what would be the better upgrade ?

[sparkhok]

hey guys, i have about $400 to spend atm and was thinking of upgrading my comp a bit.

e8500 running at stcok ( 3.17ghz )
8gig of ddr2 800mhz
radeon 5770
650 watt psu

i mostly play WOW, Diablo 3, Skyrim, Fallout 3 / new vegas. games like these. would like to be able to play witcher 3

so, what would be the better upgrade, me getting a amd fx-6300. 8 gig of ddr3 1600mhz and a new motherboard for those parts.
or would it be better to just get a better video card something like radeon r9 280x

i will eventually get all the parts for the upgrade. but will take me a while. so what would be the better upgrade to do first.

[noteworthynerd]

Your entire build is pretty dated, but considering the games that you play I would upgrade the CPU, motherboard and RAM first, but not with the parts you're considering.

Do something like this instead:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H87 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($95.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $348.53

Or, if you wanted to spend a little bit more, you could do this and potentially overclock it in the future:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Pro3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $372.97

Also, do you know what the manufacturer/model of your power supply is? 650W is plenty, assuming it's a quality power supply, but if it's not you may want to consider replacing that as well with something like this:

Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($61.98 @ SuperBiiz)

[sparkhok]

Thank you for the replay, my psu is a corsair tx650w wich is 80 plus.
is i5 really worth its price ? it is a full $100 more than fx6300 wouldint it be better to put the extra money towards a more powerfull video card ?
also i read that more and more games will be using more cores and from what i read on some forum i5 using all cores is only about 5-10% more powerfull than the fx6300 at full cores. or something to that extent also all the BUDGET builds i look at use the fx-6300.

[noteworthynerd]

• That power supply is fine.
• Yes, an i5 is worth the price, especially for the games you play. And number of cores is still mostly irrelevant, architecture is still more important. Here's a benchmark of the 6300 vs the 3570K, which is 5-10% less powerful than the 4670K. As you can see, in gaming, the Intel CPU is the clear winner. Regardless of what the budget builds use, the 4670K is light years ahead of the 6300 in gaming. Budget builds are $400-$500 total, not $400 for three components.

[sparkhok]

Hmm, if i were to go with a more expansive cpu, would you say i5 is better than fx 8350 ? seen plenty of reviews on youtube showing it keeping up with i7.

[noteworthynerd]

For the games you play (and most games in general) the 4670K is still better than the 8350. The 8350 is only better in very specific circumstances in very specific games.

[sparkhok]

hmm, ok thanks for the info. so you definitely think i need to upgrade my cpu first right ? cause it will take me a few months to get the vid card.

[noteworthynerd]

hmm, ok thanks for the info. so you definitely think i need to upgrade my cpu first right ? cause it will take me a few months to get the vid card.

Yes. That GPU is not great, but considering the games you play (e.g. WoW, where your CPU is much more important) and the age of your CPU, I think the CPU definitely needs replaced first.