If You Could Upgrade ONLY ONE Part In Your PC, What Would You Buy?

[tatte]

This thread could have used a poll, but it looks like at the time of posting (well, writing. Me slow. Takatakataka.) GPU is leading 3:1 compared to CPU, which in turn is very closely followed by storage of all things. I believe we have Nvidia to blame here, GPUs cost unproportionally much compared to the rest of the system.

 

Surprise surprise I too would go with a GPU. My 1070 struggles with 4K. It's not a huge issue right now since I'm mostly playing GW2, but it has already made me nope out of Witcher 3 (damn balcony show-off). Better storage is also something I need, I upgraded to NVMe SSD earlier this year but my 2TB Seagate spinner chirps so annoyingly (hecking Seagates, I also just yesterday pulled a ticking 1TB out of my Mac Pro, and I remember the days I had two spinners cause resonation together but be fine alone. I'll never buy another Seagate.)

 

If I could transfer this upgrade and use it on someone else's system instead, I'd get my mother a new laptop (she doesn't want used hardware, and I'm not unfortunately swimming in money, so there isn't much I'm able to do). She has an HP that's not upgrade friendly (RAM and storage might be upgradeable, but can't open the damn thing without risking marks/breaking clips and who knows what). It's unbearably slow for everything, even just browsing photos on it is painful. I don't know where they even find so weak components these days. Modern hardware is amazing, and even my Raspberry Pi is more pleasant to use than that thing. The day she can finally experience the bliss of SSD and competent CPU is going to be immeasurably great.

[Drak3]

11 minutes ago, Kisai said:

The GPU makes a difference provided there is a workload that maxes it out, which is largely the realm of synthetic benchmarks and a few games like FFXV.

Other than Syaoran running out with their current 8GB config, a GPU upgrade would be the better upgrade. RAM speed doesn't make a huge difference after a certain point in real games, and for a Ryzen chip, Syaoran is already at that point. A GPU, on the other hand, WILL churn out more frames if not bottlenecked, or higher quality frames for a prettier experience.

15 minutes ago, Kisai said:

The CPU makes a difference only if the newer cpu is a 25% increase in single-threaded performance, which is something only achieved after like 5 years, and only if you pick the most expensive model.

 

For example I have a i7-4770, upgrading to a Ryzen 3900X is the only part that hits that performance jump.

The 4770 was never the most expensive/top of the line model within Haswell. It has both a clockspeed and IPC disadvantage.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-3900X/2384vs4044

Moving to a more powerful chip in 4th gen Core i, and that ~25% difference in single core (totally arbitrary number, by the way) literally halves itself when both chips are left at stock.

[Fire Lantern]

I'd say CPU but I'm already on an i7-4770k so I guess mobo but that would mean I'd need to get a new CPU as well

[kaiju_wars]

Probably replacing my 590 for a 5700 or 5700XT.

[Kisai]

43 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Other than Syaoran running out with their current 8GB config, a GPU upgrade would be the better upgrade. RAM speed doesn't make a huge difference after a certain point in real games, and for a Ryzen chip, Syaoran is already at that point. A GPU, on the other hand, WILL churn out more frames if not bottlenecked, or higher quality frames for a prettier experience.

The 4770 was never the most expensive/top of the line model within Haswell. It has both a clockspeed and IPC disadvantage.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-3900X/2384vs4044

Moving to a more powerful chip in 4th gen Core i, and that ~25% difference in single core (totally arbitrary number, by the way) literally halves itself when both chips are left at stock.

I don't have a time machine. I built this machine in June 22, 2013.

 

At the time the option was i7-4770 (Q2'13) that supports Virtualization, or the i7-4770k (

Q2'13) which does not. The 4790K came out an entire year later (Q2'14.)

 

[Drak3]

Just now, Kisai said:

I don't have a time machine. I built this machine in June 22, 2013.

 

At the time the option was i7-4770 (Q2'13) that supports Virtualization, or the i7-4770k (

Q2'13) which does not. The 4790K came out an entire year later (Q2'14.)

 

4770K supports virtualization. It just doesn't support VT-d, which means no hardware passthrough. Not that big of a deal for a quad core system.

[Mark Kaine]

A 2070S,  I don't even need a 2080.

 

In reality I will be lucky to save up enough for a 2060S in the coming months though... 

[RasmusDC]

decently happy with my setup, although for me it would be the screen, i have a nice 4k 2715Q Dell IPS panel, and i do like it, but GPU power in my 1080TI is at some points lacking the power for 60fps ultra details, so would like the LG 850GL screen the 1ms IPS 1440p screen.

 

i would like the high refresh, 144-165hz (i can´t remember what the GL850 is) going to hate 1440p, but have to learn to live with it.

 

would not buy new GPU until HDMI2.1 48gbit is standard, since i play simulation on my 55inch tv in my office, would like it to be 4K 120hz+ in the future, and for that i need the HDMI2.1 standard, and a bit more power than the 2080ti can deliver... so my 1080ti must suffice.

[flashiling]

i'd get a new motherboard.

when i bought my pc i accidentally bought a mini atx board so i only have 2 ram slots.

but i'd upgrade it to a motherboard that supported the ryzen 3000 series so i could buy a new cpu at some point

[Kisai]

8 hours ago, RasmusDC said:

would not buy new GPU until HDMI2.1 48gbit is standard, since i play simulation on my 55inch tv in my office, would like it to be 4K 120hz+ in the future, and for that i need the HDMI2.1 standard, and a bit more power than the 2080ti can deliver... so my 1080ti must suffice.

 

That might be wishful thinking. I'd suggest waiting for PCIe 4.0/5.0 if not in a hurry to replace the GPU.

 

HDMI standards tend to be behind the curve since HDMI is primarily for consumer (eg television) equipment, not professional/computer equipment (which is primarily displayport, or USB-C DP alternate mode.) 

 

In the case of HDMI, this is the same mistake being made with USB. Basically the devices will come out, but the cables capable of doing HDMI 2.1 will be mixed in with the fake and old HDMI cables. 

 

Like you typically get better resolution and refresh rates on displayport years before you get it on HDMI. However anything larger than 28" tends to be a television, which only has HDMI.

[GreatnessRD]

I would want to upgrade my GPU.

 

Hopefully, it will happen sooner rather than later. Still undecided on what to upgrade to though. 

[Cloud9 0m3a]

My RX 550 with 2070.  I used to have a GTX 1060 until it crapped out.  I have a i5 8400.

[DR2D2]

2080 ti or a 10 tb hard drive for my gmod addons.

[Midnitewolf]

9 time out of 10 it would be the video card for me.  In fact I would say in the past it has been  pretty common for me to go through 2 video card upgrades for every 1 CPU upgrade

[Husky]

I would really like to get a 4K monitor, first priority is bright vivid colors with good accuracy (IPS) and second would be high refresh rate (120Hz+)

 

My current GPU wouldn't drive it too well but I can upgrade that at a later date and most games will run fine anyway.

[Gegger]

peripherals or monitor. i have a chromebox, after all. if i upgraded i'd be getting a new computer

[Yogi_DaBear221]

Probably go from the stock AMD cooler to an RGB AIO or straight water cooling. 

 

If not that my monitor situation, I'd replace my little 1440 ACER monitor with probably an Acer G276HL Kbix 27"

[DCCFan]

Would probably get an i7 (have an i5) or liquid cooling (have the H7). Maybe an awesome liquid cooler  

[GDRRiley]

CPU, Id like a R9 3950X

[Mooshi]

The 3700x for the desktop. Laptop just got a new 1TB ssd thanks to Cyber Monday

 

[Tonberry]

On 11/24/2019 at 7:54 AM, Tech4Dogs said:

Water block for the GPU because it looks dumb having just the CPU cooled with rigid tubing.

 

 

 

How about the opposite like this? Rigid tubing but only on the GPU while the CPU stays aircooled..

(this is not mine)

 

 

I want to taste AMD current gen Ryzen 7 3700X, but this will require new motherboard, so it won't suit this topic. My 8700K is still glorious tho, at least up to next 2 years, hopefully..

[Giganthrax]

Regardless of price? I'd upgrade my GTX 1070 to a 2080ti or something. 

[Samfisher]

The only thing I DO need upgrading, my GPU.  Just got a Ryzen system so I'm good everywhere else.

[TexasModds]

On 11/23/2019 at 7:14 PM, Drak3 said:

580. I have both in my main system.

Id trade your 580 for another 1080 in a upgrade

[Drak3]

14 minutes ago, TexasModds said:

Id trade your 580 for another 1080 in a upgrade

Why? SLI is a crapshoot and I like having GPUs from both venders in my system.