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Which should i upgrade first and What should i upgrade it to ?

Joined
Nov 26, 2008
Messages
7 (0.00/day)
System Name UnderMordor
Processor FX-8320
Motherboard Asus M4A97
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Memory 2 x 4 Gigs Corsair Vengance
Video Card(s) Asus R9 280x
Storage 500 Gigs WD Blue
Display(s) Samsung 22'' 1080p 75Hz
Power Supply SeaSonic S12II Series SS-620GB 620W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply
Hi All ,

Its been long time i havent upgraded my pc.
Rite now , I have the following setup,
1.FX-8320
2.R9 280x
3.Monitor - 1080p

I plan to upgrade the system , so that i could use it for another 5 yrs or so , i will be only gaming in 1080p.

I can upgrade only in step by step manner , like either the CPU , mobo , RAM or GPU first

So which one should I be upgrading ?
i have these in mind at the moment
1.CPU - ryzen 5 3600 / 3500 - any other better alternatives for future proofing
2.GPU - RTX 2060 (380$) , RX 5700 (460$). - any other better alternatives for future proofing (pls dont recommend 2080Ti :D , i dont have that much money)

Thanks Everyone ! Cheers
 
There is no such thing as future proofing, so may I suggest a budget approach? For 1080P:
Ryzen 2600 can be had at Newegg for $115 (but the 3600 at $190 is a good deal as well)
B450 motherboard (B450 Tomahawk [Max] used as an example) $115
16 GB DDR4-3200 $60
GTX 1660 Supper $230

Total: $520
 
As a dude who runs old stuff... I'd say the cpu and mobo first.
 
CPU + mobo + RAM first. Then wait until Nvidia/AMD releases 2020 cards.
 
3600 is a solid choice. And should be for quite a while, unless CPU needs change drastically. You can even do high FPS if you want. Future-proofing aside that is one of the best buys for perf/value right now and a damned respectable chip. Definitely go for that first. Between that and the DDR4, you're looking much more ready for modern games and tasks than that FX/DDR3 maybe ever was :p RAM is priced pretty well and compatibility is pretty good with Ryzen 3000. There hasn't been a better time to buy into a platform for a while. AM4 might be on it's way out, though honestly, I don't see most people needing to upgrade from a 3600 anytime soon.

Or, you could even save some cash getting a 2600. Those are also more than enough right now. Just really solid all-around performance, very easy to cool and power-efficient. And good multi-taskers to boot! I ran one myself until recently... mostly got a 3900x to geek-out on. I wanted for nothing with th 2600 but something new to play with. Set up many a system with 2600x's and thus far have only heard praises from the recipients. We're all like you, gaming at 1080p. I also used it for batch photo processing/editing and audio production, which it was just great for. I could stack tracks and instruments pulling tons of samples and doing all of this real-time parallelized audio processing seamlessly, maxing quality on every effect, simulator, and virtual instrument right up to the point when I maxed out my 16gb of ram. Getting an Intel chip that can do that costs a good bit more. We're talking about a CPU that right now, will even handle some decent workstation tasks on the side. Don't let the price fool you! They're gobs more powerful and flexible than your FX. They're inexpensive, but not cheap. It's still a serious midrange CPU that will handle 1080p/60 gaming very well and also offer, I think, a superior desktop experience. Hard to explain... everything is smooth in ways that are unique to Ryzen. It's a unique architecture with unique advantages, that the whole lines share from top to bottom. Point is, if all you truly ever want to do with this rig is play games and have a really nice experience just using the machine, the 2600 is $120 very well-spent.

And later on when they're cheaper, you can easily swap-in a Ryzen 3000 chip for another serious upgrade. I'm running a 3900x in a board that was around when Ryzen was brand new. But really, you may never find a need to. Depends on what kind of gaming you do. There may come a time when some games >60FPS need more than the 2000 series has to give in clocks and IPC. In that event, a quick swap to a 3000-series chip in that same board comes to the rescue. Otherwise I don't see an absolute need. It's nice that you can, though. You're not totally locked-in if you go that way.

Like, for the price, you can go right to the 3600 and never worry, but in my opinion and experience, it's not an absolute need if your goal is to do this on a tight budget. My mindset has always been "Spend the money now, not later." so I'd lean towards the newer CPU, but in this case I can't legitimately say that's the only way to go.

The 280x should carry you until you can save for a new GPU. 2060 isn't a bad choice. I have one. It runs everything at high or ultra 1080/60 with breathing room. Bordering on overkill. I could up refresh rate or go to 1440p and lose nothing. Or with some compromises even run some games at 4k. If you wanna game at 1080p that'll do it for a while! No doubt lol. Nothing but good things to say about it. I enjoy dabbling in the RTX stuff, too. Though honestly if you're not, you might be overpaying buying one for 1080p gaming. When I bought mine it was the best option. Not so much now.

By the time you save enough there's a good chance there will be better options. 5700 is even better, but again... we're kind of in a middle pocket with GPU's right now. Whatever you buy at this point is about to be trumped in value, if not performance as well.

That said, thebluebumblebee also made a great reccomendation for something that's actually great for 1080p gaming, right now. It's still a major, major upgrade for you. Honestly not a bad way to go, either. 1660 super is a killer 1080p card and you're not paying the RTX markup. They can also run cooler and more efficiently, if you care about stuff like that.
 
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ryzen 5 3600, msi b450 tomahawk, 16gb DDR4 3200/3600
Radeon 5700 or 2060S
 
If gaming is the goal it's hard to say for certain when you put it like that (futureproofing) as things will change a lot with new consoles coming out.
As for current PC standards it looks like a zen2 8core+5700xt is the rough equivalent for those consoles (ballpark - who knows the exact power constraints and clocks, the gpu sounds like a newer design than the 5700 cards also so it might even be better).

Right now few rare hungry games aside - where 8 cores only slightly boost fps or at least affect minimums - 6c/12t is the ideal CPU, and depending on resolution the gpu could be a budget 1660 (there's like 4-5 variants im not even sure which one's the "best" atm) or a higher cost 2060s/5700/xt/2070s (1080p to 1440p). Broadly speaking i think futureproofing a system on a tight budget might be hard, so I think you just buy whats best for your budget right now, otherwise you'll end up putting off building something every year as new things that change where the goalpost sits come out all the time.
 
If gaming is the goal it's hard to say for certain when you put it like that (futureproofing) as things will change a lot with new consoles coming out.
As for current PC standards it looks like a zen2 8core+5700xt is the rough equivalent for those consoles (ballpark - who knows the exact power constraints and clocks, the gpu sounds like a newer design than the 5700 cards also so it might even be better).

Right now few rare hungry games aside - where 8 cores only slightly boost fps or at least affect minimums - 6c/12t is the ideal CPU, and depending on resolution the gpu could be a budget 1660 (there's like 4-5 variants im not even sure which one's the "best" atm) or a higher cost 2060s/5700/xt/2070s (1080p to 1440p). Broadly speaking i think futureproofing a system on a tight budget might be hard, so I think you just buy whats best for your budget right now, otherwise you'll end up putting off building something every year as new things that change where the goalpost sits come out all the time.

i think amd platform is the way to go for him start off with a ryzen 5 3600, maybe ditch the b450 motherboard and opt for a x570 chipset instead. That way he can upgrade to next ryzen cpu and x570 has goodies like pci-e 4.0 and all that other stuff.
 
I will be the only one to say: Upgrade Your GPU first.
Your FX can hold it together for quite a bit still.
As solid as ryzen 3000 is You might as well wait a bit more, nothing is pressuring You to switch.
Get Yourself a radeon rx 580 8gb or a 1660 ti and You are pretty much set.
I use radeon 7970 (pretty much the same as 280x) on off when testing and its solid AF. 3gb of vram hurts though.
 
I will be the only one to say: Upgrade Your GPU first.
Your FX can hold it together for quite a bit still.
As solid as ryzen 3000 is You might as well wait a bit more, nothing is pressuring You to switch.
Get Yourself a radeon rx 580 8gb or a 1660 ti and You are pretty much set.
I use radeon 7970 (pretty much the same as 280x) on off when testing and its solid AF. 3gb of vram hurts though.
As someone who mained an i5 2400 till this year, your recommendation to keep the CPU is physically hurting me. Almost every post-2016 game was bottlenecking the RX 470 I had.
 
CPU + motherboard + RAM first, after that GPU.
In my country they offer huge discounts on Ryzen 5 2600 and Ryzen 7 2700, so check them out because it could be the same thing in your country.
Considering the cooler, I recommend Be Quiet Shadow Rock Slim or Cryorig H5 Universal.
As for motherboard I recommend Asrock B450 Gaming K4, Asus B450 Steel Legend, MSI B450 Gaming Plus/Max.
I also suggest 16 GB (2x8GB) RAM, either 3000 MHz or 3200 MHz from G.Skill, ADATA, Team.
 
As someone who mained an i5 2400 till this year, your recommendation to keep the CPU is physically hurting me. Almost every post-2016 game was bottlenecking the RX 470 I had.
no no no, gringo.
You are comparing a 4c4t to a 8c.
Pretty much a 2 years difference between those two :laugh:
 
both cpu and gpu,cpu first,it's trash.gpu is still somwhat good f or entry level gaming,but it's 6 yeras old and amd's support for new games is hit-miss even for new cards.

is 3500x available where you live ?
what about the prices for 1660 super and 5500xt 8gb ?
 
Thanks all for the valuable response. I was able to see different opinions from different mind sets .Most of them wanting me to upgrade the CPU package , few wanting me to upgrade the GPU. I know its a close call. Either way , I will be upgrading them in the near future. Need few other clarifications as well.

1.Even though the 1660 Ti is a nice card for 1080p (330$) , while the RTX 2060 is around (385$). The prices are crazy in my country u know !!!

2.If I just upgrade my GPU alone to say like rx 580 or smething , wouldnt be like , i will be in a need to upgrade the GPU again in the coming year or so , or it would be fine ?

3.And the 4th gen zen CPUs might be coming , so should i buy the mobo keeping in mind that , or this gen will serve me decent for 5 years ?

Thanks again.
 
Thanks all for the valuable response. I was able to see different opinions from different mind sets .Most of them wanting me to upgrade the CPU package , few wanting me to upgrade the GPU. I know its a close call. Either way , I will be upgrading them in the near future. Need few other clarifications as well.

1.Even though the 1660 Ti is a nice card for 1080p (330$) , while the RTX 2060 is around (385$). The prices are crazy in my country u know !!!

2.If I just upgrade my GPU alone to say like rx 580 or smething , wouldnt be like , i will be in a need to upgrade the GPU again in the coming year or so , or it would be fine ?

3.And the 4th gen zen CPUs might be coming , so should i buy the mobo keeping in mind that , or this gen will serve me decent for 5 years ?

Thanks again.
analyze TPUs review for any new card and see that rx580 isn't able to do 1080p/60 in a lot of them even now.

Anno 1800 - 38 fps
Odyssey - 37 fps
Borderlands - 46 fps
Control - 36 fps
Hitman 2 - 40 fps
 
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analyze TPUs review for any new card and see that rx580 isn't able to do 1080p/60 in a lot of them even now.
Well, if he has that 2013ish rig now, I suppose that playing new games with not the maximum settings with RX 580 is fine... I mean for stable 60fps.
 
Well, if he has that 2013ish rig now, I suppose that playing new games with not the maximum settings with RX 580 is fine... I mean for stable 60fps.
Anno 1800 - 38 fps
Odyssey - 37 fps
Borderlands - 46 fps
Control - 36 fps
Hitman 2 - 40 fps

I doubt you'll hit stable 60 on low, you'd need more than 60% increase.
580/1060 were perfect for 1080/60 when they came out and in 2017,but now - far from it.
 
Anno 1800 - 38 fps
Odyssey - 37 fps
Borderlands - 46 fps
Control - 36 fps
Hitman 2 - 40 fps

I doubt you'll hit 60 on low, you'd need more than 60% increase.
580/1060 were perfect for 1080/60 when they came out and in 2017,but now - far from it.
I have a feeling that the old FX-8320 is more bottlenecking than a RX 580.
 
I have a feeling that the old FX-8320 is more bottlenecking than a RX 580.
that too.
like most ppl ay,get a new cpu first.
either a 9400f or 3500x,depending what is cheaper where he lives.
it's not like 580 is worlds apart from 290x either. it's a few percent slower than rx570,so 15-20% overall ? not worth the upgrade.Go for 50% at least with such an old card.

a 1660 super or sapphire Vega 56 if he can get his hands on one.
 
could you list the full specs of your pc?
e.g motherboard ram hdd, psu
we dont want to recommend you say a RTX 2060 and then bam your psu cant handle it.
 
2600/1600 now with a x470/570 mobo. 3700x or 4700x when you can afford it. 8 core cpus are the future, so I wouldn't bother going for a current gen 6 core. Invest in some decent ram 16gb. 3600/16 or 3200/14. Also make sure you get a mobo with good VRM. Check out the tier lists that are about.

Definitely wait for Nvidia 7nm re the GPU.

Also if you don't currently have an ssd, grab a 500gb minimum nvme drive. Intel 665p or Samsung 970 evo plus both solid choices.
 
1.Even though the 1660 Ti is a nice card for 1080p (330$) , while the RTX 2060 is around (385$). The prices are crazy in my country u know !!!

2.If I just upgrade my GPU alone to say like rx 580 or smething , wouldnt be like , i will be in a need to upgrade the GPU again in the coming year or so , or it would be fine ?
Before Ryzen came out in early 2017, the undisputed king of gaming CPU's was the i7-7700K, and no one was talking about needing more than the 4c/8t that it offered. Ryzen changed all of that. What I'm trying to point out is that planning a system for 5 years is impossible.

About the 470/480/570/580 question, They and the GTX 1060 and even the older GTX 980 perform about the same! That's why I suggested the GTX 1660 Supper, as it's performance splits that of the GTX 1070 and 1070 Ti. I just question if the GTX 2060 Super is worth $150+ more, for 1080P gaming.
 
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