Which upgrade should I go for, a monitor or GPU?

[AsRock]

Depends were that dead pixel is, if it's dead center and you see it all the time while playing then i would replace it. If not i would get a RX480 when released which going by what has been said about it so far should be dam good for 1080P, of course you be better of waiting for some reviews but i think it will pound that 680 in to the ground lol.

 

[Ron JH]

Depends were that dead pixel is, if it's dead center and you see it all the time while playing then i would replace it. If not i would get a RX480 when released which going by what has been said about it so far should be dam good for 1080P, of course you be better of waiting for some reviews but i think it will pound that 680 in to the ground lol.

Its right at my left side of the screen and its very visible when I am gaming so yea its kinda distracting at times.

As for Team Red's RX480, I really ought to check the benchmarks first from the consumers before I judge since most people I heard when I lurked in the Youtube were riddled with GPU wars between both sides and I kinda don't want to hear any of it as I have no loyalty to a brand. XD

 

[Ungari]

As for Team Red's RX480, I really ought to check the benchmarks first from the consumers before I judge since most people I heard when I lurked in the Youtube were riddled with GPU wars between both sides and I kinda don't want to hear any of it as I have no loyalty to a brand. XD

Even if you were fanatically in the Team Green camp, the 10XX cards are simply not produced in enough quantities for you to easily get one, and as a result Nvidia has created a sellers market with price gouging galore.
Although none of the games you mentioned are particularly challenging to run at 1080p, I would be looking at a CPU upgrade before you buy a monitor. The used XEON processor market has incredible deals as low as $20, and should you want to play better games you will need the CPU power as well a new graphics card to run them.

 

[Ron JH]

Even if you were fanatically in the Team Green camp, the 10XX cards are simply not produced in enough quantities for you to easily get one, and as a result Nvidia has created a sellers market with price gouging galore.
Although none of the games you mentioned are particularly challenging to run at 1080p, I would be looking at a CPU upgrade before you buy a monitor. The used XEON processor market has incredible deals as low as $20, and should you want to play better games you will need the CPU power as well a new graphics card to run them.

Yea I am aware that my CPU isn't the best as an i3 doesn't sound as impressive for a gaming rig as I was on tight budget that time. I might upgrade to an i5 if I got the money for it

For the 10 series, I know the price is absolutely bloated due to high demand everywhere, so chances are I might just go for a 980 Ti or 980.

As for now, my only focus is on the GPU and monitor since the more I look at it the more bothered I am by the dead pixel

 

[Ungari]

Forget about the i5 or the 900 series cards as they are both obsolete and still overpriced.
You should really look into the used XEONs as many of them are closely equivalent to the i7s for only $80.
As for the dead pixel here is my solution; take a piece of duck tape and cover it up while waiting for the Polaris RX480.

 

[Ron JH]

Forget about the i5 or the 900 series cards as they are both obsolete and still overpriced.
You should really look into the used XEONs as many of them are closely equivalent to the i7s for only $80.
As for the dead pixel here is my solution; take a piece of duck tape and cover it up while waiting for the Polaris RX480.

Hmm, I'll see if that's possible to be bought still. I am not sure how many XEONs are there to get in my place.

As for Polaris, yeah I think I'll look at the benchmark first before judging since currently its still all speculations and I am not sure who to trust with all the drama on Youtube going on with the GPU wars and whatnot. But it certainly seem to be a very promising card from what I see during the AMD Stream with the Zen Processor.

 

[Ungari]

Hmm, I'll see if that's possible to be bought still. I am not sure how many XEONs are there to get in my place.

As for Polaris, yeah I think I'll look at the benchmark first before judging since currently its still all speculations and I am not sure who to trust with all the drama on Youtube going on with the GPU wars and whatnot. But it certainly seem to be a very promising card from what I see during the AMD Stream with the Zen Processor.

Also, consider that the GTX 980 will likely to have yet another price decrease after the Polaris release if the OC 480s get closer to that performance, these sellers are going to have to liquidate their stocks.
However, you will still want to consider getting more that 4GB DRAM as some games are going over that limit particularly if you choose to go to a higher monitor resolution.

 

[Ron JH]

Also, consider that the GTX 980 will likely to have yet another price decrease after the Polaris release if the OC 480s get closer to that performance, these sellers are going to have to liquidate their stocks.

Yeah, NVidia really ought to keep their price down on their older cards at least if they really want to compete against AMD's performance/Price ratio, which is what Radeon is known for from what I heard of so far.

I never used their GPUs before so I can't judge, but using my brother's R9 270x to enjoy Borderlands 2 have been a fine experience in 1080p even though I find the 680 a bit better and have a more consistent frame rate as well as lower temps. But that's just my experience. Maybe his rig isn't as good.

 

[Ungari]

Yeah, NVidia really ought to keep their price down on their older cards at least if they really want to compete against AMD's performance/Price ratio, which is what Radeon is known for from what I heard of so far.

I never used their GPUs before so I can't judge, but using my brother's R9 270x to enjoy Borderlands 2 have been a fine experience in 1080p even though I find the 680 a bit better and have a more consistent frame rate as well as lower temps. But that's just my experience. Maybe his rig isn't as good.

The GTX 680 is flat out a more powerful GPU than the R9 270, so that comes as no surprise.
Also, the I believe the 270 has less VRAM than your 680.

 

[Ron JH]

The GTX 680 is flat out a more powerful GPU than the R9 270, so that comes as no surprise.
Also, the I believe the 270 has less VRAM than your 680.

Well, its the same 2GB DDR5 VRAM as I checked the box. But yeah, the GTX 680 was quite a beast of a card even now, but has a lot of limits still when playing open world games like GTA V or Witcher III.

Gaming on shooters have been super fun though with the card so far, but there's a lot of screen tearing sometimes when I turned V Sync off. :U

 

[Ungari]

I suspect your i3 will also bottleneck you in GTA V.

 

[Ron JH]

I suspect your i3 will also bottleneck you in GTA V.

Yeah, no doubt. The game is very CPU dependent as opposed to my other favorite games like Borderlands and BF4 which isn't as taxing on the CPU.

 

[D007]

Well, I am doing solid with my GTX 680 so I think I can use it for a bit more.



Well, for Borderlands 2 and BF4 I am getting a consistent 55-65 fps with High settings with AA and VSync off. So yeah...any thoughts?

Then that 144 hz monitor will not help you at all.. 144hz is a gimmick right now afaik.
Price will come down and the technology will get better and they will add HDR. I'd wait for 144hz with HDR before even worrying about a new monitor. HDR monitors are in development now.
Get the 1080, ramp up settings to max and get 60 fps at ultra.. Is what I'd do.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

An overall rig upgrade will cost u a lot but it's worth the investment.

 

[Ungari]

Then that 144 hz monitor will not help you at all.. 144hz is a gimmick right now afaik.
Price will come down and the technology will get better and they will add HDR. I'd wait for 144hz with HDR before even worrying about a new monitor. HDR monitors are in development now.
Get the 1080, ramp up settings to max and get 60 fps at ultra.. Is what I'd do.

I think 2K 144Hz monitors and Widescreens are rapidly becoming better and more affordable.
The Pascal 1080 is just plain overkill for 1080p at 60Hz, and Nvidia has caused artificial inflation with it's FE pricing, and low supply of chips to board manufacturers.
The lowest priced 1080 I ever was able to notice advertised was at $609 and it's not in stock, just like every other Pascal card.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

for 1080p, I think the GTX1070 will do the job pushing all demanding games to maxed settings while yielding over 70fps average. If fixed 144Hz isn't everyone's taste, a 1440p IPS G-Sync monitor would be the perfect match for both Pascal cards.

 

[Dethroy]

Short answer: Don't upgrade yet!

Longer version:
Wait for the next generation of monitors to arrive. You don't want to miss out on HDR. Else you will hate yourself for giving in to the upgrade itch too early. I'd recommend
shooting for a 3440 x 1440 Ultrawide monitor with HDR support and high refresh rates. DP 1.3 will provide enough bandwith for that. If 21:9 is not your type of thing consider upgrading to 4K HDR instead. By the time these monitors will be available, Vega and GP102 might be as well - hopefully capeable of driving such panels at satisfactory framerates.

Verdict: be patient and wait for HDR and upgrade both at the same time

 

[Ungari]

OP check out these deals for used CPU's including Xeon by a member of TPU here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/cpu-sale.223017/

 

[Ron JH]

OP check out these deals for used CPU's including Xeon by a member of TPU here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/cpu-sale.223017/

Thanks for the look out.

Short answer: Don't upgrade yet!

Longer version:
Wait for the next generation of monitors to arrive. You don't want to miss out on HDR. Else you will hate yourself for giving in to the upgrade itch too early. I'd recommend
shooting for a 3440 x 1440 Ultrawide monitor with HDR support and high refresh rates. DP 1.3 will provide enough bandwith for that. If 21:9 is not your type of thing consider upgrading to 4K HDR instead. By the time these monitors will be available, Vega and GP102 might be as well - hopefully capeable of driving such panels at satisfactory framerates.

Verdict: be patient and wait for HDR and upgrade both at the same time

I don't mind 21:9 as long as the game has good support on the thing.

And I've heard a lot of things about HDR too, so I might wait it out, of course, I keep losing braincells when both Nvidia and AMD fanatics bash each other in the discussion over the advantage of their GPUs utilized upon this new tech on the monitors, so I figured I might have to look into it another time. But so far it seems very promising.

A 4K HDR monitor seemed extremely pricey though...but it might just be worth it from the things I keep hearing.

 

[Caring1]

You seem set on getting a monitor first, but I would upgrade the GPU first, a new graphics card can last years, just because it is outdated as soon as it is released, doesn't mean it isn't any good. You can also turn up the eye candy on your old monitor while saving up for a new one.
Enjoy faster frame rates and better visuals while waiting.
If you get a new monitor first you won't be able to enjoy the benefits of it without a new card.

 

[Ron JH]

You seem set on getting a monitor first, but I would upgrade the GPU first, a new graphics card can last years, just because it is outdated as soon as it is released, doesn't mean it isn't any good. You can also turn up the eye candy on your old monitor while saving up for a new one.
Enjoy faster frame rates and better visuals while waiting.
If you get a new monitor first you won't be able to enjoy the benefits of it without a new card.

Yeah, Now I am just watching the price list on my country and refraining from getting too impatient as I just noticed the Gigabyte G1 Waterforce GTX 980 Ti is now priced at a very tempting $ 580.

Should I keep waiting for the price to drop further?

 

[revin]

You might keep an eye open for a sale to make the move to 1440.
I grabbed an Acer 1440 27" for just under $200 during the holidays and couldn't be more pleased.
Can go down to 1080 when needed, which is very rare, but the move from 1050/1080 to this is just outstanding!
This 7950 runs everything we do superbly and it's just awesome to have the extra real estate for pictures and videos also

 

[Ron JH]

You might keep an eye open for a sale to make the move to 1440.
I grabbed an Acer 1440 27" for just under $200 during the holidays and couldn't be more pleased.
Can go down to 1080 when needed, which is very rare, but the move from 1050/1080 to this is just outstanding!
This 7950 runs everything we do superbly and it's just awesome to have the extra real estate for pictures and videos also

Hmm, alrighty then. Thanks for the recommendations. I'll keep an eye on 1440p for a consideration once I upgraded my GPU.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Although none of the games you mentioned are particularly challenging to run at 1080p, I would be looking at a CPU upgrade before you buy a monitor.

Simply: No. So many people have a misconception of them. I have another gaming rig that has a 4160 and several other people do as well, including @jboydgolfer.

People that have used one know it is a very capable gaming CPU. @Ron JH you don't need to worry about replacing that CPU for awhile. Do it GPU, then monitor, then maybe someday the CPU.

 

[Ungari]

I play ARMA 3 and others which have a CPU intensive engine, so these are the type of games I'm referring to.
Obviously, if you play WoW, or LoL and other low processor games you will be OK.