Best Upgread For Gaming CPU Vs GPU?

[TechNoobie]

Hi, my sons current setup is:

Windows 11 Home 64-bit

AMD Ryzen 5 4500 Renoir 7nm Technology

16.0GB DC DDR4 @ 1063MHz (15-15-15-36)

ASUSTeK PRIME A520M-K (AM4)

4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

He wants higher FPS for Fortnite, Grand Teft Auto which play at 1080p fine

But cannot currently run Ark Survival, Call of Duty and the upcoming GTA6

In a year or so, we would upgrade the other one, so CPU now and GPU later or vice versa

Should we upgrade the CPU to the Ryzen 7 5700X3D

Or is it better to upgrade the GPU to something like a RTX 4060 which are both around the £200-£250 range

Or is it best to simply save up for an entirely new PC.

Thank you for the help

 

[Quartz]

But cannot currently run Ark Survival, Call of Duty

Why not? Is he getting low fps? Run MSI Afterburner with Rivatuner to find out where the bottleneck lies.

He wants higher FPS for Fortnite, Grand Teft Auto which play at 1080p fine

Do realise that higher FPS are useless without a high-refresh rate monitor to display them.

 

[TechNoobie]

Forgot to say that he has the AOC U27G3X monitor which does 4K and up to 160hrz

With regard to COD and Ark Survival we are getting so much stuttering that the games are unplayable. Even at the lowest settings they are very "choppy".

 

[Tetras]

Should we upgrade the CPU to the Ryzen 7 5700X3D

Or is it better to upgrade the GPU to something like a RTX 4060 which are both around the £200-£250 range

Or is it best to simply save up for an entirely new PC.

Forgot to say that he has the AOC U27G3X monitor which does 4K and up to 160hrz

With regard to COD and Ark Survival we are getting so much stuttering that the games are unplayable. Even at the lowest settings they are very "choppy".

The 1650 you have now is an entry level 1080p card, so I'm not surprised you're struggling to play at 4K, if that's what you're doing.

A 4060 is still intended for 1080p, though it can do 1440p at a push.

In terms of: should you buy a CPU or GPU, if you're playing at 4K then most likely your GPU is the bottleneck, but I'd suggest doing some testing first as Quartz has suggested.

 

[TechNoobie]

Hi guys, I've done some tests and can't really find where the bottleneck is, in the GPU or the CPU, it differs with different games

I got him to wait for the 5000 series to come out to see if that changes things

So now I would either upgrade the CPU to the Ryzen 7 5700X3D (would have liked the 5800 but this is out of stock)

Or upgrade the GPU to the Palit GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Infinity 3 16GB

I'm not too concerned about the price difference, as the more expensive GPU would be used in his new system a few years down the line anyway

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[MissChief]

I'd be wary of putting too much into a dead end platform just now. A 5700x would be around £100 then consider some decent speed Ram. A DDR4 3200 kit should be around £30-40, if that. Then you can consider the GPU and I'd be tempted to go for a 9060XT 16GB over the 5060ti. Or even stretch to a 9070.

 

[Tetras]

Hi guys, I've done some tests and can't really find where the bottleneck is, in the GPU or the CPU, it differs with different games

Yeah, that is to be expected. Can you clarify if you're trying to play games at 4K?

So now I would either upgrade the CPU to the Ryzen 7 5700X3D (would have liked the 5800 but this is out of stock)

Or upgrade the GPU to the Palit GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Infinity 3 16GB

I'm not too concerned about the price difference, as the more expensive GPU would be used in his new system a few years down the line anyway

So far as I'm aware, the 4500 is equivalent to a Ryzen 3600. That CPU will encounter some bottlenecking in esports games, but I'm still confident that a 1650 is much less capable than it can handle.

If you HAVE to choose one, it is the graphics card for me, especially if you play at 4K.

 

[TechNoobie]

Basically he wants the best FPS and highest resolution possible for a range of games, it's hard to be more specific than that because he tweaks the setting in-game on everything. So I can only ask for the best upgrade "for gaming performance"

 

[Tetras]

Basically he wants the best FPS and highest resolution possible for a range of games, it's hard to be more specific than that because he tweaks the setting in-game on everything. So I can only ask for the best upgrade "for gaming performance"

Then I'd just go for the 5060 Ti 16GB (or a 9060 XT 16GB). It won't be a 100% fix, since some games are more CPU demanding, but hopefully it will enable higher resolution gameplay in the vast majority.

 

[MissChief]

The best upgrade for gaming performance is to spend £1200 or so on a new PC. Otherwise you’re going to be adding bits here and bits there and only seeing incremental increases.

 

[sastusbulbas]

Basically he wants the best FPS and highest resolution possible for a range of games, it's hard to be more specific than that because he tweaks the setting in-game on everything. So I can only ask for the best upgrade "for gaming performance"

It is easy to be more specific, by stating what his chosen resolution and game settings are, if he is trying to play 4k at ultra your having a laugh, if your trying to play 1080p on medium settings that's more within your budget but still going to be hindered by your system.

Your motherboard is a budget AM4 platform with a limiting PCIe 3.0 slot and not the sort of motherboard worth dumping a better CPU into, your memory is also a limiting factor these days.

In reality, to be blunt, you are better off looking at a new system, you have a £400 budget for a GPU and an old system, you could just save some more, build a new PC, sell the old PC to recoup some money. Or you could price up a system that will do reasonable 1080p/1440p gaming and start afresh with ideas from such a list. Bear in mind an Intel ARC GPU sucks on old hardware, isn't too bad on AM5, but still not as good as the 9060xt. Despite that the Intel arc with a 7600 will do better than your old AM4 with a 9060xt.

Below is the sort of budget system I tell my lads about, who then hum and haw due to youtube videos and a dislike for RGB. My kids play 1080p on 4770K's with RX-570/580 GPU's currently and are long due their own upgrades from their own pockets. I tell my lads to do either a motherboard bundle, or a GPU, or a PSU/case/cooler as three easy upgrade steps if they want some better items.

You could possibly re-use your current CPU cooler, hard drive, PSU, case.
Bear in mind that is an AM5 cpu/motherboard/ram bundle for £340.
The GPU is £216.
So that is a total of £556 for a new system, instead of £400 on a GPU.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DG-AM) = £169.99
• 1 x MSI Pro B840M-B (AMD AM5) B840 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-05550) = £89.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) (SKU: MY-0B2-TG) = £79.99
• 1 x Kingston NV3 1TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SNV3S/1000G) (SKU: STO-KNG-02942) = £51.95
• 1 x Intel ARC B580 12GB PCI-Express GDDR6 Limited Edition Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-INT-03759) = £215.99
• 1 x MSI MAG A650BN UK PSU 650W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: POW-MSI-03345) = £49.99
• 1 x PHANTEKS XT M3 Micro-ATX Case, includes 3x 120mm Fans - Black (SKU: CAS-PHK-05735) = £59.90
• 1 x Thermalright Assassin Spirit 120 Evo ARGB CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02720) = £17.00

Total: £734.80 (includes delivery: £0.00)​