to pick the RX 570 I think I'll have to look for it tho.