What are the best upgrades to start with, without blowing a whole lot of money?
I have a 2010 Mazda 3 sport 2.5
Ive found chips online, but I have seen comments that they dont work very well, the same with air intakes.
I dont know much about 4 cylinder "performance" so Im pretty new at this.

 

Unless you can afford a forced induction system (in the thousands of dollars range), then any and all money you might spend for "performance" add-ons will yield little or no gain in actual performance.

 

+1^
plus some chips are resistors that give false signals to the ECU about the a/f ratio or change the timing. not worth it. send me money and ill send you a few resistors. like shipo said go FI or save your money or get a N/A tune just for your car.

 

How much performance you looking for, there isnt much offered for the other engine sizes and the 2.5 is the newest, so the only things offered are an intake and cbe, other than that suspension is your next option. FYI this isnt the best platform to start with if your looking at 4cyl performance. And no, no chips, ever

 

Not looking for a HUGE gain. Its just a 4 cylinder, so Im not exactly looking for top performance. Just a little more get up and go.
Also, what are some good dry/wet tires anyone has tried?

 

The "get up and go" you currently have is about as good as it's going to get unless you decide to spend some big money; fact of life for most cars these days.

As for tires, the skin that's getting the most buzz these days are the Contenintal ExtremeContact DWS (which sell for $122 in the 205/50 R17 size). I'm currently running a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires (which sell for $148 in the 205/50 R17 size); cannot say enough good things about them. Both tires sound like they'd be worth considering for your application.