I'm trying to decide whether I should upgrade my CPU and motherboard or my GPU first. I mainly play WoW Retail, sometimes dive into Diablo 4, and I'm looking forward to the new Witcher game. Right now, I have an Intel 13700k and an RTX 3080 Aorus Master, but the GPU can be really power-hungry, peaking at 425 watts. My setup usually performs decent except for during raids where my FPS drops to 30-40, and I'd love to see at least 80-90 FPS during those boss fights. I'm gaming at 1440p on a 165Hz monitor. I've done some research and understand that WoW relies heavily on single-core performance, and I hear the x3D chips have improved L3 cache, which sounds promising. For GPU options, I'm considering the RX 9070 XT. Should I focus on upgrading the CPU and motherboard or the GPU first? Or would it be better to upgrade both at once for a noticeable performance boost? I appreciate any thoughts! My current specs are Intel 13700k, Aorus Z690 Ultra, Corsair Veng. 64GB @ 6200MT/s, Aorus RX3080 Master 10GB, Samsung 980 Pro 1TB NVMe, Corsair RM850x, and I have a dual monitor setup with a 32.5" @ 2460x1440p @ 165Hz and a 27" @ 1920x1080p @ 100Hz.
1 Answer
I think you should definitely check your GPU utilization during gameplay. If it's staying below 99%, that's a sign you might benefit from a CPU upgrade first. I suspect with 1440p, your GPU is likely running at 99% utilization, but if not, then upgrading the CPU could give you a performance boost.
I should’ve mentioned that my GPU utilization is usually around 50% during raids, which makes me lean towards the CPU upgrade. But there's this guy in my guild with the same CPU but a 4080, and he manages 40 FPS more in the same scenarios.