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Upgrade GPU or CPU First?

Areyn13

So i have a i5 4590 and GTX 1070 with a bit of money saved up, but was wondering if i should upgrade my platform first to Zen 3 when that releases, or upgrade my GPU to something like the 3070 (I know RDNA 2 releases in October but I'm mostly set on nvidia as a platform) I know I'll eventually have to upgrade my CPU anyway if i want to take full advantage of a newer more powerful GPU like the 3070, but which upgrade do you guys think would show me a more immediate, bigger performance increase in most games?

Ryzen 5800x | Asus ROG STRIX B550-F | G.Skill Trident Z Neo 2x16gb | ASUS TUF GAMING OC RTX 3070 Ti | Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1tb | Corsair RM750x

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2 minutes ago, Areyn13 said:

So i have a i5 4590 and GTX 1070 with a bit of money saved up, but was wondering if i should upgrade my platform first to Ryzen 3 when that releases, or upgrade my GPU to something like the 3070 (I know RDNA 2 releases in October but I'm mostly set on nvidia as a platform) I know I'll eventually have to upgrade my CPU anyway if i want to take full advantage of a newer more powerful GPU like the 3070, but which upgrade do you guys think would show me a more immediate, bigger performance increase in most games?

the cpu if you are looking at fps, the gpu if you have a 1440p/4k monitor. also zen 3 is rumored to be released at the amd conference as well so it might be worth waiting until then to do either upgrade

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5 minutes ago, Areyn13 said:

So i have a i5 4590 and GTX 1070 with a bit of money saved up, but was wondering if i should upgrade my platform first to Ryzen 3 when that releases, or upgrade my GPU to something like the 3070 (I know RDNA 2 releases in October but I'm mostly set on nvidia as a platform) I know I'll eventually have to upgrade my CPU anyway if i want to take full advantage of a newer more powerful GPU like the 3070, but which upgrade do you guys think would show me a more immediate, bigger performance increase in most games?

GPU, pretty much, unless you are playing on 1080p or lower resolution (even so, GPU will still make a much, much more different in fps gain than CPU)

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29 minutes ago, Areyn13 said:

So i have a i5 4590 and GTX 1070 with a bit of money saved up,

CPU first...

| CPU: Core i7-8700K @ 4.89ghz - 1.21v  Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING  CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 |
| GPU: MSI RTX 3080Ti Ventus 3X OC  RAM: 32GB T-Force Delta RGB 3066mhz |
| Displays: Acer Predator XB270HU 1440p Gsync 144hz IPS Gaming monitor | Oculus Quest 2 VR

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Thank you for all the comments, i guess I'll focus on upgrading to Zen 3 when it releases and catch a 3070 whenever i can after.

Also one quick question, is the Cryorig H7 compatible at all with ryzen? or will i need to get another aftermarket cpu cooler

Ryzen 5800x | Asus ROG STRIX B550-F | G.Skill Trident Z Neo 2x16gb | ASUS TUF GAMING OC RTX 3070 Ti | Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1tb | Corsair RM750x

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Why I think most likely cpu

Spoiler

It becomes a question of if you cpu can run a game at all.  I’ve got a 4770k of a similar vintage that I personally think won’t last past the end of the year as a gaming device.  I origionally didn’t think it would last even this long, but the date of console release kept getting pushed back.  The issue with low thread count chips like ours is thread based architecture runs into massive slowdowns when a program wants to run more threads than the cpu has.  4/4 is in even more trouble than 4/8.  The PS4 was effectively 6/6 so Youre 2 threads short right now. The new consoles are going to be somewhere between 6/12 and 8/15 (haven’t heard yet) but numbers have been climbing.  A year ago the new consoles were rumored as 2.5ghz but that number has climbed to 3.8ghz which means my poor 4.0ghz 4/8 likely won’t cut it.   It’s all dependent on what games get made though.  Your machine will always run stuff that was written when it was a good machine. It’s the new stuff and stuff that hasn’t been written yet that is the worry.
 

Another issue with cpu is my 4770k@4.0 ghz runs at 80% on fallout 4 pushing a rx580 to its limit. A 3070 is a LOT more card than an rx580.  

 

Not a pro, not even very good.  I’m just old and have time currently.  Assuming I know a lot about computers can be a mistake.

 

Life is like a bowl of chocolates: there are all these little crinkly paper cups everywhere.

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Presumably with a 1070, you're playing at 1080p or even 1440p. In that case, go with CPU first. Your 1070 will still hold up at this resolution, and it gives you time to see what RDNA2 brings (even if you're set on Nvidia).

I'd seriously also consider getting Zen2 still, if you're able to find a good deal around when Zen 3 launches.

Desktop: Intel Core i7-5820K, Corsair H115i, Asus X99-Deluxe/USB 3.1, G.Skill Ripjaws4 32GB 2800MHz CL16, Zotac RTX 3070, Samsung 950 Pro 512GB in Angelbird Wings PX1, Samsung 850 EVO 1TB, 5*Seagate 12TB, Cooler Master V1200, Phanteks Enthoo Luxe, Windows 10 Pro. Phillips 328P6VUBREB, Corsair Vengeance K95 RGB Cherry MX Brown, Logitech G502 X Plus, Sennheiser HD700.

 

AYANEO 2S: AMD 7800U, 32GB 7500MHz, 2TB WD SN850X. Windows 11.

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In theory the graphics card upgrade would give you higher FPS but most of the benefit of a 3070 would likely be crippled by the CPU. It's not just the CPU though it's the motherboard architecture, memory and storage performance. At least if you start with a newer base the 1070 is still going to work. You won't get much of an FPS boost but loading times will be reduced. As nishank93 said i'd consider zen2 as an option for gaming. Most of the Zen2 chips have more than enough CPU power to handle the higher end GPUs and you may just end up throwing money away for not much gain with Zen3, especially at launch.

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