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Recommended Upgrades for new graphics card for new year?

Shougeki

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Hey folks. I have been running my gaming machine for quite a while [5 years?] with few upgrades, other than a GPU in that time.

I am thinking of getting a 3070 or 3080 in the new year when prices aren't so ridiculous. So i was looking for advice on whether i need to upgrade/change anything else?
Setup:
CPU: i7-4790K
GPU: EVGA 1070 FTW ACX3.0
MBoard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5
RAM: 16GB-Kit G.Skill Ares PC3-12800U [Probably gonna double this at end of week because an extra 16GB is only about 60e]
Monitor: Predator XB271hu

Wondering on what people suggest i should do here, thanks. Or should i just end up building a new PC?
 
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What is your PSU, brand and power rating?
What games do you play?
Is the cpu overlocked?
 
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What is your PSU, brand and power rating?
^^^^THIS!^^^^

Since the graphics solution can easily be the most power hungry device in our system, ensuring sufficient, quality power BEFORE installing a new graphics card is essential.

As far as upgrading or building all new, that's up to you. Are you happy with your computer now?

If not, then don't even waste your money on more RAM. Your current board supports DDR3. A new board will support DDR4. They are not compatible.
 
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It's up to you man. You can fetch some coin for your cpu and gpu and mobo while they are still relevant (somewhat) and use it towards a new build or you could upgrade your gpu and try to squeeze a little more life out of the 4790 that way. Personally i would say build a new one, but if you are waiting til "prices arent so ridculous" don't hold your breath.

One thing i would advise against is doubling your ram like you mentioned. don't double your ram on an older platform/chipset that your thinking about upgrading. get more ram if you need it, not because it's cheap. at the end of the day that's $60 that could go towards new stuff.
 

Shougeki

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What is your PSU, brand and power rating?
What games do you play?
Is the cpu overlocked?

EVGA 750W,80Plus Gold
Mostly single player games. Looking forward mainly to Cyberpunk2077 :p
Nothing is overclocked.


Since the graphics solution can easily be the most power hungry device in our system, ensuring sufficient, quality power BEFORE installing a new graphics card is essential.

As far as upgrading or building all new, that's up to you. Are you happy with your computer now?

Im happy, but want to avail of the monitors 1440p x 140+Hz. Also I havent really been keeping any montioring going to see if the RAM or CPU are getting maxed. TBH I was just assuming that doubling the RAM would give me a few months.

It's up to you man. You can fetch some coin for your cpu and gpu and mobo while they are still relevant (somewhat) and use it towards a new build or you could upgrade your gpu and try to squeeze a little more life out of the 4790 that way. Personally i would say build a new one, but if you are waiting til "prices arent so ridculous" don't hold your breath.

One thing i would advise against is doubling your ram like you mentioned. don't double your ram on an older platform/chipset that your thinking about upgrading. get more ram if you need it, not because it's cheap. at the end of the day that's $60 that could go towards new stuff.

TBH I can get another 16G right now as i thought it would help somewhat with Cyberpunk2077, where as Ill probably look to upgrade either PC or just GPU end of Jan or even end of Feb.

My current thoughts are: Grab the extra RAM now. Upgrade GPU in Jan/Feb. Build a new PC later during 2021 [circa April time I guess]. Would selling the 1070 in Feb and the MB/CPU/RAM combo later net me much cash [I live in Ireland btw]? TBH I havent really kept up to speed since building it a good while back.

Also want to say thanks to everyone for the swift responses!
 
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Once again, it's hard to recommend buying more old RAM for an older platform that you are already thinking of upgrading. I also think you are mistaken if you think it will make much difference in terms of performance. Save your money and put it towards that new gpu.
 

Shougeki

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Once again, it's hard to recommend buying more old RAM for an older platform that you are already thinking of upgrading. I also think you are mistaken if you think it will make much difference in terms of performance. Save your money and put it towards that new gpu.

Okidokey, thanks for the info :)
 
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The 4790K is going to hold both the 2080 and the 3070 back. Don't spend the money on any more RAM for your current system. You'll see a much better return on your money if you put it into a new board, CPU, and RAM.
 
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get a new card in Jan or so even though it will be slightly hampered, and then build a new PC mid 2021!
Yeah I would do this.

A huge advantage you have is your motherboard and CPU sell for a pretty penny on the used market. You can get $200 combined for both no problem.
 
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You might want to take a look at this post, benchmarking SOTR. This guy has a 4770K + 1080 Ti, went 43% GPU bound (57% CPU bound) and got 116 FPS. He upgraded to a 9900K and got 143 FPS on the same card.

1080 Ti is a smidge faster than a 2070 at 1080P. Indexing that against TPUs benchmarks, you're probably already somewhat CPU limited with a 1070.

Here's another one, 2070 + 4790K OC, he actually ties my 10400 + 2060, but his GPU should be about 20% faster than mine.

 
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He'll be CPU limited for sure but alot of those charts are at 1080p where he's at 1440p.

1440p he won't be nearly as limited, especially if he's proritizing higher graphical settings over just raw FPS. He said he's mostly just focusing on single player games so 4790k with a nice graphics card should be good for 1440p for the time being
 
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He'll be CPU limited for sure but alot of those charts are at 1080p where he's at 1440p.

1440p he won't be nearly as limited, especially if he's proritizing higher graphical settings over just raw FPS. He said he's mostly just focusing on single player games so 4790k with a nice graphics card should be good for 1440p for the time being


But he has a 1080P 240Hz monitor.

Edit: NVM, best buy's specs are wrong. It's a 1440P. My bad.
 
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No best buy is right that was just the wrong model. That was the XB272 where he has the XB271

Ya, 144Hz 1440p. Very nice monitor seems like. Thing is to drive that kind of resolution / refresh, really need a 3060 Ti or better on modern games.

I tend to think a CPU / motherboard / RAM upgrade would give more bang for the buck right now, since GPUs are priced like 50% higher than they should be - if you can find them.
 

Shougeki

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EDIT: I meant a 3070 or 3080. Damn typos!

Ya, 144Hz 1440p. Very nice monitor seems like. Thing is to drive that kind of resolution / refresh, really need a 3060 Ti or better on modern games.

I tend to think a CPU / motherboard / RAM upgrade would give more bang for the buck right now, since GPUs are priced like 50% higher than they should be - if you can find them.

TBH I got a load of vouchers from work about two years ago [when the monitor was about ~990e] and had nothing to spend them on so decided to grab it. I know full well I am not getting the best out of it right now, but I look at it as "free" :)
 
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There should be news on the AMD side come January. I would wait to see how that affects the market.
 
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