Need help determining upgrading either CPU or GPU on a budget.

Floppy Flup · 2 Dec 2019 at 20:45

Hi there everyone! New member to this community.

I'll start off by saying I know my build is not ideal, I live in a third world country and parts are extremely expensive.

System specs are:

CPU: i3-4160
GPU: Sapphire R7-260X OC
SSD: 850 EVO 120GB
HDD: 1TB Blue 2012
RAM: Kingston 8GB 1333mhz
Mobo: Asus H81m-k

Onto my question, would it preferable to upgrade the CPU to something along the lines of an i5-4590 or would a GTX 1050ti be a better investment? I will most likely upgrade the other component after a few months. I feel the 4160 is a bottleneck on newer titles and though I can hit close to 60 at low, it's a gamble since CPU usage is always at 100%

I mostly play games at 720p60fps so not looking for anything massive. I cannot upgrade to a new mobo or a new generation of CPU due to monetary constraints.

Please advise the best course of action, I would greatly appreciate it thank you.

Minibiker · 3 Dec 2019 at 00:03

WELCOME

I would consider upgrading the CPU as the one your using is Dual core and you'll see that maxing out most of the time in games... I know your GPU isn't the strongest either but I feel the CPU upgrade is needed more...

Do you know what PSU you have?
What is your budget?

Journey · 3 Dec 2019 at 09:31

I'd have a look at picking up a cheap Xeon E3 series processor from an auction site, or alternatives. If you are lucky you might be able to get something for only around $50 shipped.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H81MK/HelpDesk_CPU/

Your board compatibility list is above and you can use more of the v3 CPU's, these are the equivalent of the i7-4770 which is 4c/8t.

Floppy Flup · 3 Dec 2019 at 10:50

Minibiker said:
WELCOME

I would consider upgrading the CPU as the one your using is Dual core and you'll see that maxing out most of the time in games... I know your GPU isn't the strongest either but I feel the CPU upgrade is needed more...

Do you know what PSU you have?
What is your budget?

Thank you very much for the response, that is exactly what I was thinking. Although the GPU needs an upgrade, I feel even after the GPU upgrade i'll need to upgrade the CPU so why not get the CPU out of the way first right.

I have a 650W Cooler Cooler Master
Budget wise i'm limited by socket options, so i can get either the i5 4590 or an i7 4770 or a xeon variant so it really boils down to that. At the end of the day I should see significant improvements with the i5 yeah?

Floppy Flup · 3 Dec 2019 at 10:51

Journey said:
I'd have a look at picking up a cheap Xeon E3 series processor from an auction site, or alternatives. If you are lucky you might be able to get something for only around $50 shipped.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H81MK/HelpDesk_CPU/

Your board compatibility list is above and you can use more of the v3 CPU's, these are the equivalent of the i7-4770 which is 4c/8t.

Hi! I have the option of getting a Xeon E3 1246 v3 as per your recommendations, would that be better than the i5 4590? Awaiting your response, thank you.

Minibiker · 3 Dec 2019 at 13:28

Floppy Flup said:
Thank you very much for the response, that is exactly what I was thinking. Although the GPU needs an upgrade, I feel even after the GPU upgrade i'll need to upgrade the CPU so why not get the CPU out of the way first right.

I have a 650W Cooler Cooler Master
Budget wise i'm limited by socket options, so i can get either the i5 4590 or an i7 4770 or a xeon variant so it really boils down to that. At the end of the day I should see significant improvements with the i5 yeah?

The Xeon will be the the better option as Journey has said, it has 4 cores and 8 threads so will have slightly better performance over the i5 4 core 4 threads

Burnt_Custard · 3 Dec 2019 at 13:45

I would say do a GPU upgrade like the 1050ti you mentioned. It will give you nice boost in the current games you play and other older games that don't rely on multiple cpu cores. After that you can then you can look into the cpu upgrade etc and bring along the 1050ti.

In most cases you will always see a big increase in performance in games when you change your graphics card. In most games you won't get any big performance increase when changing the CPU when your GPU is already weak.