Upgrading PC - Processor vs GPU?

[awesomeal360]

I'm upgrading my PC's processor and GPU and I currently have an I3-4150 with a GTX 750 ti and am going to go with an I7-4790 and a GTX 960 and I'm wanting to know which should I upgrade first to get biggest boost to performance?

 

Currently I can play Skyrim SE anywhere from 45-60 FPS on Beth INI Medium setting with Tree distance maxed out and detail quality on high and Shadows on lowest resolution.

 

Since I'm on a budget I can only get one component now and will need to get the other one ...eventually so trying to get the biggest bang for my buck.

Edited August 5, 2019 by awesomeal360

[FrankFamily]

Gaming performance? Most likely you are better off going for the gpu upgrade. One way to look at this is how much of a bottleneck you would have if you upgraded one or other:

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i3-4150/GeForce_GTX_960/0Ak0Oelu/8/

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i7-4790/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/0zU0Jplu/8/

 

According to this you would have massive bottlenecking if you upgrade cpu and stay on that gpu. Still bottleneck with the gpu upgrade but way less significant. The site also does upgrade recommendations, maybe it's useful.

 

Edit, wait actually the fps seem much higher in with the CPU upgrade, yeah maybe the cpu you have is really the problem.

Edited August 5, 2019 by FrankFamily

[awesomeal360]

Gaming performance? Most likely you are better off going for the gpu upgrade. One way to look at this is how much of a bottleneck you would have if you upgraded one or other:

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i3-4150/GeForce_GTX_960/0Ak0Oelu/8/

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i7-4790/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/0zU0Jplu/8/

 

According to this you would have massive bottlenecking if you upgrade cpu and stay on that gpu. Still bottleneck with the gpu upgrade but way less significant. The site also does upgrade recommendations, maybe it's useful.

 

Edit, wait actually the fps seem much higher in with the CPU upgrade, yeah maybe the cpu you have is really the problem.

 

Thanks for the links. I'll be able to play round with this a bit.

[NikiRandom]

I think it depends partly on what kind of game you play as well. I mean, if you like to install a lot of lush graphics mods then you need a good GPU, whereas if you go more for a lot of script heavy gameplay mods then you'll be needing a good CPU and plenty of RAM. Edited August 10, 2019 by NikiRandom

[xrayy]

gpu is in most cases more important but in your case both should be updated simultaneously assuming the i3 has only two cores and in best case 4 threads. as already said it depends on the game. both parts are outdated and not designed for mid or even high end gaming. i would recommend you to use the i7 4790 but i would skip the 960GT and would go at least for a 1060 6GB

[tekmage]

Unfortunately, the GPU/CPU dependence is highly variable and ultimately rests on what the game engine the game is using. A CPU with two cores/4 threads might be perfectly fine for a lot of games but if the game is heavily reliant on CPU, the experience would be poor. Most modern engines like Unreal 4.0 lean heavier on GPUs though as APIs like Vulcan become the norm. Skyrim and other Bethesda titles for the most part benefit from the CPU more because the Creation engine depends/likes raw CPU speeds. So, CPU should be your first priority if your game focus is Bethesda games.

[RaksoGod]

I know I'm a bit late and if you haven't already made a decision, I think you should definitely go with a new processor. Although bottleneck will be a severe drawback, the processor speeds are integral for bethesda games and running many mods at once. GPU is secondary priority but maybe wait until prices fall a bit.

[Tower01]

There is no doubt that this game would perform much better with an i7 or better or an AMD Ryzen Gen 2 R5 or better. However, an upgrade from an i3-4150 LGA 1150 socket to any of the newer LGA 1151 sockets or AMD AM4 sockets will obviously require a new motherboard and memory as well as a new CPU. So, if price is a consideration, this would be a very costly move. But, its your best upgrade with respect to SSE performance. Consider an i5-9600K, or for same or better performance, an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X.

 

Close behind is an upgrade from the GTX 750Ti. The issue is that the 2GB vram is a bottleneck, as well as the clock speeds. An upgrade to 4GB is the minimum you should consider, with "the more the better" approach to further vram capacity. Unfortunately GTX 960 won't do it, even though it would be about twice as fast as the GTX 750Ti. Today, your best NVIDIA bang for the buck is probably the 1660Ti (6 GB DDR6) , and for about the same price with slightly better performance, an AMD Vega 56 (8GB HDM2).

Edited September 12, 2019 by Tower01

[goranpaa]

I agree to what Tower01 says. Especailly about the video cards.

The vega 56 are a nice card. But you need a powersupply minimum 500W. All the later Radeon cards are very power hungry.

 

My tip is to go for the 1660TI. Cheaper than the Vega 56 ( Don't buy the Vega reference version with the small blower style fan if you are going for this card?! It sounds like a hair dryer ). The 1660Ti are close in performance to Vega 56 in many games and as fast or faster now and then as the GTX 1070. And only require a 450W PSU. The 1660TI also comes with the new DDR6 VRAM with a higher bandwith than the old DDR5.

 

I had a Radeon Sapphire Nitro + 4 gb for my heavy ( mostly 2K mods) modded game. It worked in a decent way, but the 1660TI I have now are butter smooth and I got a steady and good FPS in the exteriours.

Btw. the 4gb RX 580 used up 3850 - 3912 mb of VRAM at exteriours. So a video card with 6 - 8 gb VRAM are the better choise.

~10% difference in raw numbers is exactly what you see in comparisons: 5-10% better performance on a card that has more VRAM.

Edited October 24, 2019 by goranpaa

[divotdog]

this all depends on the other games you play and other ways you use your computer. for example if you play more processing heavy games beside Skyrim like hoi4, arma 3 etc. you would want to go with the cpu. I would also suggest the cpu because it will help more. keep in mind like others have said (tower01) upgrading your cpu like that will require a new motherboard and memory. I heavily suggests a 15-9600k instead of the i7, I used one for the longest of time and it did wonders its a great cpu all around.