[SOLVED] Decision time

[Brian_278]

Okay the time has come to make a decision with regards to upgrading my system.

Currently I am running"
MSI Z270 Gaming M6 board
gigabyte 2080 super
C. Dominator 64 Gbs at 3000mhz
2 SSDs
2 970 Evos
cpu is Intel i7-7700K

I am considering either swapping the video card for a Gigabyte 3080 Xtreme OR swapping the board and cpu. I'm pretty sure the later will be more beneficial for performance it's just nice to get feedback. Plus if you would also go with the later, what combination would you suggest, I admit I am an MSI (board), Intel (cpu) fan so a combo of those two would be greatly appreciated, I am open to other boards but not other cpus.

My budget is 1,000 to 1,200 BEFORE taxes.

I do play a lot of WOW the most, and I have been told that it's very cpu driven, not sure if that is true or not.

And thanks.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Okay the time has come to make a decision with regards to upgrading my system.

Currently I am running"
MSI Z270 Gaming M6 board
gigabyte 2080 super
C. Dominator 64 Gbs at 3000mhz
2 SSDs
2 970 Evos
cpu is Intel i7-7700K

I am considering either swapping the video card for a Gigabyte 3080 Xtreme OR swapping the board and cpu. I'm pretty sure the later will be more beneficial for performance it's just nice to get feedback. Plus if you would also go with the later, what combination would you suggest, I admit I am an MSI (board), Intel (cpu) fan so a combo of those two would be greatly appreciated, I am open to other boards but not other cpus.

My budget is 1,000 to 1,200 BEFORE taxes.

I do play a lot of WOW the most, and I have been told that it's very cpu driven, not sure if that is true or not.

And thanks.

Hey there,

What CPU is in your system? I wouldn't necessarily say a CPU/Mobo change is gonna give substantial uplift in FPS. There will be some uplift for sure, but the biggest leap in FPS will always come from a GPU upgrade.

With that said, the 2080 is still pretty strong. What resolution is your monitor?

 

[MrBigMaus]

Okay the time has come to make a decision with regards to upgrading my system.

Currently I am running"
MSI Z270 Gaming M6 board
gigabyte 2080 super
C. Dominator 64 Gbs at 3000mhz
2 SSDs
2 970 Evos
cpu is Intel i7-7700K

I am considering either swapping the video card for a Gigabyte 3080 Xtreme OR swapping the board and cpu. I'm pretty sure the later will be more beneficial for performance it's just nice to get feedback. Plus if you would also go with the later, what combination would you suggest, I admit I am an MSI (board), Intel (cpu) fan so a combo of those two would be greatly appreciated, I am open to other boards but not other cpus.

My budget is 1,000 to 1,200 BEFORE taxes.

I do play a lot of WOW the most, and I have been told that it's very cpu driven, not sure if that is true or not.

And thanks.

I think the best way to up this system will be buying new CPU like 10700 or wait for 11 generations of cpu like 11700, it will be faster about 11% and motherboard. All other components are still good

 

[Brian_278]

Hey there,

What CPU is in your system? I wouldn't necessarily say a CPU/Mobo change is gonna give substantial uplift in FPS. There will be some uplift for sure, but the biggest leap in FPS will always come from a GPU upgrade.

With that said, the 2080 is still pretty strong. What resolution is your monitor?

It's a i7-7700K I have tried overclocking it, as I did with the RAM. The RAM is fine overclocked, but every time I try to knock that 4.2 up to 5 kinda makes the system a little squirrely so I have just left it alone. And I am running an X34 so it's 3440x1440, which I realize is a lot of real estate. But I find I have to run WOW at level 7 for graphic setttings as opposed to 10 or Ultra settings.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hmm, in that case, yes, a CPU/GPU upgrade might get you closer to what you want for a reasonable cost. Going with a Rzyen 5 5600x and a B550 mobo, will give you a good boost. Sometimes as much as 30% in FPS, but this game dependant. Would certainly push your 2080 further.

Going the other route, I think the 7700k will hold back the 3080, but maybe not so much at that res, where the load shifts more to the GPU. The difficulty right now is getting your hands on a 3080.

 

[Brian_278]

Hmm, in that case, yes, a CPU/GPU upgrade might get you closer to what you want for a reasonable cost. Going with a Rzyen 5 5600x and a B550 mobo, will give you a good boost. Sometimes as much as 30% in FPS, but this game dependant. Would certainly push your 2080 further.

Going the other route, I think the 770k will hold back the 3080, but maybe not so much at that res, where the load shifts more to the GPU. The difficulty right now is getting your hands on a 3080.

I hear that the 3080's are pretty remote to say the least, but I can wait, all good. Right now after a few intense very involved WOW actions, (heavy fighting or large raid groups) I can see in the MSI tuner that the 2080 is maxed, not sure if that's because of the larger display?? but ya a bit disappointed as I figured all of that would allow me to run at level 10 or Ultra in WOW, but even though it does, it does have severe lag. Cool, thanks for all the info guys, it's definitely all food for thought and I appreciate it!!

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Well, as long as you've a strong enough CPU, you would always expect to see your GPU at 98%+most of the time. If when you say the 2080 is maxed out, at higher res, certainly ram can max out, which could prevent the highest settings (game dependant) being comfortable.

The lag at Ultra is probably due to the 7700k having just 4c/8t. Whilst this is still ok for gaming, nearly all new games, can take advantage of more cores/threads as they are coded to using more resources. A 6c/12t or 8c/16t CPU will take that out of the equation altogether.

Glad to have offered some advise. Hopefully you get it sorted. Keep us posted, and let us know how you get on. Happy gaming

 

[Brian_278]

Okay I have been doing more thinking, or trying too. When wondering about upgrading the video card from a 2080 Super to a 3080 Xtreme, it will take a while to wait on the 3080.
So, I am thinking of heading the direction of replacing the motherboard and cpu. I have zero clue where to start, I like MSI for motherboards and Intel for processors (just my thing, I'm an old fart and would like to stick with what has worked for me)
And here's your stupid question for the day......is there a site that can make trying to match a cpu with motherboard a little bit easier then, well, guessing? lol
Thanks.

 

[Wolfshadw]

And here's your stupid question for the day......is there a site that can make trying to match a cpu with motherboard a little bit easier then, well, guessing? lol

PC Part Picker
Start with the 10th Gen Comet Lake Intel processors

-Wolf sends

 

[Brian_278]

Okay I attempted to match up a cpu and a motherboard and got this message.....
Note: Wattages are estimates only. Actual power draw may differ from listed values.

Component	Estimated Wattage
Intel Core i9-10850K 3.6 GHz 10-Core Processor	15W - 125W
MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK ATX LGA1200 Motherboard	17W - 70W
Total:	195W

I am not too worried about wattage as I have a EVGA 1200P2, but just want to make sure that by wattage they don't mean that the board will fry the card see, told ya I know a lot about this stuff.

 

[Wolfshadw]

No. Nothing to worry about there. The motherboard is designed to handle all currently available LGA1200 (Comet Lake) processors as well as any PCI Express graphics card. If you search Google for the name of the motherboard, you can usually find the motherboard's web page. There, you can find all kinds of information about the board like RAM/CPU compatibilities and other specifications.

-Wolf sends

 

[Brian_278]

Awesome thanks for the confirmation, appreciate that. Already checked out the stats on the MSI site, the Tomahawk seems to support my DDR4 3000 RAM and has to M.2 slots and should take the 2080 Super just fine.
Now the hard part, pressing the BUY button

 

[Flayed]

You may need a cooler upgrade to tame the 10850k. I think it uses a lot more than 125W.

 

[Wolfshadw]

You may need a cooler upgrade to tame the 10850k. I think it uses a lot more than 125W.

Intel ARK Core I9-10850K

TDP 125 W

Without overclocking, it won't draw more than 125 watts.

-Wolf sends

 

[Brian_278]

I am currently using this...https://www.newegg.ca/thermaltake-floe-riing-rgb-360-tt-premium-edition-liquid-cooling-system/p/N82E16835106503?Item=N82E16835106503
figured it was okay??
And no, definitely not overclocking anything.

 

[Karadjgne]

Cpu is fps. Gpu is eye-candy. The 7700k is fine for WoW at any resolution, even a 21:9. Your issue is the gpu at that extended 1440p. It's @ 2.5x the amount of pixels as a standard 16:9 1080p, which is hard on a gpu, even a 2080Super. Which is why you downgrade to 7.

If fps from the cpu was the issue, changing detail levels wouldn't have much affect.

To run 3440x1440p and get high fps on screen, like the 140+ fps range, takes a 3080 to get Ultra in most games.

Where the 7700k might suffer is in raids. The sheer amount of Ai generated in 32man or better raids is staggering, my 3770k at 4.6GHz was down to 5-10fps in just a 24man boss fight. Single player was well above 90fps. Game capped.

TDP is meaningless. That's an intel bios standard. Asus is the only vendor to stick to Intel recommended limits. Gigabyte and MSI do not. Their bios is written to throw out Intel recommended power limit settings and apply boosted settings instead, just so they can say you get better performance on their motherboards.
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/...erboards-with-default-settings-for-your-build
Guaranteed you won't be looking at 125w or under at stock settings, probably closer to 200w for a full core burn. You'd actually be better off With OC vs Without, even if you do nothing but tinker with voltages and not touch the actual boost speeds.

 

[Flayed]

Intel ARK Core I9-10850K


Without overclocking, it won't draw more than 125 watts.

-Wolf sends

I was under the impression that Intel chips will boost to over 200W with their turbo PL2, although sounds like the OP has a good cooler already.

265W for the 10850k peak power consumption with a high-end motherboard.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I was under the impression that Intel chips will boost to over 200W with their turbo PL2, although sounds like the OP has a good cooler already.

265W for the 10850k peak power consumption with a high-end motherboard.

Unless you're running full bore turbo-boost for an extended period of time, this still shouldn't be an issue.

-Wolf sends

 

[Brian_278]

Cpu is fps. Gpu is eye-candy. The 7700k is fine for WoW at any resolution, even a 21:9. Your issue is the gpu at that extended 1440p. It's @ 2.5x the amount of pixels as a standard 16:9 1080p, which is hard on a gpu, even a 2080Super. Which is why you downgrade to 7.

If fps from the cpu was the issue, changing detail levels wouldn't have much affect.

To run 3440x1440p and get high fps on screen, like the 140+ fps range, takes a 3080 to get Ultra in most games.

Where the 7700k might suffer is in raids. The sheer amount of Ai generated in 32man or better raids is staggering, my 3770k at 4.6GHz was down to 5-10fps in just a 24man boss fight. Single player was well above 90fps. Game capped.

TDP is meaningless. That's an intel bios standard. Asus is the only vendor to stick to Intel recommended limits. Gigabyte and MSI do not. Their bios is written to throw out Intel recommended power limit settings and apply boosted settings instead, just so they can say you get better performance on their motherboards.
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/...erboards-with-default-settings-for-your-build
Guaranteed you won't be looking at 125w or under at stock settings, probably closer to 200w for a full core burn. You'd actually be better off With OC vs Without, even if you do nothing but tinker with voltages and not touch the actual boost speeds.

That's why I was thinking about the initial decision, swap the 2080 Super for a 3080, if the day ever comes that one becomes available, OR swap out the CPU and motherboard. The one point I thought I mentioned, but perhaps not, is that with the MSI Afterburner going, I can see that let's say 90% of the time I am in WOW it's maxed, 100% usage, ( the 2080) figured throwing a 3080 in there would not only be easier for my dumb ass to take care of, but might just let me bump up to ultra.
I don't raid much, but yes, I can see even at detail level 6 if there are a lot of toons trying to kill one big bad guy, things do really lag and I can see in the chat I am not alone there

 

[Flayed]

I thought WoW will run on a potato? I played the demo starter island for an hour the graphics were really awful. They renamed my old toons so I got pissed and quit.

 

[Brian_278]

I suppose it could, been playing for 14 years now, as I always try to keep upgrading my components or buying a whole new machine, each time I turn the graphics up a bit more and more. At this point I think they look pretty good, but it's when I start moving around that if I don't crank the detail level down, it's a bit hurky jerky as the 2080 Super is trying to keep up with a small 34 inch display (hey it is small, some guys are using 2-3 34 inch monitors, or maybe a 49 inch, which there is no way my old eyes could keep up with that without getting one serious headache)

 

[Brian_278]

So bottom line, would I be safe enough going with both those parts, or should I tone down the processor a bit, if it's gonna be a burning torch (which it kinda sounds like it will)
Or is there something more affordable, maybe a step down, yet still a noticeable change from my i7-7700k

 

[Flayed]

So bottom line, would I be safe enough going with both those parts, or should I tone down the processor a bit, if it's gonna be a burning torch (which it kinda sounds like it will)
Or is there something more affordable, maybe a step down, yet still a noticeable change from my i7-7700k

If it were me I would get an i7 10700k and save a few quid. I'm not saying the i9 is bad as such just I have never spent that much on just a CPU and I doubt the difference between the two would be noticeable in gaming outside of running benchmarks.

Having said that maybe the i9 would be better for WoW I have no idea as I don't play the game.

 

[Brian_278]

Well you are right, pretty much run on a potato just seems like it's gonna take a much longer time to grab a G. 3080 Xtreme, so might as well update the cpu and motherboard with the case while I am waiting. Just wanted to make sure that the power of the cpu wasn't going to fry the board, as the Tomahawk is closing in on 300 bucks with taxes. if the i7 10700k runs a tad slower, maybe it isn't such a wattage hog?
When I switch to that i7 with the Tomahawk I see it also gives a warning about wattage being close to 195 - exact same message I had with trying to pair up the i9 - again just want to make sure these warnings aren't a concern?

 

[Zerk2012]

So bottom line, would I be safe enough going with both those parts, or should I tone down the processor a bit, if it's gonna be a burning torch (which it kinda sounds like it will)
Or is there something more affordable, maybe a step down, yet still a noticeable change from my i7-7700k

If I was doing that with that budget I would get both CPU and GPU.
PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-10700K 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor | $335.99 @ Walmart
Motherboard | MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK ATX LGA1200 Motherboard | $189.99 @ Walmart
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $525.98
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-02-16 08:00 EST-0500 |

Then you can sell your motherboard and processor and should put you close to the RTX 3080 price with the money left over, then sell your 2080 and you should be fine.