upgrade cpu or gpu?

Eviljoker

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 18, 2012
Messages
398
I got a ryzen 7 1700x and a gigabyte gtx 1070.. which do I upgrade first for gaming?
 
You can upgrade the CPU to a Ryzen 3000-series with a 7704 or higher BIOS version (keeping the same motherboard, of course). A switch to Intel (which IMHO still has better gaming performance due to the higher clock speeds), on the other hand, will require purchasing a new motherboard in addition to a new CPU and possibly a new CPU cooler. Then, upgrade the GPU when it starts bottlenecking the upgraded CPU.
 
Imo ryzen 3000 series dont fall that far behind intel to pay that much for the switch. ;)

I've been looking at the ryzen 5 3600
 
What screen resolution and what games? If it is 1080p I would consider upgrading the CPU. If it is 1440p I would consider the GPU first
 
Just 1080.. no big rush to go to 1440.. I personally couldn't tell a difference.. to my eyes 720, 1080, 1440 4k all look the same. But that's me. Not saying others can't see the difference. :)
 
Just 1080.. no big rush to go to 1440.. I personally couldn't tell a difference.. to my eyes 720, 1080, 1440 4k all look the same. But that's me. Not saying others can't see the difference. :)
In this case, then upgrade the CPU for now. Then, wait until a future game needs a newer, more powerful GPU or your current GTX 1070 goes "legacy/obsolete" from Nvidia itself before you perform a GPU upgrade.
 
5 3600? Or think I should go for the X variant? I don't render or stream or anything like that. Gaming and watching movies, TV shows etc. Is all I do with my rig.
 
In your case, it doesn't matter. The Zen2 architecture has better lightly-threaded performance compared to the original first-generation Zen architecture that you're currently using.

Although I would still recommend a 3700X over either of the 3600 variants as future games will run better with a 16-thread CPU than with a 12-thread CPU of the same CPU generation. Plus, the forthcoming next-gen TV-based gaming consoles will use an 8-core/16-thread CPU that's very similar in architecture to the Ryzen 3000-series CPUs.

But if you really need to upgrade both CPU and GPU in order to just keep up with next-gen consoles, then you're trapped between a rock and a hard place right now. Both upgrades combined will put you over your intended budget right now.
 
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Huge price difference from 3600 to 3700x. I can get a ryzen 5 3500 for less than $150 Usd , only 3% more performance with 3700x over 3600.. according to UserBenchmanks website. Not worth the price tag imo.. but thanks for input XD
 
Huge price difference from 3600 to 3700x. I can get a ryzen 5 3500 for less than $150 Usd , only 3% more performance with 3700x over 3600.. according to UserBenchmanks website. Not worth the price tag imo.. but thanks for input XD
If it's that huge of a price difference, then keep in mind that current games do not take full advantage of more than about eight threads. Therefore, the 3% performance difference is based on current games.

That said, there will be a few games that will be released within the next 12 months that will make better use of more than eight threads. And there (on some of those forthcoming games) is where a 6-core/12-thread CPU might choke under pressure.

So, go for the 3600 series if you are not planning to purchase much if any new games for the foreseeable future, and you are already satisfied with what games that are already on the market.
 
Are you actually running into any bottlenecks? The 1700x and gtx 1070 is a pretty health base. I will say from personal experience I upgraded from 1700x to 3600x and was a pleasant upgrade for VR, mainly in minimum frames or the 1% lows were a lot higher FPS and reprojection stuff in headset was reduced a bunch. If you have a Microcenter around you can get the R5 3600 for $159, and probably sell the 1700x for close to $100 still. As far as gpu you are really picking a weird time as we are about to have new line launches form AMD and Nvidia so value prop is very low unless you look used.
 
Not what you want to hear, but I would recommend fighting the itch for another 8-12 months. Your hardware is too current to see a real noticable increase. It's well matched as well. Upgrading either will be immediately diminishing returns. If you have money to burn though, it's almost always best spent on a GPU.
Going from 8 core to 6 core seems like a side grade, even if in current games it's slightly faster (if your GPU can push the frames fast enough to matter).
 
Both of those components are very capable, an upgrade (for 1080p) imo is pointless at this time, I would skip this generation of gpus and CPUs and leapfrog to the next
 
Both of those components are very capable, an upgrade (for 1080p) imo is pointless at this time, I would skip this generation of gpus and CPUs and leapfrog to the next
I agree. Why waste money just to achieve pretty much a sideways-grade in overall performance (at least at the thread starter's regularly used resolution)?
 
I never have a issue going used :)

No current bottlenecks atm. Normally runs pretty smooth. Especially after getting 3600 ram.. think its just more of want than need xD but I might wait to see how all the new tech stuff goes and decide then. Might be able to get both if prices are where I hope :) as always. Thanks for all the input.
 
I'm somewhat in the same boat. Have two R5 1600s that I would really like to upgrade, but they are both driving rx580s. A real upgrade seems more expensive than it's worth. So I'm waiting for next round of releases.
 
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