Looking to upgrade GPU, but I'm not tech savvy...help?

[Valrynn the Dragoness]

Case: Thermaltake Commander G41 (maximum GPU length supported is 270mm, but it can be bigger with the removal of a hard drive rack)
Monitor: Dell SP2208WFP 1680x1050, 60hz (it's really old, I know. It predates the computer itself by a few years but it still worked just fine so I stuck with it)
Processor: Intel i7 4790k quad core @ 4.0 - 4.4Ghz 8MB, Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX960 4GB Superclocked Edition
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 2x8GB 1866M (16GB total)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5 Motherboard
PSU: Corsair CX850M Modular PSU (850 watts)
Storage: 500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD.
Cooling: Fans, extra 200mm added to case

Everything was bought new, not used. Only thing that kicked the bucket was the GPU and they sent me a new one cause I had warranty in 2017.


I built this rig with a lot of help from a friend in 2015, and it's starting to show a bit of age on newer titles (like Metro Exodus) where I have to downgrade some settings to get 60 FPS.

My budget is around $400 CAD ish (1 CAD = 75 U.S cents), I can go a little higher but I would prefer not to.

I've asked around and I've gotten a lot of conflicting answers on what I should upgrade first. I've mostly been looking around at upgrading the GPU, mostly looking at 1660 Super or 2060 (not the super version, way out of my budget).

I've had people say my CPU should be the first thing I upgrade because it will bottleneck any new GPU I get, while others say the CPU is fine for today still. I've had people say the GPU should be what I upgrade, but to wait for 2060s to go down in price (maybe they will with the AMD reveal on the 28th? Or on Black Friday or Cyber Monday?)

Overall the thing is I really can't afford to upgrade more than one aspect of my system right now. So it'd really be the CPU or GPU, but I'm leaning towards the GPU since a better monitor will only stress the GPU more and if I do upgrade down the line I'd probably be looking at 1080p.


I mostly do gaming on this computer and don't do video editing or anything of the sort.

I don't really know much about ideal PC building so...any help is appreciated.

[🦜Cloud Boy🦜]

Your CPU is old but still capable if doing 60 FPS is most games, including Metro Exodus.
Your GPU is the one which is underpowered and needs to be changed. GTX 1660 Super is good match for your system and enough for next couple of years upto 1080p High settings, and It won't cause any bottleneck (for the most part), if that's what you are concerning.