Worth Upgrading?

[Keedar]

Hi Guys
Long time no see. I was away from pc's and i am completly lost right now so i need some advice. Is my pc need some upgrades or i should wait another year to do it?
I will add that i build that pc in 2011 and only what i changed is graphic card. Before i had Gtx560Ti than Gtx 680. Thanks in advance.

My specs:

Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX

Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card 4GB GTX970 MSI TWINFROZR V

1st Hard Disk 80GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 90MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

Power Supply CORSAIR 750W PRO SERIES™ HX750-80 PLUS® SILVER MODULAR

Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER

 

[jerpers]

What is your reason for wanting to upgrade. Are games you wanting to play struggling? Any particular area that is underperforming? There is no point upgrading if your PC is old, especially if it is still doing what you want it to doe adequately.

 

[Keedar]

What is your reason for wanting to upgrade. Are games you wanting to play struggling? Any particular area that is underperforming? There is no point upgrading if your PC is old, especially if it is still doing what you want it to doe adequately.

Thanks. Thinking about back to gaming. Want to play last titles without issues. I noticed that my cpu can be to old same as memory and motherboard. Seriously i was away for few years and dont know what is good or bad right now.

 

[jerpers]

Have you tried any latest titles? Are they struggling? Your CPU should be ok for a while longer and will cope with a 1070 - 1080. What resolution are you gaming at as that will determine the most cost effective GPU to go for.

 

[Keedar]

Have you tried any latest titles? Are they struggling? Your CPU should be ok for a while longer and will cope with a 1070 - 1080. What resolution are you gaming at as that will determine the most cost effective GPU to go for.

I am sure titles that are coming soon will be high demand. I like to play on at least high settings. Playing at 4k resolution as well. Game like dying light is running not so well. I need to downgrade to 1080p to play as I want. Thank for any help. Really appreciate.

Edit: Forgott to mention I am playing in gta5 right now on some settings mixed but no issues.

 

[Keedar]

Have you tried any latest titles? Are they struggling? Your CPU should be ok for a while longer and will cope with a 1070 - 1080. What resolution are you gaming at as that will determine the most cost effective GPU to go for.

I am sure titles that are coming soon will be high demand. I like to play on at least high settings. Playing at 4k resolution as well. Game like dying light is running not so well. I need to downgrade to 1080p to play as I want. Thank for any help. Really appreciate.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I am sure titles that are coming soon will be high demand. I like to play on at least high settings. Playing at 4k resolution as well. Game like dying light is running not so well. I need to downgrade to 1080p to play as I want. Thank for any help. Really appreciate.

I would suggest a full new computer, that processor and platform is pretty outdated and the graphics card won't be able to handle 4k even on a new platform, you'll need at least a 1080ti.

What monitor do you have?

 

[Keedar]

I would suggest a full new computer, that processor and platform is pretty outdated and the graphics card won't be able to handle 4k even on a new platform, you'll need at least a 1080ti.

What monitor do you have?

Thanks for replay. I have this one at the moment but will upgrade that soon as well if I need. Asus MG28UQ 28.
Is it not better to get like 2x1060? Sorry for silly questions. Need to sit down again and study all new stuff. Thanks again.

 

[Oussebon]

For 4k, tbh I really don't think a new PC will be required. You'll be pretty well entirely GPU bound at 4k anyway.

You could buy a new system, but it's not at all necessary for most titles. Just the GPU.

Whether to upgrade an i7 2600k is a question that gets asked a lot on the internet, and in reality it still holds up well for most gaming needs:


Note how while CPUs like the i7 8700k, which is 6 years newer, on a newer motherboard, with faster, DDR4 RAM can give higher framerates - the i7 2600k still gives very playable framerates, and at higher resolutions like 1440p often the difference fizzles out altogeter

The articles didn't benchmark 4k gaming, probably because all the CPUs perform nearly identically as you're GPU bound.

Is it not better to get like 2x1060?

No, for several reasons
1) A single 1080 ti would be more powerful than a pair of 1060s in SLI, in theory.
2) I say in theory, because you can't SLI GTX 1060s. They don't have SLI connectors.
3) Not all games benefit as much / at all from SLI. So while a pair of GTX 1070s would roughly equal a single GTX 1080 ti in performance on a title with good SLI support - in a title with poor SLI scaling, a 1070 would only equal a 1070.
4) Even if all titles scaled perfectly, a pair of 1070s will cost more, and use more power than a single 1080 ti.

Perhaps rather than buying a whole new system, you should get a new GPU - and a new monitor, that has gsync.

Gsync synchronises the monitor's refresh rate to your Nvidia GPU's framerate, which gets rid of the stutter/tearing you'll be used to when your frames per second drop below 60hz.

A gsync monitor should make a much, much greater contribution towards having a smooth high-settings 4k gaming experience than buying a new CPU - as even the 1080 ti (regardless of what CPU you pair it with) will struggle/fail to deliver fluid 60fps at 4k in all titles.

 

[Keedar]

Thank You so much.

 

[Keedar]

One more question it you dont mind guys
If I decide to stay on 1440p what you will recommend to upgrade? Should I add memory? As far I remember my motherboard can handle up to 1866. Should I swap anything?
Thanks in advance once again. Really appreciate.

 

[Oussebon]

Just a comment on my earlier post - certainly you could get a new system and there are some nice to have features like fast M.2 NVMe SSDs that this would support. So it's a perfectly reasonable thing to consider. But if budget is limited, I'd still advocate on balance for a GTX 1080 ti (or next gen GPU) + 4k gsync monitor - versus a new system + a non-gsync 4k monitor - if it were either/or.

When you say "stay on 1440p" what do you mean exactly? Do you mean you're playing on the 4k MG28UQ monitor, but lowered to 1440p resolution? Or you have another 1440p monitor you use? (if so, what is it?)

For 1440p, 60hz gaming a GTX 1070 ti / GTX 1080 (depending on pricing) might be suitable.

You might get a little benefit from more / faster RAM. However, it would be relatively slight, and RAM is crazy expensive at the moment. I was able to buy 16gb 2400MHz DDR3 for under £100 in October 2016. Now it's £150-£200. For the very slight performance gains it doesn't seem at all worth sinking ~£200 into RAM you won't be able to use in your next system (since everything's DDR4 now). So definitely not worth shopping for faster RAM (my need for it was very niche in gaming terms). You could potentially get another 8gb 1600MHz RAM, as this would probably only be ~£60 or so. But only if you like to have a lot of tabs open while you game, and alt-tab a lot, or do other things that need more RAM. 8gb is still fine.

What kind of budget do you have for upgrades in total?

 

[jerpers]

For 1440p at 60hz, a GTX 1070 or 1070ti would suffice. For higher refresh rates, a 1080 or 1080ti would be required.

 

[Oussebon]

As an aside, a 1070 ti is much closer to a 1080 than a 1070

 

[Keedar]

When you say "stay on 1440p" what do you mean exactly? Do you mean you're playing on the 4k MG28UQ monitor, but lowered to 1440p resolution? Or you have another 1440p monitor you use? (if so, what is it?)

Right now I am playing at 4k with some settings lower but I don't mind to go down with resolution to get better performance.
My budget is 1.5k and I am really confused to go for new system with faster components or upgrade my old system.
As I said I want to play games with high settings at least. Far cry 5 or New Metro etc. I know i sounds little weird.
Sorry I am just confused and don't know what to do.
Hope you understand guys

 

[Oussebon]

For £1500, I would buy a GTX 1080 ti and a 4k gsync monitor. This is easily affordable with money to spare.

Buying a new system at this budget level simply won't be enough of an upgrade to be remotely worth the cost, especially for 1440p/4k gaming. Don't buy a new system, it would be a major waste of cash.

 

[Keedar]

What can I say more. Thanks again guys for your help and time. Really appreciate.