Upgrade CPU or GPU for GTA V?

So, one of coworkers came to me asking for ways to get more performance from GTA V. This is what he has as a rig:

CPU: AMD FX-8xxx series @ 4.2 GHz

GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970 Gaming G1

RAM: 32 GB (really went overkill...)

Monitor: 1080p @ 120 Hz refresh rate

He is currently playing GTA V with 50-60+ FPS and all settings maxed (except anti-aliasing), but he wants to push his FPS count higher since he has a 120 Hz monitor, aiming for 80-90 FPS, and higher if possible.

From my point of view, there's a dilemma that comes in whether a GPU or CPU upgrade would even get the desired effect. I feel that trading the AMD processor for an Intel i5-4690k would probably help, but then again, most of the performance for a game runs through the GPU. And his GTX 970 is already mighty fine for 1080p gaming, and perhaps it isn't even worth it to go for a 980 in this case.

I also told him to consider the fact that driver updates might help boost FPS down the line, but he claims that there has already been drivers released for the game and any future updates/improvements will probably be minor.

Thoughts?

@genius2365: I doubt switching the amd cpu well help you get more than 10 fps , if i were you i ll advice to get another 970 .

I got 8350 amd cpu 2 , with 290 cf i get 100 fps while v sync is off , but my monitor is 60 :D

Got a friend of mine with 2x 970s playing GTA V, he gets around 100fps.

Don't waste your money on 980, get another 970 and suitable MOBO if you don't have one already.

Make sure you own a 650Watts PSU with that AMD CPU OC.

Updating drivers and the game help, but its his FX 8350 that is holding him back, and to get close to 120 fps he will have to get a new cpu and another gtx 970

Wait for DX12...

If he's mostly aiming for high FPS then he should just add another 970.

they still going to do dx12 for gta5 at some point? If they released a clean fully patched version of GTA5 with dx12 i'd actually buy it. The state of GTA5 right now it looks pretty junky and i don't want it.

Sli that 970

The problem then becomes that FX 8350 cant feed both those gpu's and the performance is hardly no different from having a single 970.

it will be fine

http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/56/amd-fx-8350-powering-gtx-780-sli-vs-gtx-980-sli-at-4k/index.html

It looks like it does okay with a pair of 980s

Sure the high intel CPU's are better, the 8350 will still be fine

Nope look here, the goal for the TC's buddy will never be reached on the FX8350. An i7 performs better with one 970 then a 8350 with two 970's major cpu bottleneck. Now if the game used Dx12 it would be a different story. His best bet is to do nothing or get a better cpu and or add another 970.

look were

@thehig1:

refresh the page and look at the edit

the benchmark for the 8350 is not far off mine, my GPU's are no were near the power of 980s.

He could always over clock that 8350, it over clocks really well

Sell that useless ram and buy another 970.

@thehig1:

Even if he overclocks to 4.7 ghz that's only a 10-15 fps average increase. Still no where near his goal

Sli that should be good.

2x sli is still going to drop you down towards 50's ( sli 970's stock ) on ultra and that's with a high end intel cpu oc'ed.

Best thing you can do is lower settings, oc your gpu/cpu a bit more and wait for dx12 + new gpu's later this year to arrive.

the benchmarks for the 8350 are the same as what I get with crossfire 7850, I'm not spending any more money on new motherboard and PC for a few years.

Should I over clock aiming towards 5ghz, my temps are very low due to the location of my PC (normally about 35 under load.

I have it back at stock settings now becuase the overclock was never needed, but it was stable and cool enough at 4.5ghz.

I'd like to play GTA 5 without the dips below 60, I always thought it was my GPU's.

Yeah until DX12 starts to become the norm. The IPC performance per core, FX 6/8's cant correctly feed any top end gpu or multiple gpus. DX11 still relies on one core to do it all or have one core do most of the work. That is why we see intel cpu's perform anywhere from 50-100% better on same gpus.

I can completely max the game out with a 2gb gtx 680 including the advanced settings (After turning vram limit off). My cpu is at 4.8ghz though.

To find out how much overhead the FX 8350 have before it start to bottlenecking 2x 970GTX in GTA5, you need to just run the game at 720p and observe, if the performance increase dramatically then that is an indicator that the FX 8350 will not bottleneck 2x 970GTX in GTA5 (in 1080p of course).

QFT. If you're not getting a performance bump by lowering settings, adding another graphics card won't help - the CPU is the problem.