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Replace Graphics card or new CPU/Mobo/Memory?

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A friend has asked me to price up a new PC for him as he wants a better gaming rig.

His current spec is:
AMD A8 6600K CPU
Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-D3H mobo
8Gb DDR3 1600Mhz Ram
Nvidia GTX 750ti
1Tb HDD

He wants:
Intel Skylake i5 6600,
250GB Samsung 850 Evo M2
MSI Gaming B150 M3 Intel mobo
8Gb DDR4 Corsair Vengeance

.......... but he wants to keep the NVidia 750Ti

I believe that the upgrade will offer very little performance increase when it comes to games as the limiting factor would be the 750Ti graphics card. The AMD FX 6600K is still a very capable CPU & can cope will all the latest games so I don't see the need for the Intel Skylake CPU (apart from being the latest tech & a little faster)

My option would be to buy a NVidia GTX 970 & a 250GB SSD as his current mobo has SATA III 6Gb/s as this would offer a huge performance increase in both games & system response times because of the switch to a SSD.

Would most people agree with this or should he go for the Intel CPU & kit?

Thanks.
 
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The intel i5 will provide a more solid basis for future upgrades. Once you have a top end i5, there's little reason to upgrade it for years. I currently see absolutely zero reason to recommend an AMD CPU to anybody in any case, unless they are on a severe budget and want to game. APU makes no sense when paired with a dedicated GPU either.

EDIT: I don't really understand why somebody thought it was a sensible idea to pair an A8 6600 with a 750ti...
 
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Those are fair points, but it seems you think that he's buying the A8 6600k when he already has it in his current PC.

Lets simplify the question.

What would you do if you already have a AMD A8 6600K & a 750Ti....
Buy an Intel Skylake 6600 & keep the 750Ti or Keep the A8 6600K & buy a GTX 970?
 
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Those are fair points, but it seems you think that he's buying the A8 6600k when he already has it in his cuttent PC.

Lets simplify the question.

What would you do if you already have a AMD A8 6600K & a 750Ti....
Buy an Intel Skylake 6600 & keep the 750Ti or Keep the A8 6600K & buy a GTX 970?

What games does he play? What resolution?

The i5 would provide a superior base for all future upgrades. It'd last many more years than the A8 would. An alternative would be to buy a second hand Haswell/Devil's Canyon board and CPU, then he can reuse the old RAM.
 
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I think while his cpu is not the best, but still changing it and the mobo will result in less of a performance bump than the second option.
I would probably go with the new gpu+ssd option.
But what PSU does he have?
 

CAPSLOCKSTUCK

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I would buy an SSD and maybe some more ram.

I have 2 systems in front of me, both are in my specs....Wendys Nightmare and Blue Bubbles, i have swapped the GPUS and paired them with both CPUS, FPS are practically the same, the AMD works harder but achieves similar results.

Edit. I played

GTA V
Project Cars
MotoGP 15
 
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No sure on the PSU but I think is half decent 600w one so it sould be fine for a GTX970 - but will check.
 
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Tell u r friend to sell it and buy Skylake..z170,ddr 4.. :)

It will last long time and be much better than AMD in games,work,etc ..
 

bluntspoon

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I would suggest you have him install MSI Afterburner and then play some games or do whatever he normally uses the computer for. Take a look at both the CPU and GPU utilization during this time frame. If the GPU is already closing in on 100% then upgrading the CPU is likely to gain him relatively little benefit. If the CPU is closing in on 100% and the GPU is in significantly lower then a CPU upgrade might be the way to go. I happen to know an idiot (not me) who upgraded his Phenom II X4 Black OC'd to 3.6 (really, not me) running with a GTX660 to a Xeon 1231v3 expecting to see a decent increase in FPS in games. This idiot (totally, seriously not me) was then quite upset when he saw single digit increases in all gaming benchmarks. Clearly this idiots GPU was already maxing out. (Maybe, just maybe it was me. Maybe....)

In the short term I'd be willing to bet a 970 would give a significantly greater increase in games over the CPU upgrade. The big question is how good are the new GPU's going to be when they are released in perhaps Q3. The i56600 is probably going to be fine for a few years and he wont feel left behind in that area. If there is a sizable jump in GPU strength because both AMD and Nvidia are moving to 14nm later this year your friend is going to poke you in the eye.

Personally I would buy the SSD now and if possible wait to see what the new GPU's bring later this year. Just the SSD alone will make a nice difference. But have him put Afterburner on and look at the CPU/GPU utilization and go from there.
 
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I got an a10-6800k paired with a 290, i bought the 6800k 3 years ago on a ~$380 budget and bought the 290 on Oct 2015, if he wants to gain graphic fidelity he can go the 970 + ssd route now and save for the stronger cpu + mobo upgrade, it will sound illogical to some but if he's in a budget that's the only reasonable way to go if he wants to increase graphic settings on games right now. I went from hd8670d to a 290, that's low/med 720p settings to VSR 1200p/1600p ultra settings.

I'm currently planning on replacing cpu + mobo myself as i have an i7 960 doing nothing in a closet, got a mobo for that in transit and im gonna OC the hell out of it and call it a day til either cpu or the gpu dies, might as well join the crunch team on the forum we'll see :O.
 

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Tell u r friend to sell it and buy Skylake..z170,ddr 4.. :)

It will last long time and be much better than AMD in games,work,etc ..
You're saying code name, chipset type, and memory generation. Y'know specifying (and not saying "my specs") would help instead of blurting out, again,
code name, chipset type, and memory generation.

@ OP
6600, 2x4 DDR4, a decent midrange board supporting the chip, and a 970 would be a huge improvement. Even more so when a SSD as a boot drive. Check the PSU first because that might need updating also.

I've been ignoring the whole Z170 splooge since there is little reason for me to care coming from my Haswell rig. That and too many issues with the generation for the time being.
 
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Is not my specs,i didnt mention asus,corsair or else...

Generally he can pick what skylake cpu wants,any mobo,any ram :)

Cheers!
 
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Most probably (almost 100%) and especially in this case , going from low end GPU to high end will get more benefit than changing his CPU, that cpu is the 860k which will most likely bottleneck the gtx 970, although its an awesome CPU for the price(speaking for the 860k which is the same CPU as the one OP has + igpu).
Even if he could get the 5960x, he will see more upgrade with the gtx970 over the 750ti (speaking for games).
Edit: Almost the same as 860k as he has the A8 6600k which if im correct its slightly slower CPU base than the 860k
 
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Keep the 750 Ti for now. Upgrade the rest of the system and go for a different card later. Current system isn't strong enough for a better card even though there will be a bit of an increase in graphics performance.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
That CPU will place a glass ceiling on a 970 in some(many?) titles. That said, it will give him more FPS by going 970 than upgrading the CPU and keeping the 750ti... that is, unless he games at like 1280x1024 or some low low CPU bound res...
 

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Get 970 etc. and overclock CPU to the maximum. It's a K CPU. Use it. Buy CPU etc. later on. CPU to CPU will be a minimal jump, same CPU with other GPU will be a decent jump. Games are most of the times GPU limited, that CPU isn't really fast, but with some overclocking should be okay for some months, until he can replace it with something better.
 
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