Upgrade CPU or GPU?

[aquamatt]

hello everyone, I am looking to upgrade part of my pc and I could use some help deciding between a cpu and a gpu upgrade.

 

currently I am running with a Ryzen5 2600 on a B450, I also have 16GBs for Corsair 3200mhz ram. No overclocks just an xmp profile. My GPU is a regular rtx2070 from Zotac(got it on eBay from Zotscusa for $380 about 6 months ago). I am looking at either getting a ryzen 5600x with a new motherboard and 32GBs for Ram or getting a 6800xt/rtx3080(whatever one performs better when benchmarks are available and stock isn’t crazy).

 

I’m torn between better gaming performance with a new GPU and the idea of upgrading my motherboard, ram, and cpu for the same price. I mostly game on my pc, but I use apps like photoshop and premiere for fun projects and I use background apps to customize my desktop and run midi devices to control audio and smart lighting in my room. I usually have around 10-15 background apps running. What would you guys do? Take the better gaming performance with the GPU or go for a better CPU?
 

One thing that concerns me is that my 2600 is not powerful enough for a newer GPU. I play some RPGs where I want the smoothest experience possible and other times I play strategy games like Warhammer 2 or esports games like COD and League of Legends.

 

any advice you can give is appreciated. Thanks!

 

Budget (around $600+ for parts): 

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 144hz, 1080p gaming, and light streaming.

[Doubble]

Right now the 6800 XT according to AMD will lose in hardware unless you buy their CPU. an aqua system is best for gaming based off the statistics out their right now. Photoshop is favored by intel and AMD lacks AI support right now meaning your system can scale with AI solution. the best idea is to buy a either a 3080 or 3070 right now and buy intel when it comes out(they got up to a 43% INCREASE against comet lake in single threaded performance).

[Fasauceome]

B450 will get an update to accept 5000 series ryzen processors at the beginning of 2021, so I highly recommend a GPU upgrade first and later on you could update your motherboard to accept new Ryzen CPUs.

35 minutes ago, aquamatt said:

for: 144hz, 1080p gaming, and light streaming

And you're looking at the 3080 or 6800 XT? That's rather excessive.

[aquamatt]

17 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

That's rather excessive.

You are probably right. I usually go through a cycle of upgrading my cpu or gpu every couple of years. Getting my 2070 was more of an inpulse buy becuase I sold my old card and got the new GPU for like $100. I figured since I have the budget for something more expensive (aorund $600) I should go for something big rather than splitting it up into a bunch of mid tier parts. Do you think I should just hold where I am for now and wait another year or two?

[Fasauceome]

Just now, aquamatt said:

You are probably right. I usually go through a cycle of upgrading my cpu or gpu every couple of years. Getting my 2070 was more of an inpulse buy becuase I sold my old card and got the new GPU for like $100. I figured since I have the budget for something more expensive (aorund $600) I should go for something big rather than splitting it up into a bunch of mid tier parts. Do you think I should just hold where I am for now and wait another year or two?

I would suggest keeping the 2070 if you are staying at 1080p 144 fps, the new Ryzen CPUs are good for high refresh gaming so you should see if they are worth it for the games you play most, as the benchmarks come out.

[aquamatt]

34 minutes ago, Doubble said:

the best idea is to buy a either a 3080 or 3070 right now and buy intel when it comes out(they got up to a 43% INCREASE against comet lake in single threaded performance).

Thanks for the adivce, to be honest I haven't been keeping up with Intel for a bit. I'll give their upcoming chips a look. I'm willing to wait for bit to see whats coming down the pipe. I'm looking to buy sometime next year anyway. I really like the Nvenc encoder for streaming and the RTX broadcast app (stuff like RTX audio), do you have any idea how AMD does with OBS? I have never used an AMD card for streaming before. My impression is that Nvidia still holds an edge here too, but i could be wrong.

[Doubble]

4 minutes ago, aquamatt said:

Thanks for the adivce, to be honest I haven't been keeping up with Intel for a bit. I'll give their upcoming chips a look. I'm willing to wait for bit to see whats coming down the pipe. I'm looking to buy sometime next year anyway. I really like the Nvenc encoder for streaming and the RTX broadcast app (stuff like RTX audio), do you have any idea how AMD does with OBS? I have never used an AMD card for streaming before. My impression is that Nvidia still holds an edge here too, but i could be wrong.

the new amd cards are hitting high clocks which gives them their performance. because they don't want to look bad they turned off Nvidia's AI solution for the graphics cards. Nvidia is still king at AI and AMD is good at marketing.