most effective update??

Robdav · 16 Nov 2017 at 20:31

my son inherited my old pc last year and as it's coming up to xmas I was thinking about upgrading if for him.

the spec is a amd phenom ii x4 965 with 16gb ram and a GeForce 980 gpu. it plays games like skyrim and warframe reasonably well but clearly its going to struggle with new AAA titles.

So the question is, upgrade the cpu/mb or the gpu?

daveyb · 16 Nov 2017 at 20:50

just to clarify you do mean a gtx 980 and not a geforce 9800 or something? if so then i could be wrong but a phenom 4 965 would most likely be bottlenecking a 980 badly. you could probably get a cheap fx8350 for it or move to a new platform although at that point youll be needing a new board/cpu/ddr4.

hornetstinger · 16 Nov 2017 at 20:52

Whole new system those Phenoms weren't that great.

Zefan · 16 Nov 2017 at 20:52

This is a very easy one. Without doubt upgrade the motherboard and CPU! The 980 is still a fantastic card; far, far more than that CPU can handle. Even then, now is an awful time to upgrade GPU, as the prices have been pushed very high by the recent resurgence of cryptocurrency mining.

:edit: I'm thinking the above posters might be in to something here, 9800 sounds like it's more of the correct era. That changes things a lot if so, and to be honest I'd look at a whole new PC as all parts will be bottlenecking anything close to modern.

Robdav · 16 Nov 2017 at 21:14

OK just to be clear it is the gtx 980 not the 9800.

so cpu and m/b upgrade then. ok cool.

BongoHunter · 17 Nov 2017 at 16:30

Robdav said:
OK just to be clear it is the gtx 980 not the 9800.

so cpu and m/b upgrade then. ok cool.

And memory - unless you go for an Intel chip and Mobo from a couple of years ago that can use the DDR3 you have in the system now