Will installing a high-end GPU allow me to record/edit at a high resolution and fps with my other current specs?

[mjoslen]

My pc has pretty decent hardware, but it really falls short with its GPU. I finally have the budget to upgrade my GPU from an AMD Radeon R9 360 to a GeForce 1080, possibly a 1080ti. But before I do that, I want to make sure that my pc's other hardware will even allow me to record AAA games at a crisp 1080p resolution with 60 fps, or at the very least 30 fps.

As of right now, I can play practically anything at 1080p with 60 fps when I'm not recording, but I cannot record near that quality, only probably about 720p at 30 fps, with a webcam recording simultaneously at an even lower FPS.

So here are my current specs:
Quad core i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40 GHz
16 GB RAM
AMD Radeon R9 360 GPU
Windows 10

The point of this post is that I don't want to spend a lot of money on a high-end GPU only to find out the rest of my pc still can't handle screen recording and webcam recording at a high quality.

 

[dontlistentome]

Run your game and recording software while using a program like MSI Afterburner, which will allow you to see onscreen your CPU and GPU usage. You have an i7, so I would expect that your CPU usage is nowhere near 100% but your GPU is. This would mean a better videocard would help.

If your CPU usage is near or at 100% then a videocard upgrade won't help much, if at all.

Which raises the next questions. What exact games are we talking about? What recording software? You say you can run AAA games at 1080p at 60fps with an AMD R9 360, I find that hard to believe. That 360 doesn't even qualify as an entry level gaming card these days. So I think you and I have a different idea of what a "AAA game" is.

When you record, you are writing to a video file. This means the speed of your storage component is going to be important. I know from my own experience that not all 7200 rpm mechanical drives are equally fast. So if you are trying to use an older one it might impact your ability to record well. An SSD helps a lot in video recording but they cost more and the constant writing will shorten their life.

 

[mjoslen]

Run your game and recording software while using a program like MSI Afterburner, which will allow you to see onscreen your CPU and GPU usage. You have an i7, so I would expect that your CPU usage is nowhere near 100% but your GPU is. This would mean a better videocard would help.

Edit: (ignore the previous image I posted before this edit) Thanks for the tip. I tested this and found that my GPU was consistently using 100% while my CPU was very low while recording Prey and my webcam together.

That 360 doesn't even qualify as an entry level gaming card these days. So I think you and I have a different idea of what a "AAA game" is.

I know what a AAA game is, but I'll admit that I wasn't quite right when I tested it out. I went into Prey and noticed myself hovering around 40 fps rather than 60. Regardless, I want to be able to record anything smoothly. I'm currently using OBS by OBS Studio, a free software, to record both gameplay and webcam capture. I'm able to record games such as Rocket League and Fortnite at 720p and 30 fps at the moment.