Should I upgrade my CPU or GPU first?

[ZimKabir]

I have a 4th gen H81M Motherboard. My config is 4th gen Core I3 4160 processor and Amd R7 260x 2gb ddr5 gpu. I was considering to upgrade my PC slowly but not sure which one to upgrade first

 

All i want to do is:

60fps 1080p gaming (all ultra setting)

50-60fps in yuzu emulator (so that i can play legends of zelda and pokemon let's go)

 

The cpu i thought about buying is Ryzen 3600 (Don't know if i should wait for ryzen 4000 seris)

 

The gpu i thought about buying is Rx 5700 (Don't know if i should wait for Nvidia’s next-gen Ampere GPUs which promised jaw-dropping performance boost over Turing)

[Statik]

If you upgrade either you’re going to be bottlenecked.

[Viper9]

I think you should at least wait for the B550 chipset which should be release soon, so you won't need to spend too much money on your motherboard. 

 

Or if you're willing to wait 6 month (maybe more) you could wait for the 4000 series Ryzen and the next GPU architecture from AMD and Nvidia. 

[ZimKabir]

24 minutes ago, Statik said:

If you upgrade either you’re going to be bottlenecked.

I know and that's the reason i was asking which one i should upgrade first

 

I will eventually upgrade the gpu/cpu in 3/4 months after upgrading my current gpu/cpu

[ZimKabir]

29 minutes ago, Viper9 said:

I think you should at least wait for the B550 chipset which should be release soon, so you won't need to spend too much money on your motherboard. 

 

Or if you're willing to wait 6 month (maybe more) you could wait for the 4000 series Ryzen and the next GPU architecture from AMD and Nvidia. 

Would there be a major difference between ryzen 4000 seris and currently available 3000 series in terms of gaming ?

 

I don't have any kind of issues about the pricing of current b450 motherboard's though

[Statik]

37 minutes ago, ZimKabir said:

I know and that's the reason i was asking which one i should upgrade first

 

I will eventually upgrade the gpu/cpu in 3/4 months after upgrading my current gpu/cpu

You’re better off just waiting and upgrading both at the same time. Less hassle, less money, and you’ll actually get to utilize the power you pay all that money for, and not have it locked behind some old shitty gpu/cpu

[Viper9]

36 minutes ago, ZimKabir said:

Would there be a major difference between ryzen 4000 seris and currently available 3000 series in terms of gaming ?

 

I don't have any kind of issues about the pricing of current b450 motherboard's though

It depends there's no benchmarks yet, but there's a rumor that we will see up to 17% IPC performance boost with the Zen 3 architecture.

 

Watch out for the B450 motherboards, be sure that their BIOS version support Ryzen 3000. Otherwise you'll have an issue, since I guess you don't have a spare Ryzen 1000 or 2000 CPU to do the BIOS update. 

[ZimKabir]

9 minutes ago, Statik said:

You’re better off just waiting and upgrading both at the same time. Less hassle, less money, and you’ll actually get to utilize the power you pay all that money for, and not have it locked behind some old shitty gpu/cpu

I wish i could upgrade everything at once but unfortunately my dad won't let me do that

 

So i have to go for either cpu/gpu first and wait 3/4 months then upgrade old cpu/old gpu

[ZimKabir]

6 minutes ago, Viper9 said:

It depends there's no benchmarks yet, but there's a rumor that we will see up to 17% IPC performance boost with the Zen 3 architecture.

 

Watch out for the B450 motherboards, be sure that their BIOS version support Ryzen 3000. Otherwise you'll have an issue, since I guess you don't have a spare Ryzen 1000 or 2000 CPU to do the BIOS update. 

Nope i don't have a spare ryzen processor and do you think 17% performance boost worth the wait of 7/8 months?

 

Btw you still haven't mentioned if i should upgrade my Cpu+Mobo+Ram first or the current Gpu

[Viper9]

11 minutes ago, ZimKabir said:

Nope i don't have a spare ryzen processor and do you think 17% performance boost worth the wait of 7/8 months?

 

Btw you still haven't mentioned if i should upgrade my Cpu+Mobo+Ram first or the current Gpu

I would upgrade the GPU first since for gaming you'll see a difference right away. And then in a few months you can upgrade CPU/Mobo/RAM. What's your budget for your new graphics card? 

[Quickstrike]

14 minutes ago, ZimKabir said:

I know and that's the reason i was asking which one i should upgrade first

 

I will eventually upgrade the gpu/cpu in 3/4 months after upgrading my current gpu/cpu

it's a bad new good new type situation you are in

Friendly advice: Don't buy a Ryzen 3 to put in that machine. It's a dead end.

Because you'll also need
-New Mobo
-New RAM
-New PSU (unless you had a beast, wich seems unlikely considering you pack an I3)
That's the bad news
 

The good news: there is an easy path: Go used.

If you have 300+ USD (like you seem to have for considering an Rx 5700)
Find an old Rx 470 or a GTX 970. It should do the trick for your frame rates. They are pretty cheap ATM, under 100$. Just make sure the card hasn't been used for mining.

Find a used I7 Haswell on eBay. That will add value to your current rig, making it Forthnight ready. and that means you can resell as an entry level pc on the used market that you can get probably between 400-500 for. 

 

Then just restart from scratch.

 

Because you'll need
New Mobo (new CPU means new socket, whatever you buy)
New RAM (It's all DDR4 nowadays)
New CPU
Newer GPU
And new PSU (because modern boards draw a lot of juice and you have a seven year old psu)

 

From there the only crucial parts missing are a drive (buy an SSD) and a case.

 

And face it, your drive will crap out soonert tnat later, it's 7 years old and it will boittleneck your new system.

And modern cases have USB 3.1 gen interfaces and better ventilation that you might need.

 

Considering your use case, 
As far as CPU performance, for your use case, a 2600 will be ever better value for your wallet and don't require anything more and it's still a medium entry gaming rig.
An Rx 5700 is overkill for 1080P 60 Mhz, if you want a new graphic card, go Rx 580 or GTX 1660 super and it should do the job.

 

As far as waiting for new part, my advice is don't: Now is the best time to build a PC in ages; AMD is done cutting into Intel's market share and the prices won't go significantly down, even on new product launches. RAM modules will go up and Storage hasn't been this low in ages. and there will always newer part coming, the best time to buy is when early adopter "tax" has gone away and that is now on pretty much every thing. 

[ZimKabir]

5 hours ago, Viper9 said:

I would upgrade the GPU first since for gaming you'll see a difference right away. And then in a few months you can upgrade CPU/Mobo/RAM. What's your budget for your new graphics card? 

My budget for GPU is around $300-350 and I'm looking for a GPU which would be capable to handle most of the upcoming video games in 1080p for next 4-5 more years (and of course in 60fps)

 

I saw lot's of benchmarking videos and decided to buy a RX 5700

 

(RTX 2060/RTX 2060 Super/RX 5700XT) these are also amazing cards but if we compare them in Price to Performance i think RX 5700 wins the fight

[Viper9]

1 minute ago, ZimKabir said:

My budget for GPU is around $300-350 and I'm looking for a GPU which would be capable to handle most of the upcoming video games in 1080p for next 4-5 more years (and of course in 60fps)

 

I saw lot's of benchmarking videos and decided to buy a RX 5700

 

(RTX 2060/RTX 2060 Super/RX 5700XT) these are also amazing cards but if we compare them in Price to Performance i think RX 5700 wins the fight

This is a good choice, you can even play in 1440p without any issues with an RX 5700XT.

[ZimKabir]

5 hours ago, Quickstrike said:

it's a bad new good new type situation you are in

Friendly advice: Don't buy a Ryzen 3 to put in that machine. It's a dead end.

Because you'll also need
-New Mobo
-New RAM
-New PSU (unless you had a beast, wich seems unlikely considering you pack an I3)
That's the bad news
 

The good news: there is an easy path: Go used.

If you have 300+ USD (like you seem to have for considering an Rx 5700)
Find an old Rx 470 or a GTX 970. It should do the trick for your frame rates. They are pretty cheap ATM, under 100$. Just make sure the card hasn't been used for mining.

Find a used I7 Haswell on eBay. That will add value to your current rig, making it Forthnight ready. and that means you can resell as an entry level pc on the used market that you can get probably between 400-500 for. 

 

Then just restart from scratch.

 

Because you'll need
New Mobo (new CPU means new socket, whatever you buy)
New RAM (It's all DDR4 nowadays)
New CPU
Newer GPU
And new PSU (because modern boards draw a lot of juice and you have a seven year old psu)

 

From there the only crucial parts missing are a drive (buy an SSD) and a case.

 

And face it, your drive will crap out soonert tnat later, it's 7 years old and it will boittleneck your new system.

And modern cases have USB 3.1 gen interfaces and better ventilation that you might need.

 

Considering your use case, 
As far as CPU performance, for your use case, a 2600 will be ever better value for your wallet and don't require anything more and it's still a medium entry gaming rig.
An Rx 5700 is overkill for 1080P 60 Mhz, if you want a new graphic card, go Rx 580 or GTX 1660 super and it should do the job.

 

As far as waiting for new part, my advice is don't: Now is the best time to build a PC in ages; AMD is done cutting into Intel's market share and the prices won't go significantly down, even on new product launches. RAM modules will go up and Storage hasn't been this low in ages. and there will always newer part coming, the best time to buy is when early adopter "tax" has gone away and that is now on pretty much every thing. 

Well i think there is definitely some misunderstanding going on here let me clear everything up

 

I already bought a new case for my upcoming gaming rig! It features tempered glass side panel/4 rgb cooler/3.1usb and lot's of other stuffs

 

I also bought a SSD and 650watt PSU

 

I also know that very well if i buy a Ryzen 2000/3000 then i have to upgrade my current RAM and MOBO

 

Actually my question was should i go and upgrade my CPU first (of course RAM+MOTHERBOARD would also be included)

 

Or go for GPU first (already bought bronze rated 650 watt corsair PSU for powering up the whole config)

 

[ZimKabir]

11 minutes ago, Viper9 said:

This is a good choice, you can even play in 1440p without any issues with an RX 5700XT.

I think you misread it i decided to buy a 5700 not 5700XT and i don't have 1440p monitor either so 1080p 60fps is more than enough for me

[Viper9]

Just now, ZimKabir said:

I think you misread it i decided to buy a 5700 not 5700XT and i don't have 1440p monitor either so 1080p 60fps is more than enough for me

Oh yeah sorry, but yeah even the RX 5700 can play at 1440p in some titles but don't worry you'll be able to play max settings at 1080p.