i5-2500K & considering GPU upgrade. Foolish move?

[prison_mike]

Hello Tom's-goers,

New user here (just out of the joint )
Hope someone can shed light on my dilemma.

After recently installing Assassins Creed Odyssey on my PC, my computer has begun really showing its age. With such outdated specs and a limited budget, however, I feel a little stuck and unsure of my course of action - or even whether I really have any options at all. Here are my specs below.

Processor: i5-2500K (3.3GHZ, Quad)
Ram: 8GB DDR3 (4GBx2)
Video Card: GTX 1060 (3GB, EVGA)
Motherboard: P67A-G43 (B3)
Hard Drive: 1TB WD (7200RPM)
Operating: Windows 10 (x64)
TV/Monitor: Samsung MU7600 Curved (4K, 60Hz Native, 120Hz True Motion)
Power Supply: 650W (80 Silver, SLI, ANTEC)

1. The goal is to game in 4K. Do not want to compromise on this.
2. My TV seems capable of providing a satisfactory refresh rate (at least, I think?)

There's no way I can spend $2,000 upgrading my whole PC. I might be able to stretch $1,000 or so, but do not particularly like the idea of spending $1K+ on a legacy card such as 1080TI. I also don't know how well such a card would work at 4K with my specs. I know my 1060 3GB is a very low performing card, but am afraid of bottlenecking a very expensive card such as an RTX 2080.

But could that be the best course of action for the time-being? Drop dollars on an expensive card for future proofing and then upgrade the remaining components as they fit my budget one by one? Would that provide major improvements in Odyssey and other games at 4K, even with the current setup?

Ram is easy. Bumping up to 16GB is no problem (assuming my motherboard supports it). Hard drive and new windows is also relatively inexpensive - would an SSD affect ingame performance? Loading screens and such? Faster loading of ingame resources without the stutters?

What about processor?
PSU?

Could I drop $1500 and upgrade everything to game well in 4K?

The thing is, my computer doesn't even perform THAT poorly in 4K, in my opinion. But I know if I played a really worthy rig, it would be night and day.

I'm so lost. Thanks in advance, Sorry for the disjointed questions.

 

[7664stefan]

Hey, say, is your CPU already overclocked? Which cooler is sitting on it? I would target to OC up to 4,5Ghz which should be good enough for many games and GPUs.

Looking at your entire system and ambition for 4k gaming I would look for a GTX 1070 (ti) with more VRAM.
What I overall miss in your specs is a fast SSD that also makes gaming fun. The 8GB RAM is not optimal, but should still be sufficient for gaming only.

You can of course also spend your full budget for new hardware which is not the way I would be doing it.

 

[prison_mike]

Hey, say, is your CPU already overclocked? Which cooler is sitting on it? I would target to OC up to 4,5Ghz which should be good enough for many games and GPUs.

Looking at your entire system and ambition for 4k gaming I would look for a GTX 1070 (ti) with more VRAM.
What I overall miss in your specs is a fast SSD that also makes gaming fun. The 8GB RAM is not optimal, but should still be sufficient for gaming only.

You can of course also spend your full budget for new hardware which is not the way I would be doing it.

Wow, that's a much more promising answer than I expected! The CPU is not overclocked and it has whatever stock fan originally came with the CPU. I used to have a Samsung EVO SSD with only windows on it and everything else on a 7200RPM (this was before any games were installed), but the EVO ended up crashing and burning for whatever reason so I just reinstalled windows on the 7200RPM and have been using that since. Buying another EVO isn't out of the realm of possibility if it really helps with gaming. Would the 1070TI be fairly future proof? Adding that extra 5GB of VRAM and maybe 8gb more of motherboard ram would be quite a step up. I just also don't want to be upgrading again anytime soon if even more demanding games are coming out soonish. The RTX 2080 seems like maybe $300 more expensive than a 1070ti?

Also FWIW, I don't know the first thing about overclocking and am not very computer savvy in general, so there is that. Always can learn but..

Thanks for your advice

 

[7664stefan]

Good, your CPU still has unused potential and for most of the games powerful 4 cores with high clock rates are still more than enough. Thefore you might invest into a powerful cooler like the BeQuiet Dark Rock 4 as long as it fits into your case, then OC the CPU to something up to 4,5Ghz.
I would pair this then with a 1070ti as I am not yet a fan of nVidias RTX and also do not agree to the not justified high prices, a 250GB SSD for OS and most frequent games allowing quick caching where needed, and additional 8GB of RAM.
This should give you a good performance at the lowest possible cost that should last for the next 2 years.

 

[RobCrezz]

I would be looking at a 1080 ti/2080 minimum for 4k gaming.

 

[7664stefan]

1070 ti with lowering some graphics details will also deliver stable 60 FPS e.g. in BFV.

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/battlefield_v_pc_performance_benchmarks,6.html

I do not see that the more in price for a 1080 ti is worth it Rob eventhough it is of course the more powerful GPU.

My proposal was focusing on finding a balanced upgrade on the lowest possible cost.

 

[prison_mike]

I just ended up buying a computer from cyberpower. I know OC'ing could have helped but eventually decided this will save me the headaches of having to go through this same process again and again as each new game becomes progressively more unplayable. Gonna dismantle the old and pawn off the parts for el cheapo. Turns out my video card was 1060 6gb, not 3gb, but whatever. Still old.

Appreciate the tips nonetheless. Really helped to highlight the kind of hurdles I was facing and would face in the future.

Went with an INFINITY GAME XL or whatever, it seems pretty sweet.

8700K
2080 ti
16gb 3200mhz
512gb NVME
Super cool looking case with all kinds of RGB everywhere

A little over budget xD but haven't been this excited in a longtime