Where should I upgrade my build?

[Colin_Ginger]

Howdy! I have a very solid gaming PC that has served me well for the past 3 years. Over time I have upgraded and added peripherals and so on and so forth a little haphazardly, and so have an eclectic mix of new and old parts. I am trying to become more tech literate, but I'm still unsure where my PC is thriving and where it is lacking. So with Christmas season around the corner, the wife and I think I'll have around $400 USD to spend on upgrades. Where should I focus that money? Getting better peripherals, upgrading the monitor, replacing the graphics card, or a mix of the three? If you were in my shoes what would be your priority grabs?

 

Current issues I face:

Budget (including currency): ~$400 USD. (That can be a little flexible if need be)

Country: The US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Its a dedicated gaming rig. I mainly play Valorant, and Civilization 6, however I do have Cyberpunk 2077 pre-ordered and would like to be able to run that and make it look good.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

Existing Computer:

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor 3.60 GHz

CPU Cooler: Stock cooler

Motherboard: MSI B450M GAMING PLUS Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL15 Memory

Storage: A SanDisk SD8SBBU240G1122 and a Sansung SSD 860 EVO 500GB

GPU: Radeon RX 480

Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400 Tempered Glass

Power Supply: EVGA 80 Plus bronze 700w

Monitors: AOC G2260VWQ6 21.5 and a crappy Vizio from like 2012 that I have just owned forever

 

Mouse: Razer Deathadder Elite

Keyboard: IOGEAR Kaliber Gaming HVER Aluminum Gaming Keyboard, Black/Gray,GKB704L-BK (Yeah sorry keyboard enthusiast, I found this at an alteks for like 30 bucks. Please feel free to roast me)

Headphones:  Phillips SHP6000

Microphone: Blue Snowball Ice

 

My thoughts: I could spend it all on a new graphics card so that I can run Cyberpunk at higher settings. Or I could buy a new monitor with 144hz refresh to improve my FPS gaming. Or I could spend some money upgrading my keyboard and maybe getting a hard drive for more storage and save the rest for when a real upgrade rolls around.

 

What do you think?

 

[Beowulff83]

I would probably upgrade your graphics card first or get a nice 1440p monitor and get a graphics card a little later.

[Colin_Ginger]

Just now, Beowulff83 said:

I would probably upgrade your graphics card first or get a nice 1440p monitor and get a graphics card a little later.

If thats the case, what graphics card would you recommend for my price range?

[BrokenProgram01]

2 minutes ago, Colin_Ginger said:

If thats the case, what graphics card would you recommend for my price range?

if you fine with a a little downtime you could try to get a gtx 3070 after selling your rx480 but if you need it immediately then you could try for a second hand 2080 or 2080 ti after also after selling your rx 480

[Colin_Ginger]

6 minutes ago, BrokenProgram01 said:

if you fine with a a little downtime you could try to get a gtx 3070 after selling your rx480 but if you need it immediately then you could try for a second hand 2080 or 2080 ti after also after selling your rx 480

Those both seem like they're outside of my price range, but I'll see if I can find anything on ebay. Once again Im still learning, but would there be a disadvantage to switching from all AMD to a NVIDIA card? Should I try to stay within the AMD suite or is it okay to branch out?

[BrokenProgram01]

Just now, Colin_Ginger said:

Those both seem like they're outside of my price range, but I'll see if I can find anything on ebay. Once again Im still learning, but would there be a disadvantage to switching from all AMD to a NVIDIA card? Should I try to stay within the AMD suite or is it okay to branch out?

these gpus's would be on the edge if you include the value you could gain from selling your old gpu but if that isn't possible then you have the option of a 2070 but you may have a bit of difficulty mostly because of the computer part shortage. As for switching between amd and nvidia for the gpu at the moment the only gpu's that prefer ryzen are the new rx 6000 series gpu's which have smart memory which only works if you have 5000 series ryzen and a x570 motherboard (note this may change as nvidia is making somthing competitive which isn't platform dependent but this is completely speculation) So with your system there wouldn't be any disadvantages aside from software preferences.

[Colin_Ginger]

21 minutes ago, BrokenProgram01 said:

these gpus's would be on the edge if you include the value you could gain from selling your old gpu but if that isn't possible then you have the option of a 2070 but you may have a bit of difficulty mostly because of the computer part shortage. As for switching between amd and nvidia for the gpu at the moment the only gpu's that prefer ryzen are the new rx 6000 series gpu's which have smart memory which only works if you have 5000 series ryzen and a x570 motherboard (note this may change as nvidia is making somthing competitive which isn't platform dependent but this is completely speculation) So with your system there wouldn't be any disadvantages aside from software preferences.

Okay! And that would give me more bang for my buck versus just getting a new monitor with higher refresh?

[BrokenProgram01]

On 11/24/2020 at 6:11 PM, Colin_Ginger said:

Okay! And that would give me more bang for my buck versus just getting a new monitor with higher refresh?

depends on what games your running and when you plan on your next upgrade to be