Upgrading my personal rig

[Mateyyy]

Hi there forum!

I'm looking to upgrade my rig, which is primarily used for gaming, but also, occasionally, for various photo/video editing. I'm currently running a Core i5 4670K currently clocked at 4.3GHz, 16GBs of DDR3 RAM and a Radeon R9 290.

My graphics card is starting to show its age (although I never expected it to last this long) even in 1080p gaming, and I'm also looking to upgrade to a 1440p panel in the near future. For example, I'm not really having a satisfactory experience in the just recently released Battlefield 5, but there's another problem with that game, the fact that it's really CPU intensive, and I'm not quite sure if my i5 is really bottlenecking my GPU in that game (reason why I recently overclocked my i5 again to 4.3GHz, I wasn't going for anything crazy since I'm air cooling it, but I also wanted to try and gain some extra performance).

 

My two options would be:

1) Upgrading the CPU, that meaning also upgrading the memory and the motherboard. I was looking at either the i5 8600K or the i7 8700K (which would probably be more "futureproof"), the advantage of this current-gen i5, compared to my older Haswell i5, being that it now has 6 cores, though I'm not quite sure how long it would last me, one reason being how much CPU intensive games are starting to become. The motherboard would be something on the Z370 chipset, and 16GBs of DDR4 memory. The problem with this option would be that pricing seems to be absolutely crazy right now for me, not just CPUs being super expensive but also memory, and I really wouldn't risk on buying any of these components used.

2) Upgrading the GPU. Here I'd probably be more confident with buying used, though I must be certain that whatever I'm buying wasn't just hammered 24/7 for mining, and also because, again, pricing is absolutely ridiculous, with a new GTX 1080, for example, going for at least ~750 USD, if you can even find one. Meanwhile, I managed to find used 1080s for about 425 USD, and even 1080 TIs for around 550 USD. Then again, the problem with this upgrade would be that I would most likely be bottlenecked by my CPU. How much? I'm not quite sure. Probably quite a lot, especially depending on the application, but I'm sure it would be better that my current experience with the R9 290, and I believe it would be more beneficial if I decide to upgrade to a 1440p monitor.

 

Finally, what do you guys think I should do? Either go for the GPU upgrade, or the CPU, motherboard and memory? Thank you!

And also, sorry for the long post .

[r4tch3t]

50 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

Hi there forum!

I'm looking to upgrade my rig, which is primarily used for gaming, but also, occasionally, for various photo/video editing. I'm currently running a Core i5 4670K currently clocked at 4.3GHz, 16GBs of DDR3 RAM and a Radeon R9 290.

My graphics card is starting to show its age (although I never expected it to last this long) even in 1080p gaming, and I'm also looking to upgrade to a 1440p panel in the near future. For example, I'm not really having a satisfactory experience in the just recently released Battlefield 5, but there's another problem with that game, the fact that it's really CPU intensive, and I'm not quite sure if my i5 is really bottlenecking my GPU in that game (reason why I recently overclocked my i5 again to 4.3GHz, I wasn't going for anything crazy since I'm air cooling it, but I also wanted to try and gain some extra performance).

 

My two options would be:

1) Upgrading the CPU, that meaning also upgrading the memory and the motherboard. I was looking at either the i5 8600K or the i7 8700K (which would probably be more "futureproof"), the advantage of this current-gen i5, compared to my older Haswell i5, being that it now has 6 cores, though I'm not quite sure how long it would last me, one reason being how much CPU intensive games are starting to become. The motherboard would be something on the Z370 chipset, and 16GBs of DDR4 memory. The problem with this option would be that pricing seems to be absolutely crazy right now for me, not just CPUs being super expensive but also memory, and I really wouldn't risk on buying any of these components used.

2) Upgrading the GPU. Here I'd probably be more confident with buying used, though I must be certain that whatever I'm buying wasn't just hammered 24/7 for mining, and also because, again, pricing is absolutely ridiculous, with a new GTX 1080, for example, going for at least ~750 USD, if you can even find one. Meanwhile, I managed to find used 1080s for about 425 USD, and even 1080 TIs for around 550 USD. Then again, the problem with this upgrade would be that I would most likely be bottlenecked by my CPU. How much? I'm not quite sure. Probably quite a lot, especially depending on the application, but I'm sure it would be better that my current experience with the R9 290, but I believe it would be more beneficial if I decide to upgrade to a 1440p monitor.

 

Finally, what do you guys think I should do? Either go for the GPU upgrade, or the CPU, motherboard and memory? Thank you!

And also, sorry for the long post .

GPU definately. I'm playing most games high to max at 1440p with a 3570k and 1070.

[R3ep3r]

50 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

...

Due to the fact that you already have a constantly running PC and you do not have any problems with that one(excepting the FPS thing) you can upgrade to a newer PC step by step. If you can afford you can simply go get a better GPU(as you said the 1080 or 1080ti) and use it with your actual PC since that CPU can still hold up pretty good with the games nowadays. Same thing as I did. First I bought a GPU then the PSU because I needed extra power for the one that I actually have, then bought the CPU/MOBO etc. In like 4-5 months I had a new PC with all those components I needed in the first place.

[Mateyyy]

13 minutes ago, r4tch3t said:

GPU definately. I'm playing most games high to max at 1440p with a 3570k and 1070.

Nice! Have you overclocked them also by any chance? 

[r4tch3t]

1 hour ago, Mateyyy said:

Nice! Have you overclocked them also by any chance? 

Not yet. I am noticing some bottlenecking with some games but not enough to need to overclock yet.