Alienware Aurora upgrade

[althepilot03]

So I have an aurora r5 at the time I went with the cheapest specs which were the i5 6400 and gtx950. Can anyone provide the best upgrade solution. I was thinking about upgrading to i76700 and also a gpu ugrade. My main use is P3D V4

 

[dontlistentome]

The hardware recommendations are for an i7, so the 6700 should do. As for videocard, they recommend an 8gb level card. A 1060 6gb or RX 580 8gb sounds like the minimum you'd want for that if you're at 1080p.

So really it's a question of what price you'd have to pay for an i7 6700. A Ryzen 5/motherboard/DDR4 combo would be the alternative. Price both options out in your area and see which costs less.

 

[althepilot03]

The hardware recommendations are for an i7, so the 6700 should do. As for videocard, they recommend an 8gb level card. A 1060 6gb or RX 580 8gb sounds like the minimum you'd want for that if you're at 1080p.

So really it's a question of what price you'd have to pay for an i7 6700. A Ryzen 5/motherboard/DDR4 combo would be the alternative. Price both options out in your area and see which costs less.

I am stuck between picking the rtx2070, gtx1080 or 1070ti they would have to be blower style cards due to the case. What would you recommend?

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Depends on your budget. Also, look at AMD Vega 56 and 64. I think Vega 56 is between a gtx 1070 and that Vega 64 competes with a 1080.

So that said, to give perspective, 2070 and 1080 I think perform almost the same except 2070 has ray tracing where 1080 doesn't, but if you get a better deal on your card, the 1080 is worth a look.

The 1070ti is closer to the rtx 2060.

 

[althepilot03]

Depends on your budget. Also, look at AMD Vega 56 and 64. I think Vega 56 is between a gtx 1070 and that Vega 64 competes with a 1080.

So that said, to give perspective, 2070 and 1080 I think perform almost the same except 2070 has ray tracing where 1080 doesn't, but if you get a better deal on your card, the 1080 is worth a look.

The 1070ti is closer to the rtx 2060.

To throw in another curve ball should I keep the i56400 and upgrade to the gtx1060 or rtx2060. I get around 10-15 fps in dense areas with add ons. To increase this would I benefit more from a CPU of gpu upgrade. Also I use a 4K tv 43inch

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

You said you'll need a boat type cooler so double check the cooler on the rtx 2060. But the 1060 is not even in the same league as the 2060.

For most games though, your graphics card will show the most difference, then a CPU upgrade. So I would probably go for a new graphics card, upgrade to 16gb of ram, then either upgraded to the i7, or start saving for a new platform (cpu/ram/motherboard upgrade).

 

[althepilot03]

You said you'll need a boat type cooler so double check the cooler on the rtx 2060. But the 1060 is not even in the same league as the 2060.

For most games though, your graphics card will show the most difference, then a CPU upgrade. So I would probably go for a new graphics card, upgrade to 16gb of ram, then either upgraded to the i7, or start saving for a new platform (cpu/ram/motherboard upgrade).

So im going to go for an asus rtx2060 turbo once it comes off pre order. I'll also upgrade the psu at the same time to give extra room compared to the oem 460w and latter in the year upgrade CPU and ram.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Good deal. Just check the length in the case and the cooler since you mentioned that to be sure all will fit.

 

[althepilot03]

Good deal. Just check the length in the case and the cooler since you mentioned that to be sure all will fit.

Would getting a card with 8gb see a noticeable performance difference compared with the 6gb rtx2060. I'm comparing gtx1070ti and rtx2060 would the new gdrr6 memory narrow that margin with increased performance over the gdrr5?

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

So the rtx 2060 trades blows with the 1070ti. I just kind of went through this as I just upgraded my graphics card.

For me personally, I ended up getting a Vega 56. I got one for 10 dollars less than the rtx 2060. There Vega 56 basically competes with the gtx 1070.

The reason I went that route, I was actually between the Vega 56 and the rtx 2060. I went to microcenter thinking about getting the 2060. It is a slightly faster card than the Vega.

What made me not get the 2060 ultimately was partly the fact of only 6gb of vram. If you look on YouTube for example, some of the guys there were saying the card could use 5.5-5.8gb of vram in some titles with everything turned up at least on 1440p. Granted I play at 1080p, but I do have a 144hz monitor. I think part of my reasoning was that the 2060 is the faster card, but that I'd rather have the 8gb of vram. If games are using 5.5gb of vram now, how about in a year or so? If they begin to use more, then you have to turn down settings to stay under that 6gb limit.

It's a good card and is faster than my card, but I also know Vega cards can usually overclock will to if I want more performance. Anyway, that was my reasoning. But I think an overclocked Vega 56 can about match a stock Vega 64, which gets in the neighborhood of a gtx 1080. If you are into overclocking and tinkering you might look into that option also. I know I saw Newegg selling a powercolor red dragon version on eBay for 299.99 new. It's 340 on Newegg.com, but they have it for that price for whatever reason on eBay.