Z97 Upgrade Help

[MajorMusician]

Hey, looking to get some advice on upgrading my PC. I use it for Audio Production with Pro Tools and Ableton Live, as well as playing FPS and MMOs. I have a i5-4690k Oc'd to 3.9ghz I n an msi gaming 7 Mobo, gpu is a GTX 970 4gb. I just ordered 16 gb of 2133 mhz ddr3 to make a total of 24gbs RAM total. I am starting to notice a lot of games needing to be turned down to get playable framerates, and therefore am looking into upgrades. 

 

I am trying to decide between a new Mobo and CPU and saving up for a gpu or vice versa. Would a new gpu such as a rtx 2060 or a RX 5700 bump me up in FPS enough to be able to play 1080p well? Or am I just going to be bottlenecked by the CPU and Mobo? Thanks for the help in advanced.

[JoostinOnline]

Return that RAM if you can. It's not going to be usable in anything else, and that RAM pairing could even make everything slower. How much did it even cost?

[LIGISTX]

7 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

Return that RAM if you can. It's not going to be usable in anything else, and that RAM pairing will arguably make everything slower. How much did it even cost?

It won't make anything slower, but its true it won't be useful if the OP upgrades... DDR3 is no longer being used @MajorMusician, everything is DDR4 now. So if you do plan on upgrading to a new platform, you will need DDR4.

 

I think in your situation, a new GPU first would be best. Games are certainly starting to be heavier on CPU's then your CPU can really handle, but that said, its not a "horrible" CPU by any means. It wouldn't allow the RX 5700 to fully stretch its legs (it will be a bottleneck), but it would result in better FPS than doing a new CPU and keeping the 970.

 

Then when you have the money, CPU, Mobo and RAM are next. But as the post I quoted pointed out, none of those three parts will be able to be carried over to the new build.

[JoostinOnline]

23 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

It won't make anything slower

If he's got 24GB, they obviously aren't matching kits. That can slow down a system.

[LIGISTX]

8 hours ago, JoostinOnline said:

If he's got 24GB, they obviously aren't matching kits. That can slow down a system.

That isn’t true. As long as the channels have the same capacity, it’s fine. So a 4x2 and a 8x2 will still be in dual channel mode. 

[JoostinOnline]

9 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

That isn’t true. As long as the channels have the same capacity, it’s fine. So a 4x2 and a 8x2 will still be in dual channel mode. 

The timings and frequency could be different. It usually won't make a noticeable difference but it can.

 

Anyway, this is kind of a pointless discussion. Either way he should return the RAM if he's planning an upgrade.

 

[MajorMusician]

I'll definitely agree that blowing money on the ram isn't the smartest idea. I found a 2133mhz gskill ripjaws 2x8 kit on eBay unopened for $65 and that should pair up pretty okay with the 2x4 2133 gskill sniper kit I have in it now. I am constantly having memory issues running virtual instruments for music production so I'm okay with just going for the memory now even though I'm looking to upgrade within the year. I'm looking to do the Mac os dual boot that Linus made a video on too so 8gb is just not going to do it.

 

Thanks you both for the help on deciding the course I should take. I see myself using my current rig for 6months to a year to see what happens with video card prices. I know they probably won't go down but maybe by then hdr and or 1440 monitors will come down in price. What do you guys think about switching to AMD? Are they really taking over the high performance spot? I always learned that Intel is the best but it seems to be the playing field is leveling out.