What’s More important?

xiaois

Hi everyone,

I’m getting ready to upgrade my desktop PC that I built myself. I mainly play the sims on this PC - both 3 & 4 and occasionally 2 when it works. I also create YouTube videos and am interested in streaming more often than I currently do.

My question though, is what should I spend more money on in the upgrade, the GPU or the CPU? What does the sims rely more heavily on?

I have a budget of $1200 for the upgrade and may very well possibly end up adding more to that, but that is what I’ve set aside specifically for this.

I live in the US and my current CPU is a I5 6600k and the gpu is a rx 560 4gb card. Both of these are pretty capable of running the game but I want to upgrade my performance and future proof my PC so that I don’t have to crack it open anytime soon.

Thanks in advance for any help.


Edit: I forgot to add that I’m in the us and that I plan to go full intel/Nvidia with the upgrade.

puzzlezaddict

Can I pick c) none of the above? Because the power supply and cooling are both more important than buying the highest-end CPU and GPU, especially when you're talking about the longevity of your hardware.

TS3 can't use any more power than what you'll get with an Nvidia 1050 ti; TS4 doesn't either right now, but the game may benefit from a 1060 6 GB before it's out of development, especially if you use a lot of custom content. TS4 is more processor heavy than TS3, but neither game is going to need the highest-end CPU. If you bought an i5-9600K, which is the equivalent of your current processor, it would handle everything sims-related without any problems.

Also, a new processor may well require a new motherboard; I believe the socket has changed since you bought your current CPU.

I don't know anything about streaming, but I would guess that in regards to your required hardware, the biggest factor would be whether you were interested doing serious video editing. This article might be a useful place to start:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-buying-guide,5643.html

Anyway, this sounds like a conversation to have with someone else who's an expert in building computers. chesterbigbird hasn't posted in a while, but if you reach out to her, she may be able to give you better and more specific guidance.

igazor

I have to agree with the above. But if your current system has HDD(s), you might be doing it a better favor by moving towards Solid State Drives (SSDs). Sims games won't run any better on SSDs, but TS3 in particular will startup, save, cache, and load categories in CAS and Build/Buy much, much faster on those (TS4 gains no benefit), they never fragment, and other disc intensive processes away from the game will be more efficient. Of course if you already have SSDs all the way round, then this suggestion is not relevant.

xiaois

puzzlezaddict wrote: »

Can I pick c) none of the above? Because the power supply and cooling are both more important than buying the highest-end CPU and GPU, especially when you're talking about the longevity of your hardware.

TS3 can't use any more power than what you'll get with an Nvidia 1050 ti; TS4 doesn't either right now, but the game may benefit from a 1060 6 GB before it's out of development, especially if you use a lot of custom content. TS4 is more processor heavy than TS3, but neither game is going to need the highest-end CPU. If you bought an i5-9600K, which is the equivalent of your current processor, it would handle everything sims-related without any problems.

Also, a new processor may well require a new motherboard; I believe the socket has changed since you bought your current CPU.

I don't know anything about streaming, but I would guess that in regards to your required hardware, the biggest factor would be whether you were interested doing serious video editing. This article might be a useful place to start:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-buying-guide,5643.html

Anyway, this sounds like a conversation to have with someone else who's an expert in building computers. chesterbigbird hasn't posted in a while, but if you reach out to her, she may be able to give you better and more specific guidance.

I know both the power supply and cooling are important thanks to tech deals and have a separate budget set aside for those items. My cousin is covering the cost of whatever motherboard I need as a late bday gift. The budget above is exclusively for the CPU and GPU seeing as all the other factors have been or will be taken care of. And I was waiting until I figured out the components to buy a cooler that will best fit my configuration.

igazor wrote: »

I have to agree with the above. But if your current system has HDD(s), you might be doing it a better favor by moving towards Solid State Drives (SSDs). Sims games won't run any better on SSDs, but TS3 in particular will startup, save, cache, and load categories in CAS and Build/Buy much, much faster on those (TS4 gains no benefit), they never fragment, and other disc intensive processes away from the game will be more efficient. Of course if you already have SSDs all the way round, then this suggestion is not relevant.

I actually do have SSD’s already. The persons videos I watched and various posts by you and others have taught me the importance of SSD in gaming.