Help confirming upgrade choice

[Barrjos]

I am looking to upgrade my PC, and due to the wife's rules I only get one component every so 1-2 years. I'm nearly certain I should go with GPU first, but would like to get a warm fuzzy before I pull the trigger.

System Information:
ASROCK Fatality z68 1155
Sandy bridge I5K OC 4.0
8G RAM at 2133
EVGA GTX 580
2x OCZ 60G SSD in RAID0
1TB 7200 HDD

I would like to upgrade to a EVGA GTX980, and an 1155 Ivy, probably an I5 unlocked as well. I know without the ivy bridge, I cannot utilize PCI-E 3.0, but from what I've read this doesn't make a huge difference anyway.

Principally used for gaming, can anyone confirm I should go for the video card first? Thanks in advance, I know this question is asked often but all systems are different and I can't find a definitive answer.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the model of your i5? The GPU is of course the upgrade to do right now, but I'd like to make a recommendation and can't do so without knowing the model of the processor.

 

[Barrjos]

I5 2500K OC to 4.0

 

[synphul]

+1 For the gpu and maybe another 8gb of ram if it'll fit and you can swing it. The cpu is just fine for now and a new one (i5 devil's canyon or i7) will set you back around $220-320 at least. Plus a motherboard upgrade. The performance gains just aren't there I don't think. (lack of wow factor). Also would be helpful to know the size of the psu in case a newer card is more power hungry.

 

[Darkbreeze]

The i5-2500K @ 4Ghz can run any current single GPU with no issues. There is NO reason to upgrade to another LGA155 cpu whatsoever, at any point. There would be no benefit from it.

What is the brand and model number of your PSU?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Since your GTX 580 requires 600w and 1 6pin and 1 8 pin, you SHOULD be fine to go with a GTX 970 or 980. But it really depends on what you've got in there as far as a power supply. You might already be running less than you ought to be in which case moving to the 970 could present issues. Personally, I'd go with the 970, make sure I had very good case cooling and overclock the GPU. An overclocked 970 comes very close to 980 performance for a lot less money.

 

[synphul]

Is there a reason you prefer the nvidia cards? Going by pc part picker, looks like the least expensive evga gtx 980 is around $550. Xfx and msi have overclocked radeon r9 290x for around $300-350. The 980 gtx clocks a little higher, not much. 1178 vs 1000 on the radeon. The radeon has almost 800 more shader units, same rop's, same memory size (4gb) and a 512bit memory bus compared to the gtx's 256. Granted the 980 pushes a few more fps than the 290x, but like 10-12 in most games. I'd hope for $200-250 more in cost it'd bring a lot more than that to the table.

 

[Barrjos]

Thanks for the replies, I'm currently running a ABS MJ1100-M 1100W@50°C ATX12V/EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD PSU.

My case cooling hasn't presented any issues so far. I have the H-100 in a push-pull config, and current GPU temps never top 60C at full load, usually around 50 while gaming. CPU sits around 65 runing prime.

 

[synphul]

The r9 290x comes out ahead of the 970 in performance and still costs around $20-50 less than the 970. Although if you've got a preference for nvidia, then I guess the 970 would be the way to go.

 

[Barrjos]

IRT the Nvidia question, no logical reason why. Brand loyalty I suppose. I always run EVGA/NVIDIA; they've been good to me. Maybe someday I'll branch out, but probably not anytime soon.

 

[synphul]

With 1100w psu you should be fine I'd think.

 

[synphul]

The 970 then would probably be a more bang for your buck scenario. I have nothing against radeon's or nvidia cards either way. If you prefer evga and have had good luck and the pricetag doesn't scare you off, I'd say go for it.

 

[synphul]

Here's a comparison of the 970 and 980 vs a few other cards to give an idea of performance in several different games as far as fps. There's multiple charts with multiple games at different resolutions. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_980_STRIX_OC/1.html

 

[Darkbreeze]

The most obvious problem with this unit is the ~360mV on the 12v rail, ~50mV on the 5v rail, and ~85mV on the 3.3v rail results we saw at 100v. Well, there was also the out of specification ripple/noise values we saw at 120v in Test #4 as well, but while failing it was certainly not as impressive as those traces for 100v. I am hard pressed to remember a unit that posted such awful DC Output Quality and actually lived through testing. Thinking about that closely for a minute that might be worse as if the unit had simply shutoff then a users system would not be subjected to that kind of result unknowingly as the unit would be off. In the end, there is simply no way to pass this unit with such awful DC Output Quality. For those readers wondering, no components in the unit seemed to have failed and after completing testing restarting the unit at any of the previous lower load level we saw the same results as we saw on the first pass through.


DC Output Quality




All good things must come to an end, and this train just went right off the tracks. The ABS Majesty 1100W started off doing well in regards to its DC Output Quality, and really maintained it through the Torture Test. At that point we were seeing peak trace amplitudes of 35mV for the 12v rail and 20mV for the minor rails. As soon as we moved on to the full load test though things went to hell in a hand basket. During the 120v testing we saw the 12v rail jump to ~130mV of ripple/noise while the 5v rail hit 55mV. That is bad, really bad right? Well, following that we switched to the 100v test when bad went to major suck. The 12v rail shot up to ~360mV of ripple/noise while the 5v rail hit ~60mV and the 3.3v rail hit ~85mV. Do I really need to say that the unit failed this section, or was that clear already? In case it wasn’t, this was a failure of tsunami-like proportions.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/01/22/abs_majesty_mj1100m_1100w_power_supply_review/9#.VHGquel0xhE

I would not recommend using that PSU with a new GPU of any kind. I'd hate to see it damaged. Seriously. HardOCP doesn't bullsh@# with their reviews. If they say it's bad, it's probably worse. There is a reason why ABS is a relative unknown brand. It might be working with your current card that doesn't push the PSU much, but the ripple and noise levels of that PSU, plus it's terrible voltage regulation are very likely to destroy your new card if you use it with it. Especially since you also have an overclocked CPU that's seriously helping to increase the PSU load.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Get a good Tier 2B or higher PSU first,( http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html ) then upgrade the GPU. Or both at once if you can. There are very good PSU's to be had for a decent price. You'll want a 650w PSU, for either the 970 or 980 with your CPU overclock factored in as well. This would be a good choice.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $39.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-23 04:51 EST-0500


It's a Tier 2A, one step from the very best.

 

[Barrjos]

Well thanks for all the replies. The PSU bit might have mde sense to me a couple years ago when I spent 3 months reasearching my build, but I've dumped most of that knowledge. I can read the bottom line though, thanks for the advice. I'll definately look into a new PSU. The Tier rating is new to me though, can you point to a resource where I can read up on it?

Also thanks to synphul for the tips on the GPU. I love performance, but maybe the 970 is a better choice. I don't really plan on upgrading above 1080P until my next build, so I don't know if there's a benefit to spending the extra money on the 980.

Thanks again everyone, sincerely appreciate the help.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I did. It's linked to right next to the reference in the above post. Here it is again.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

It was originally based on the old Eggxpert PSU tier list but has been maintained and updated regularly, removing outdated models and adding newer ones. I think dottorent has done a wonderful job trying to keep up with it considering his time put into it offers him nothing in the way of returns aside from some virtual atta boy's.

 

[synphul]

No worries, that's what everyone's here for..to help each other out. darkbreeze delved into the psu details and came up with some really good info. I try not to push my personal preferences off on others, doesn't matter to me whether people choose one brand over another so long as they're happy that's all that matters.

A few dollars difference is one thing, but the cost difference between those two graphics cards you could get the 970 and a very nice high quality psu and still have enough left over to take the missus to dinner. win/win/win