Upgrading my PC. What should I get first? A new processor or a new graphics card?

[Loven Hale]

Hi! A new member here.

I got a not so new PC from a friend. It has been rarely used and still performs so well. The setup is an Intel Core i3-8100 with it's stock cooler, a 16gb of ram, and a mobo of Asus H310m-k r2.0. It also has a 120gb Kingston SSD and a 1Tb Seagate HDD.

 

I'm planning on upgrading this rig to somehow run some of the demanding games that we do have today specially COD: Warzone. What i have in mind is upgrade it to an i5-9600k and pair it with a GTX 1660 Super. From the current setup that I have, will it be worth it? Can't buy the two at once so I might need to choose what to get first. Is it a new cpu or have a good gpu? If i get the 1660 super first, will it bottleneck the i3 too much? I have no choice but to stick with an Intel cpu because of the chipset my mobo have and also, I do a lot of photo and video editing so Intel is good enough for me. Hope you can help me. Thanks in advance.

[jaslion]

Warning cod warzone already struggles on a 9600k sooooo. I would just get a gpu and then sell the system to get a completely new one.

[Fasauceome]

3 minutes ago, Loven Hale said:

If i get the 1660 super first, will it bottleneck the i3 too much?

you'd see a much better performance performance increase by adding a graphics card than a new CPU in this case.

 

In the future you could save up to get an i7 if possible, wouldn't really recommend an 8th or 9th gen i5 unless it was really cheap.

[Mark Kaine]

generally you'll get more out of a new gpu, but it'll always depend on the game about the cpu "bottleneck". A lot of shooting games seem badly optimized and often use only 1 core... but you'd still be better off with a new gpu first imo... you can still get the cpu upgrade later, or don't play games with poor multi threading (that's what I do out of principle lol) 

[Downkey]

5 minutes ago, Loven Hale said:

Hi! A new member here.

I got a not so new PC from a friend. It has been rarely used and still performs so well. The setup is an Intel Core i3-8100 with it's stock cooler, a 16gb of ram, and a mobo of Asus H310m-k r2.0. It also has a 120gb Kingston SSD and a 1Tb Seagate HDD.

 

I'm planning on upgrading this rig to somehow run some of the demanding games that we do have today specially COD: Warzone. What i have in mind is upgrade it to an i5-9600k and pair it with a GTX 1660 Super. From the current setup that I have, will it be worth it? Can't buy the two at once so I might need to choose what to get first. Is it a new cpu or have a good gpu? If i get the 1660 super first, will it bottleneck the i3 too much? I have no choice but to stick with an Intel cpu because of the chipset my mobo have and also, I do a lot of photo and video editing so Intel is good enough for me. Hope you can help me. Thanks in advance.

Do you not have a graphics card? Unless I read that wrong, you should upgrade your GPU. The used market is really the only place to get a GPU right now (at decent prices).

A used 1070/1060 would be a good choice. Those go for around 200 and 140