Getting time to upgrade the old gal?

PinkPunisher

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May 26, 2016
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So I've been out of the scene for a few years now since I originally built this girl about 5 or so years ago now I suppose. With the new Pascal line of gpu's coming out shortly I figure its probably getting about time to try and bring new life to my gaming/everyday use rig. I'm honestly surprised the system has lasted as long as it has already, to this day I can still play games like Witcher 3 with no severe lag issues and even GTA V if I lower my standards on resolution haha I'm playing on a 1080p screen but would really love to upgrade to 2K or maybe even 4K if the price is reasonable in the future while hopefully not sacrificing too many of my current components. I do definitely have the itch to start all brand new and just gift this desktop to my girlfriend but the idea of sinking in upwards of $2000 when really unneeded makes my wallet wanna cry. I should note I live in Canada so I likely won't have as much play room in my budget as you more fortunate USA members. Enough with the jabber though here are my specs.

i5-3570K
Corsair H60 Liquid Cooling
MSI Z77A-GD55
8.00 GB Corsair Vengence 1600
Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850
XFX 650W PRO
60GB SSD for OS
2 TB HDDs

From doing some light reading I think I might be able to get away with simply upgrading the GPU but would going up to 16 GBs of RAM make any noticeable improvements? Would replacing the power supply for a better rating be of real benefit, the system is typically on a maximum of 12 hours a day if not less. I'm not particularly interested in going into heavy OCing but a little bump would be nice. Any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated!
 
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the R9 390x would get a price drop. thats for sure since its around the GTX 1070 price range as of now. but i do recommend just go for the GTX 1070, its probably one of the best choices coming out this year in performance, price ratio


Do you think I'll be limited in GPU choices at all from my 650W PSU? With the new 1080s coming out so soon I was thinking I'd grab either a 970 or 980, maybe even TI depending on pricing drops. I have been eyeing the G-Skill Ripjaw Z series 4x4GB 2400, I assume I won't have any issues with using four RAM modules despite the specs on my mobo saying dual channel support since it has four RAM slots? I definitely agree that the 60gb SSD is on the small side for my OS and I would like to upgrade it to something with a bit more room, I use it exclusively for my OS though and all games, music, etc are stored on the HDDs. I just recently had to do a full re-install though as Windows 7 completely crapped out on me so I've been delaying the idea of starting fresh again haha
 
Of course it limits GPU choices. :) Certain dual GPU configurations are out of the question.
But it's top quality PSU and will handle most single GPU options just fine (that's if you're not considering GTX TITAN-Z).
It might be worth waiting till gtx 1070 gets released though.

About ram - it's not recommended to mix different brands/specs ram. You might run into compatibility problems.
But usually with little ram parameter tweaking it will still run just fine.
 


Sorry I should have noted I was intending to just replace the RAM all together and sell off my current two sticks so I'd starting fresh in that regard. Do you think the price of the AMD 390X will drop at all along with the 980s/TIs once the 1070/80 are released? I was reading various articles and it seems most are suggesting the AMD cards based on benchmarks if I'm not mistaken. If I'm honest with myself though the likely hood of me buying a 1070 or 1080 is quite slim as the whole reason I'm looking to upgrade now is to grab a solid GPU to hold me off for the next few years, while not breaking the bank. I don't have any intentions of running a dual GPU configuration so I'm simply looking to grab a good card that I'll get a nice boost in performance from while not being totally outdated.
 
on 1st june AMD should release info about Polaris chips, there are some unofficial leaks of it's performance and with decent pricing it could be even better option, just wait a week :)
 


Not too worry, I was expecting you or anyone else for that matter to be able to give me numbers 😉 I've been considering the Sapphire 390X Nitro which is about the maximum I'd like to spend at the time so any price drops will be of benefit. Who knows it might even pay for a moderate portion of a reasonably larger SSD.
 


Good to know! Fortunately I won't be buying any of this for at least the next month or two, unless I cave and buy the lesser items such as a new case or RAM. I definitely intend to wait on the GPUs though, especially if the Polaris line is within my budget!
 
the R9 390x would get a price drop. thats for sure since its around the GTX 1070 price range as of now. but i do recommend just go for the GTX 1070, its probably one of the best choices coming out this year in performance, price ratio
 
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