Question New video card or new computer?

[Baelzar]

I'm wondering whether I should buy a new video card or just build a new system. And/Or upgrade my memory. Or...or or or. This will be used for gaming, but nothing bleeding edge, no ultra settings. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, for instance. Buying ASAP in USA, no brand preference, just best bang for the buck. Thanks!

My current specs:
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4690K CPU @ 3.50GHz
MOTHERBOARD
ASRock Z97 Extreme4
MEMORY
Installed Memory 16384 MB
8GB of Team Group Inc. Model ZEUS-1600 DDR3 [PC3-10600]
8GB of Corsair Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 DDR3 [PC3-10600]
VIDEO CARD
Video Adapter ASUS R9 280 Series
Video Processor AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x679A)
PCI ID 0x1002 / 0x679A - Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] / Tahiti PRO [Radeon HD 7950]
Memory 3072 MBytes
MONITORS
Monitor #1 Model BenQ 241VW
Monitor ID BNQ76F6
Display Size 24.2" (52 cm x 33 cm)
Horizontal Frequency 30-83 kHz
Vertical Frequency 56-76 Hz
Supported Resolution 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz - Aspect Ratio 16:10
Monitor #2 AOC V22 Model F22
Monitor ID AOC2200
Display Size 21.1" (47 cm x 26 cm)
Horizontal Frequency 30-83 kHz
Vertical Frequency 50-75 Hz
Current Resolution 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz

 

[RLGL]

Time to upgrade

 

[Arkaign]

From reading various places like this :

https://www.reddit.com/r/mountandblade/comments/e4ndif

It seems like some people have better luck than others with the 4C/4T CPUs, which are definitely getting tougher to get good results in these days. I often find that people have more trouble when they are running stuff in the background with those (such as Plex hosting, sloppy Antivirus stuff, etc). Disabling all unnecessary apps seems very useful.

Given the platform you have vs the GPU you have, I'd say you need to do both, but the good news is that your old stuff still has some value, and if budget is a concern, then reselling and spending carefully should net massive improvements.

Old E3 Haswell Xeons will work in your Mobo, and you can get a 4C/8T one equal to an i7 4770 for about $80. Any of the E3-1270 and up would be a terrific upgrade. Also it takes you from 6MB to 8MB of cache. Your old i5 would pay for most of the price of that upgrade, making it nearly free, and you wouldn't have to be buying CPU+Mobo+Ram etc all at once. Then selling your 280 3GB would put your remaining budget towards what will make the largest impact, a better GPU.

Eg; if you had $400 total to work with, and were able to sell your entire old platform minus drives for 150-200, going all new wouldn't get you all that far (effective $550-600 budget including GPU, but needing CPU, Mobo, DDR4, GPU). Unless you really started weak with an i3 or Ryzen 3, it would get tough quick to afford a decent GPU.

Vs taking that same $400 start point, getting a $20 effective CPU upgrade from 4C/4T/6M i5 to 4C/8T/8M Xeon, selling 280 for $50, and using the $430 on GPU (5700XT or around that area would then be possible).

Then think later on about upgrading from the Xeon combo to Zen 4000 series and keeping the 5700XT/ 2070.

 

[Flayed]

I've been playing Bannerlord a lot, talk about a time sink. It does seem to use more than 4 cores although I've not really been paying to much attention as it seems to run ok on my 3600