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.