Should I update my graphics card, CPU, or the whole thing?

[jpelc]

Hello there, I built my computer around 2011 and since about 2015 I've barely used it as I've had superior machines at my jobs that I was allowed to use for personal projects. Now that I am no longer in those jobs I'm doing some editing on my machine and it's barely usable. Here are the specs:

Windows 10 Pro version 1809

Intel Core i5-3570K CPU @ 3.4GHz

16GB DDR3 1600 MHz

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550Ti

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H

So as you can see that's a whole lotta oof in 2019. So my question is, would I see a better performance increase if I upgraded my CPU to a i7-3770 (which I believe is the highest that will fit in my LGA 1155 socket) or upgrade my graphics card, as right now I'm not even getting GPU acceleration? Or are both options just spending money to put lipstick on a pig, and I'm better off biting the bullet and upgrading everything but the case? For the record I currently mostly work in Premiere with some AE, and sometimes 3D although I really don't plan on doing any serious 3D work until I do some serious upgrading to this maching

[Peru Bob]

I don't think upgrading just the processor will have much effect.

Upgrading the graphics card may help, depending upon which card, if your mobo will support it, and what type of media and effects you use.

Adding more RAM may help.

[RjL190365]

I would just get a GTX 1050 Ti for that rig for now, then save up for the next major CPU/mobo/RAM upgrade. The i7-3770K would cost you more money than the tangible increase in performance justifies at this point, especially since your PC platform is already seven years old.

By the way, I am making this suggestion for the immediate future because your GTX 550 Ti is now an EOL'd Fermi-generation GPU that will no longer be updated (driver-wise) even by NVIDIA. The last WHQL driver release that was compatible with Fermi-generation GPUs was version 391.35, released back in late March of last year, which lacked CUDA 9.2 or higher support - but beginning with the CC 2019 release, Premiere Pro now requires CUDA 9.2 or higher support in the GeForce or Quadro driver set just to even enable MPE CUDA GPU acceleration at all (for the WHQL GeForce drivers, this means you need version 397.64 or higher, which is not compatible at all with your current GTX 550 Ti or any other Fermi GPU).