CPU OR GPU Upgrade?

[NuclearAllen]

So this forum may not be in the right place, or it may already have a answer somewhere. And if that's the case I didn't see and I'm sorry.

 

So I'm a new PC builder and I plan on upgrading my build soon, and I didn't know what I should upgrade first.  I was thinking more on the CPU side because it's only a dual core, but since it's a skylake series I wasn't too worried about it. So I thought maybe I could upgrade my GPU to something else, then bottlenecking came to mind, so I decided to come here for some help. I'll list my build below, also I thought about ether upgrade to a i5 Skylake or upgrading my GPU to a 1060 or 1070 depending or deals or pricing.

 

Heres my build:

i3-6100

R9 380 4GB

8GB DDR4 Ram

1TB HDD

550 PSU

[Teachmeurway]

Depends what you use your comp for, fam.

 

A new GPU is good for some applications and games.

 

A new CPU is good for some applications and games.

[Ichi]

CPU first for me.

Why did you get i3 in the first place??!

[SammytheSlugg]

Upgrade your CPU then later on upgrade your GPU

[Mustangace]

40 minutes ago, SammytheSlugg said:

Upgrade your CPU then later on upgrade your GPU

Personally, that's what I would do - upgrade the cpu first.  

 

I was forced, due to HD failure in my i7 system, to use my backup computer with an old AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual core cpu to play my favorite game with my GPU from my i7 system, thinking it would work just fine because it was the same video card.  No. No, it did not work just fine - the cpu became a bottleneck, making the game almost unplayable even on lowest settings.  Now, having said that, I'm sure an Intel i3 Skylake processor is a much better dual core than that old 2005 model AMD Athlon 64 X2.  But because of my experience, I just have to go with upgrading the cpu first. 

[LabRat]

8 hours ago, Mustangace said:

Personally, that's what I would do - upgrade the cpu first.  

 

I was forced, due to HD failure in my i7 system, to use my backup computer with an old AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual core cpu to play my favorite game with my GPU from my i7 system, thinking it would work just fine because it was the same video card.  No. No, it did not work just fine - the cpu became a bottleneck, making the game almost unplayable even on lowest settings.  Now, having said that, I'm sure an Intel i3 Skylake processor is a much better dual core than that old 2005 model AMD Athlon 64 X2.  But because of my experience, I just have to go with upgrading the cpu first. 

you do realize that those 2 cpu's are no where near being in the same ballpark?

[Lolita465]

I wouild upgrade your CPU first. Then upgrade your GPU later on. those cards could possibly bottleneck your pc without upgrading your CPU first

 

[LabRat]

OP, I have a 380. good enough card. I would keep it a couple more years. I'd invest in a multi core multi thread cpu ( 4/8 ) (6/12 ).

[NuclearAllen]

15 hours ago, Ichi said:

CPU first for me.

Why did you get i3 in the first place??!

Well it was on pcpartpickers website for one of the builds and that's what i model my build from, and its Skylake so its the newest i3. I'm also on a tight budget and for a budget cpu it seemed like the right choice. 

[Mustangace]

10 hours ago, LabRat said:

you do realize that those 2 cpu's are no where near being in the same ballpark?

Guess you didn't read my last sentence??   Yeah... I kind of think I did realize that, but they are still both dual core.  And dual core can bottleneck some games, especially the most modern ones that will use more than just two cores.  I would upgrade the cpu before I would touch the gpu. 

[Mustangace]

4 hours ago, NuclearAllen said:

Well it was on pcpartpickers website for one of the builds and that's what i model my build from, and its Skylake so its the newest i3. I'm also on a tight budget and for a budget cpu it seemed like the right choice. 

Well, being on a budget is a good reason to go i3.  I'm sure the i3 is a lot better than the old AMD or Intel dual core Pentium processors, but time never stands still.  As good as an i3 is as a dual core today, it will struggle with some of the most modern games, should you want to play on very high settings.  Of course, if you have no need for games that require more from your cpu, then there is nothing wrong with what you have.  No shame in getting what you can on the budget you are on.