It's been a while since I even looked at new computer parts so I'm so out of loop and could use some help :D

I'm thinking of upgrading a couple of things in my setup, namely motherboard, CPU and GPU. Thing is, I have no idea what is considered "good" nowadays. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Current setup

Mobo: msi Z87-G45

CPU: i5-4570

GPU: nVidia GTX970

Power supply is quite good, no need to upgrade that. And 16 gigs of RAM is still enough, hopefully. Motherboard is getting quite old, same with the CPU. GPU is still decent, I suppose, but I've heard those GTX1000 -series cards are pretty good...

No budget at the moment really. I'm merely looking at my options.

Thanks for reading.

"Getting old" is not a good reason on its own to upgrade. Especially with gpu prices being so high right now.

What exactly are you trying to achieve? Do you ahve games you can't play?

Your cpu is a good one. Your gpu is a good one. And motherboards are good as long as they support the parts you have in them.

We need some more details to be helpful.

Details like...?

Yes, there are games that are acting up with my current setup. I'm looking to improve it :D

I wouldn't change anything in your setup yet. You call your GPU decent but i'm still on HD5770 (9 year old card). :p

Still need more. What games? How acting up?

What are you trying to arrive at? What games do you want to be able to play?

I think his point was that your setup is still pretty good for today's games. Mine isn't far ahead of yours at all and I can play every new release at 1200p/60fps. I mean if you want to play every game at 4k/60fps or something then you'll need a 1080ti probably, but as he said now is a bad time to upgrade.

With the 11 series coming soon, new Intel 8 core chips coming soon and new consoles launching in 2020 it really makes sense to wait.

Keep in mind, there are a lot of cpu iterations.

When you upgrade the cpu, you'll probably also need to get a compatible motherboard and compatible heat sink and cpu fan and even replace the memory to take advantage of the faster speeds.

It is getting a little old in the tooth.

I would advise going I7 or even a Ryzen 2.

This will mean changing everything, except your PSU possibly (you don`t give us numbers on that). You will need a new Motherboard, new ram (it`s not the amount but the type that will make it incompatible). You should leave the GPU till last as I believe the foundation is more important and it`ll still work.

Sell all you`re old stuff (do you have a spare laptop,pc or console to keep you going?). Add that to paying for your new fresh really powered up pc.

Any more info just ask.

If the driver for these upgrades is that some games aren't performing as well as you'd like, then the best place to start is to try to figure out just what is the source of the performance bottlenecks. For instance, loss of framerate during graphically intensive moments would suggest a GPU bottleneck, slowdown or stuttering in games with a heavy AI component or lots of units/objects being processed at once would suggest a CPU bottleneck, while long load times would suggest a RAM or drive speed bottleneck. Any additional information you could provide on what games aren't performing as well as you'd like, and how the performance is deficient could help us getting a better idea of what component replacements could give you the biggest performance boost for the least cost.

You have a thread of people trying to help. But you still aren't giving us any info.

What's your budget?
What games are you trying to play? At what framerate? In what resolution?
What is your PSU? Wattage and certification and brand?
What monitor do you have? What resolution?
What games are "acting up?" And how are they acting up?
Do you understand that if you get newer Intel CPUs, they will require a 1151 socket? Which will then require DDR4 RAM?

Help US to help YOU!

No budget, really. Looking at my options. But if a number is needed, overall cost under 1k.

Monitor is 1080p and that's the resolution I'm using. I don't see the point to upgrade yet, at least. I'm trying to get that coveted 60fps framerate as constant.

I do not remember the specifics on my PSU, but it's more that competent. It was something I paid extra attention when building this rig back in the day. If I had to guess, I'd say it's something along the lines of 700-800 watts.

Newer games are the problem. Games like Assassin's Creed Origins, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Wolfenstein 2. For example. Anything that really demands something from the rig, gets framerate issues. And sometimes even small freezes.

If new RAM is needed, then new RAM must be bought.

In that case

a newer i5 for 250
a 1070 for 400
a new mobo for 120
16 GB DDR4 RAM for 160
Total - 930

Your current rig looks more than decent to me.

Framerate issues with newer games might be caused by poor optimization of those games, a common problem nowadays which tends to get better as patches start rolling out... perhaps you should also consider reading through some setting optimization guides for said games - sometimes there are a few settings that choke your GPU when activated and don't provide as much of a visual impact as it's advertised.

You could let's say in theory get a better GPU like the 1080/1080 Ti, but they're still rather expensive at the moment in bulk (yeah, cryptominers as usual).

Can you give some examples for the motherboard and cpu?
I was never really any good with setting up... settings :D