CPU upgrade or GPU upgrade?

[xanderxxz]

I'm planning on buying a customized gaming computer with an "AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition" CPU and an "ATI Radeon HD 6790 1GB" GPU.

However I have recently added another £40 on to my budget so one of them can be upgraded.

Should I upgrade the CPU to an "AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition " or should I upgrade the GPU to an "ATI Radeon HD 6870 1GB"?

 

[Indigo]

Go for a faster GPU. The CPU is fine as it stands now, and you'll not see any performance benefits by switching from a quad core to a Hex core (done it myself, I would still be fine on a quad for 90% of the things I do)

 

[Teny]

Agreed. Since you are planning for a gaming, it is better to upgrade the GPU. The CPU will only be effective if the game will use all cores. I don't think any games are made to use hex cores yet.

 

[Indigo]

Indeed. I barely touch my 1100T X6 in the games I play, even the ones that are SMP-aware. The most they hit are 4 cores right now, so 6-8 threads is still a little overkill.