New graphics card or PC?

[killalldude]

Well, it's been awhile since I've logged on. Within the first 20 minutes of going through old threads I used up all my likes :bgroove:

 

I've got a question for you all regarding upgrading my PC. I've come to the realization that I need to upgrade my graphics card. However, based on my specs below, would I be better off putting the money towards a new PC or new build?

 

Built circa 2010:

Intel i7 920 @ 3.5 GHz (LGA 1366, 1st gen i7)

16 GB DDR3 RAM (can upgrade to 24 GB)

256 GB SSD

ATI 4850 1 GB (pre-AMD badging)

 

This computer was able to handle GTA:V at low settings. I'd like to play GTA:V at high/ultra settings, with mods. If I could achieve this with just a graphics card I think my computer would suit my needs until GTA:VI comes out :cheeky:.

 

I'm thinking of getting something along the lines of an R9 390 or GTX 970. So around USD $250-350. I'd be willing to go up to $400 but at that point I feel like it would be better to put that money towards a new PC.

 

Would I be better off buying/building a new PC or should I upgrade my graphics card? What are your thoughts?

[Ryzza5]

Checked online for second hand 980 Ti's just in case? 970 is still good though.

Besides the CPU (unsure of it's modern gaming performance - check for benchmarks) the other specs are good. No need for more than 16GB of RAM when gaming.

 

Keep in mind that a brand new CPU will mean DDR4 RAM.

[TIMELESS]

Highly recommend the 970, they're mega-powerful for the money! I'm running i5/8gb RAM with mine and have GTA V at high-ultra :lol: I'm guessing your CPU would also be a weak point, and if you upgrade both would you need a new PSU? If so you might as well just start buying part by part to build a new PC. :hmmm:

[Andreas¹]

Well, it's been awhile since I've logged on. Within the first 20 minutes of going through old threads I used up all my likes :bgroove:

 

I've got a question for you all regarding upgrading my PC. I've come to the realization that I need to upgrade my graphics card. However, based on my specs below, would I be better off putting the money towards a new PC or new build?

 

Built circa 2010:

Intel i7 920 @ 3.5 GHz (LGA 1366, 1st gen i7)

16 GB DDR3 RAM (can upgrade to 24 GB)

256 GB SSD

ATI 4850 1 GB (pre-AMD badging)

 

This computer was able to handle GTA:V at low settings. I'd like to play GTA:V at high/ultra settings, with mods. If I could achieve this with just a graphics card I think my computer would suit my needs until GTA:VI comes out :cheeky:.

 

I'm thinking of getting something along the lines of an R9 390 or GTX 970. So around USD $250-350. I'd be willing to go up to $400 but at that point I feel like it would be better to put that money towards a new PC.

 

Would I be better off buying/building a new PC or should I upgrade my graphics card? What are your thoughts?

 

I don't think your CPU seems that bad, especially if you have the possibility to overclock it a bit? The GPU is definitely the bottleneck in your system. If I were you I'd definitely start there. If that's not enough then look in to new CPU and motherboard.

[ProDexorite]

I'm also highly recommending the GTX 970!

 

Bought it for my PC that otherwise has about 5 years old components, CPU and all that. Yet almost every game runs with the maximum graphics. Most of the games are GPU driven after all. Arma 3 is literally one of the few games I am not able to run on maximum, because my CPU lacks the performance and I have only 8 GB of memory.

 

I got a bit more expensive version of the GTX 970 with TwinFrozr -cooling (since my previous GPU had this and it was noiseless and effective on what it did.) and if I remember correctly, it was some sort of a "GAMING 4G" edition. Had about 80 bucks more price than the regular editions.

 

GTX 980 is also viable option, but if you're not ready to throw that much money in it and if you don't mind overclocking your rig anyways, it is rather useless and does not meet the price tag.

Encore: You don't need to upgrade your whole rig! I'm still running on without an SSD, just 8 GB of some crappy old DDR3-memory, i5 CPU that wasn't even the "toughest" 5 years ago and so. Only thing I needed to upgrade alongside with the graphics card was the power supply. I had something like 600W and have now upgraded to 850W so the GTX 970 gets all the power it needs. Surely I took some extra capacity there as well, so don't think the 850W PSU is a requirement ;)

[Andreas¹]

I'm also highly recommending the GTX 970!

 

Bought it for my PC that otherwise has about 5 years old components, CPU and all that. Yet almost every game runs with the maximum graphics. Most of the games are GPU driven after all. Arma 3 is literally one of the few games I am not able to run on maximum, because my CPU lacks the performance and I have only 8 GB of memory.

 

I got a bit more expensive version of the GTX 970 with TwinFrozr -cooling (since my previous GPU had this and it was noiseless and effective on what it did.) and if I remember correctly, it was some sort of a "GAMING 4G" edition. Had about 80 bucks more price than the regular editions.

 

GTX 980 is also viable option, but if you're not ready to throw that much money in it and if you don't mind overclocking your rig anyways, it is rather useless and does not meet the price tag.

Encore: You don't need to upgrade your whole rig! I'm still running on without an SSD, just 8 GB of some crappy old DDR3-memory, i5 CPU that wasn't even the "toughest" 5 years ago and so. Only thing I needed to upgrade alongside with the graphics card was the power supply. I had something like 600W and have now upgraded to 850W so the GTX 970 gets all the power it needs. Surely I took some extra capacity there as well, so don't think the 850W PSU is a requirement ;)

 

Even 600W is way - way - more than you need for a 970 or almost any single card.

 

Either way I would recommend waiting as both Nvidia and AMD are launching new graphics cards in less than a month. Current rumors say that AMD's coming 490/490X will have GTX 980 Ti performance for half the price.

[Ryzza5]

Might be a good time to promote the tduck PC Benchmarking Thead | turboduck forum again to see what hardware conclusions we can draw

[ProDexorite]

Even 600W is way - way - more than you need for a 970 or almost any single card.

 

The product box / specifications actually tell, at least for my edition of GTX 970, that the requirement is something like 400-500W, though I don't know if they've counted the other parts in for this calculation, sounds and would be really high power consumption if that was solely for the GPU.

 

But of course, clocking will increase the requirements and as I said, I upgraded the PSU "once and for all" to supply enough power for everything I have and will get for my rig. At the moment I don't believe I am even reaching that 600W, but still. Better to have more than enough than with the limit and chance for the power to run out in though situations that stress the GPU/CPU :p

[Ryzza5]

Let's not restrict potential future upgrade plans for the sake of what is usually only ~$20. The brand/quality is probably more important than the number. Especially if you care about noise. I went from an old $400 1200w Gold PSU (2012) to an 800W Platinum one last year to reduce the 'jet effect'. Rave reviews said this thing would be near silent, but well I'm going to have to watercool my GPU to find out if that's true. I wouldn't mind W/C'ing my next build and getting a fanless PSU but then they wouldn't have quite enough power to deal with the pumps.

[Andreas¹]

The product box / specifications actually tell, at least for my edition of GTX 970, that the requirement is something like 400-500W

 

The manufacturer counts on you having a Chinese poobox that is 10 years old, arthritic and can deliver about about half of what it says on the label. They have to or they'd be sued by everyone who did have one of those and ended up burning their house down. That card with an overclocked 5930K uses no more than 350W. As Ryzza says, the quality of the PSU and it's components is far more important than the number on the side.

 

With that said there's nothing wrong with having an over dimensioned PSU, I do too because I found it cheaper. :)

[RobikV3]

Im also running GTX970 Gigabyte 4bg with windforce, really satisfied with it even with my crappy cpu and ram it still runs modern games atleast on High so, yeah theyre super solid GPUs

[killalldude]

I'd love to go for a GTX 980 but price... I'd have to scour some used sites to find a good deal. Also the AMD 390 is really tempting for it's 8GB of VRAM. But from what I've read in reviews is that extra VRAM is only good if you're playing in 4K. I'm at 1080p but that could change in the next year with the falling prices of 4K displays.

 

But of course, clocking will increase the requirements and as I said, I upgraded the PSU "once and for all" to supply enough power for everything I have and will get for my rig.

 

Yup, that's exactly the mentality I had when I built this computer. It has a 730W PSU. So I should be able to add virtually any card without blowing it up.

 

I don't think your CPU seems that bad, especially if you have the possibility to overclock it a bit? The GPU is definitely the bottleneck in your system. If I were you I'd definitely start there. If that's not enough then look in to new CPU and motherboard.

 

The stock clock is 2.66 GHz, I overclocked it to 3.5. With the aftermarket cooler, I was able to clock it up to 4.0 GHz and temperatures were fine. However it would crash after a few minutes of playing GTA:V. I could probably push it to 3.7, and wouldn't mind if it broke since I've got 6 years out of this CPU.

 

Either way I would recommend waiting as both Nvidia and AMD are launching new graphics cards in less than a month. Current rumors say that AMD's coming 490/490X will have GTX 980 Ti performance for half the price.

 

Good advice, I will do some research into these new cards! A few months ago I was reading an article about HBM memory for video cards and was wondering when the next generation of cards would be released.

[Ryzza5]

RAM on a video card stopped being most important quite a few years ago. tbh the only time it's really useful is if you mod a game with much larger texture files. 4GB is plenty for now.

[BAk99]

New PC. That 1st Gen i7 will be taking a hit. A GTX 980 or Ti should also sort you out. Keep your SSD for Programs & OS. Get a Seagate Barracuda HDD as game storage ;)

[killalldude]

New PC. That 1st Gen i7 will be taking a hit. A GTX 980 or Ti should also sort you out. Keep your SSD for Programs & OS. Get a Seagate Barracuda HDD as game storage ;)

 

These are my thoughts too. If I do get a high end graphics card, I wonder if I will notice bottlenecking at high graphics settings with this CPU.

 

However right now I'm leaning towards just upgrading the graphics card and when the time comes, build a new PC. I'm not aware of any other super demanding games coming out soon which I'm interested in... yet.

 

As mentioned before, AMD is going to release it's new 4XX series in June. Any peeps know what nVidia got up their sleeves?

[TIMELESS]

RAM on a video card stopped being most important quite a few years ago. tbh the only time it's really useful is if you mod a game with much larger texture files. 4GB is plenty for now.

 

Or if you play GTA V :p It's taking up a meaty chunk of my ram, about 3GB. It would use more if I let it... :lol:

[Andreas¹]

RAM on a video card stopped being most important quite a few years ago. tbh the only time it's really useful is if you mod a game with much larger texture files. 4GB is plenty for now.

To be honest I think VRAM requirements will go up real fast if you want to play at the highest settings.

These are my thoughts too. If I do get a high end graphics card, I wonder if I will notice bottlenecking at high graphics settings with this CPU.

 

However right now I'm leaning towards just upgrading the graphics card and when the time comes, build a new PC. I'm not aware of any other super demanding games coming out soon which I'm interested in... yet.

 

As mentioned before, AMD is going to release it's new 4XX series in June. Any peeps know what nVidia got up their sleeves?

 

I don't think it will bottleneck that bad to be honest, the jumps in performance in each Intel generation are incredibly small. Nvidia has a mysterious Twitch event tomorrow at 6PM PST, I'm not sure what we will see there. Their new cards will be released at the end of May/beginning of June though.

[BAk99]

I'm not aware of any other super demanding games coming out soon which I'm interested in... yet.

 

As mentioned before, AMD is going to release it's new 4XX series in June. Any peeps know what nVidia got up their sleeves?

I feel games are gonna creep up in specs soon.. Nvidia has 1060 or 1080 or whatever. Final Advisory would to hold back for something nearer a complete build time or buy a 980 ti :)

[killalldude]

Or if you play GTA V :p It's taking up a meaty chunk of my ram, about 3GB. It would use more if I let it... :lol:

 

This is the game I see myself playing most for the foreseeable future. It does love to munch on RAM.

 

To be honest I think VRAM requirements will go up real fast if you want to play at the highest settings.

 

I don't think it will bottleneck that bad to be honest, the jumps in performance in each Intel generation are incredibly small. Nvidia has a mysterious Twitch event tomorrow at 6PM PST, I'm not sure what we will see there. Their new cards will be released at the end of May/beginning of June though.

 

Hopefully more information will be released in the next few weeks by both manufacturers. I won't be home from uni and reunited with my computer until then anyways :shrug:

[Andreas¹]

Yeah there will be new info coming and hopefully some reviews. Another option is to buy an older series graphics card when the new are out as they will probably drop in value and quite a few people will probably be looking towards upgrading.

[vit-jan0]

Hi, i think Your configuration is fine, except the graphic card that can be upgraded.

But it would be wise you check thr Wndows Task manager (Performance tab) to see CPU, RAM, HDD (or even GPU) usage graphs during gameplay. GPU usage would probably be maximum no matter which graphic card you use. If CPU graph is not maxed out during gameplay i would assume you have room regarding CPU. I think CPU would be fine, rest of your components are fine too. I bet only graphics upgrade, making sure graphics is compatible with the motherboard.

[killalldude]

Interesting article on the new nVidia 1080/1070: NVIDIA Announces the GeForce GTX 1000 Series: GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 Arrive In May June

[Ryzza5]

Either get a 1070 or make a note of current 9xx prices and wait for them to drop :)

 

I'd try using it with your current CPU/system and if you're happy with performance, then great. If not, then carry the GPU over to a new PC build and attempt to sell your old PC.

[killalldude]

Either get a 1070 or make a note of current 9xx prices and wait for them to drop :)

 

I'd try using it with your current CPU/system and if you're happy with performance, then great. If not, then carry the GPU over to a new PC build and attempt to sell your old PC.

 

Yes, that's exactly what I'm thinking. I'd be ecstatic if my current system with a 1070 will meet my demands. Can't wait till June 10th!

 

Anybody interested in an ATI 4850? :lol:

[killalldude]

So, anyone know where to get a 1070 without markup? :lol:

 

I've since overclocked my i7 920 to 4.0 GHz and everything is running fine. CPU usage for GTA:V seems to jump between 40-80%, latter usually when loading cutscenes or spawning in new locations. Normal gameplay is generally around 40-60%.