Computer bottleneck and upgrade

hirokinae

Prominent
Feb 17, 2017
3
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510
My computer has gone a few years without an upgrade, and it's starting to show its age. I'm an avid gamer, although 1080p is fine for now, possibly upgrading to 1440 is a possibility, while 4k is probably much further out. Current specs are:

i5 2500k cpu
geforce GTX 960 2gb
16gb RAM
2x 250 gb ssd hard drives, 1x 1TB HDD
all on an ASUS p8z68-v LE motherboard
the 750w PSU is about 4 years old


My question is, should I upgrade now, or wait a little bit for 1440p/4k to get cheaper? I was thinking of upgrading to the cheaper gtx 1060 6gb to hold me over with basic 1080p, then go balls deep later on with a new cpu/gpu/psu/tower/RAM later on down the line.

Or is now a better time to upgrade my nearly 6 year old i5 2500k, while getting the 1070/1080 gpu?

Thanks in advance!
 
Solution


Do you have a budget?

What about Vega GPUs? AMD's going to release that near the end of this year. Ryzen CPUs are coming out within the next 2-3 weeks. I'd not jump to conclusions about AMD. Seems Ryzen and Vega are going to set new standards, MAYBE. Ryzen's as far from the FX line that one can get and Vega's new way of dealing with VRAM is interesting.
 


From the research i've done, seems the Geforce is undisputed at the top at the moment. I want to spend only around $250, but I can stretch to 600-700 if its a great time to do it. I'm just wondering if I should replace the cpu/gpu now with more powerful options, or just get the 1060 to tide me over for the future when i can replace everything in about 2 years.
 


My cpu can, but my budget wont. I will definitely be upgrading in the cpu/gpu in the future, but i'd rather not get the 1070 now, only to find out there's a better 4k card 1-2 years from now when i upgrade my whole system.
 

I have a 2500k clocked at 5ghz, paired with a gtx 1070. Having a 6 year old system, I would recommend that you stay 1080p and invest in a high refresh rate monitor with a low response time, if you plan to keep your existing build. This will allow your existing build to run triple A titles on ultra settings, at a respectable framerate for the next couple of years.
 


Is the 2500K OC'd? Putting it at 4.6 or higher can boost your FPS with CPU intensive games. I would buy the 1070. It will hold it's value better than the 1060. You can then sell the rig with the 1070(still under warranty? Some warranties(EVGA) are transferrable) and then invest that into your new rig to help belay the cost.

The 960 can help with a few titles that employ PhysX but that board's second PCIe 3.0 slot doesn't look promising. Sell it if possible and put that towards a 1070 Windforce. If not, yes I'd go for the 6GB 1060.
 
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