Upgrade Dilemma

[Tmh85]

So I have quite a predicament -

(See Specs in my signature)

Soooo I have gotten some money from my job this summer

(Yes I worked at a fireworks stand)

 

I have the lucky option either to upgrade to 16 gigs of RAM (Link)

Or I can get myself a Z97 G45 and a i5 4690k

So my budget is 350 bucks at Micro Center the g45 and 4790k cost about $330-$345 bucks (USD)

and the RAM costs about $150

So I can only get one of those options due to my tight money situation

Which option would you recommend?

 

All Help and suggestions are Welcome!

[dragoon20005]

lol who places the firework near his d***?

 

CPU upgrade will be nice

[flibberdipper]

CPU.

[Enderman]

i5 4790k? Since when did that magic exist?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only processors I know exist are either the i5 4690k or the i7 4790k.

[miyabwah]

I'd say CPU Upgrade, although you don't list how much RAM you have...

[Tmh85]

I'd say CPU Upgrade, although you don't list how much RAM you have...

Oh shoot sorry! Currently I have 8 gigs

[miyabwah]

Oh shoot sorry! Currently I have 8 gigs

Well then a CPU Upgrade is the way to go.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Personaly i would try to get the most money out of the 770 and i would get a radeon R9 290 along with a core i5-4670K but that's just me...

I doubt that the FX is bottlenecking the 770 in most games, so unless you play a lot of MMO's or single-threaded CPU intensive games i just really don't see any reasons why you would want to upgrade that...Also for gaming 8gb is all you need...16gb is useless as no games as of today uses more than 5GB including os and shit running in the background...i would defenetly upgrade to a better GPU, what resolution are you playing at?

[Tmh85]

i5 4790k? Since when did that magic exist?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only processors I know exist are either the i5 4690k or the i7 4790k.

Welp* Another error on my part!

Sorry about that!

[Najuno]

Go rather with the CPU and mainboard.

[Tmh85]

Personaly i would try to get the most money out of the 770 and i would get a radeon R9 290 along with a core i5-4670K but that's just me...

I doubt that the FX is bottlenecking the 770 in most games, so unless you play a lot of MMO's or single-threaded CPU intensive games i just really don't see any reasons why you would want to upgrade that...Also for gaming 8gb is all you need...16gb is useless as no games as of today uses more than 5GB including os and shit running in the background...i would defenetly upgrade to a better GPU, what resolution are you playing at?

1080p

For some reason I feel hesitant to go to the dark side!

[i_build_nanosuits]

1080p

For some reason I feel hesitant to go to the dark side!

First question you should ask yourself is DO YOU NEED MORE GAMING POWER?

If the answer is yes, i would ask WHAT TYPE OF GAMES DO YOU PLAY THE MOST?

If they fell into the GPU bound games, then the R9 290 ATM is a no brainer at 360$, considering you could easily get 280$ or so for your 770 online, that would make it a very worthy 80$ upgrade...

here, GTX 770 vs radeon R9 290:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1037?vs=1068

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HPS4AFG/?tag=pcpapi-20

[dragoon20005]

First question you should ask yourself is DO YOU NEED MORE GAMING POWER?

 

 

 

on the serious note

 

the jump from AMD FX 8 cores to the i7 4790K is very big like 20-30 fps more

 

one guy from PCPartPicker upgrade from the FX9590 to the i7 4790K with dual GTX780Ti and he was happy with the fps boost

 

 

here the guy

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/b/tCyfrH

[i_build_nanosuits]

 

 

 

on the serious note

 

the jump from AMD FX 8 cores to the i7 4790K is very big like 20-30 fps more

 

one guy from PCPartPicker upgrade from the FX9590 to the i7 4790K with dual GTX780Ti and he was happy with the fps boost

Yes, but you must have a very high-end GPU solution to see such a boost in FPS...that guy for example was probably running games with the FX at around 70 to 90FPS and now with his i7 he has 100 to 120FPS...if one is to aim at 60FPS with a single graphics card the FX is pretty much just as good you know..if you are GPU limited, like the op is with a single GTX 770, going with a more powerful CPU will give him no performance increase in most games, as most of them are GPU limited games.

[dragoon20005]

Yes, but you must have a very high-end GPU solution to see such a boost in FPS...that guy for example was probably running games with the FX at around 70 to 90FPS and now with his i7 he has 100 to 120FPS...if one is to aim at 60FPS with a single graphics card the FX is pretty much just as good you know..if you are GPU limited, like the op is with a single GTX 770, going with a more powerful CPU will give him no performance increase in most games, as most of them are GPU limited games.

point taken 

 

maybe the 290 makes sense now

 

then he can get the 5th gen CPU from Intel

[i_build_nanosuits]

point taken 

 

maybe the 290 makes sense now

 

then he can get the 5th gen CPU from Intel

exactly. BUT, if the OP is playing mostly CPU intensive games (MMO's RTS, indies...) then it might be better for him to go with something like a core i5-4590 along with an H97 motherboard or something like that and keep the 770, as most of these would benefit more from a better CPU.

Some of these games would be: ARMA3, DAYz, planet side 2, guild wars 2, elder scroll online, starcraft 2, company of heroes 2, assassin's creed black flag...those are the one's i've tested that i would defenetly consider as being CPU bound games, in wich a stong IPC cpu and strong cores are best.

[Tmh85]

I'd say CPU Upgrade, although you don't list how much RAM you have...

 

 

i5 4790k? Since when did that magic exist?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only processors I know exist are either the i5 4690k or the i7 4790k.

 

 

Go rather with the CPU and mainboard.

 

Personaly i would try to get the most money out of the 770 and i would get a radeon R9 290 along with a core i5-4670K but that's just me...

I doubt that the FX is bottlenecking the 770 in most games, so unless you play a lot of MMO's or single-threaded CPU intensive games i just really don't see any reasons why you would want to upgrade that...Also for gaming 8gb is all you need...16gb is useless as no games as of today uses more than 5GB including os and shit running in the background...i would defenetly upgrade to a better GPU, what resolution are you playing at?

Thank you all so much for your help!

I have one last question that is aching me -

Is this a solid motherboard for the 4690k? (At Micro Center it is only $89)

http://www.microcenter.com/product/433200/Z97_LGA_1150_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

[dragoon20005]

Thank you all so much for your help!

I have one last question that is aching me -

Is this a solid motherboard for the 4690k? (At Micro Center it is only $89)

http://www.microcenter.com/product/433200/Z97_LGA_1150_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

great board go for it

[i_build_nanosuits]

Thank you all so much for your help!

I have one last question that is aching me -

Is this a solid motherboard for the 4690k? (At Micro Center it is only $89)

http://www.microcenter.com/product/433200/Z97_LGA_1150_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

Yes that is a good motherboard, it can overclock the 4690K very well...only thing with this board is that it won't support SLI due to the fact that the 2nd PCIe slot is running only at 4X speed, and you need 8X speed for SLI and/or crossfire. (it says it support crossfire and it does but anything above an R9 270 will be severely limited due to bandwidth on this)

[Opcode]

The CPU upgrade will be the only noticeable upgrade and your memory will automatically roll over, so that's the route I would take.