i7-860 current 4K gaming

blee0120

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Aug 6, 2015
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Last month, I dusted off my HTPC build from 2010.

i7-860
128GB SSD
3TB HDD
Asrock 1156 MB with USB 3.0
Corsair TX650W
8GB of RAM
212 Evo+ CPU Cooler
Got an upgraded GPU in 7/15 - GTX 960 G1

I planned on just using it as my 4K HTPC but I decided to just see how 4K gaming looked. I went to purchase a Vizio 43in 4K M-Series and I was very impressed. I'm a console gamer my entire life and this was beautiful. I got Tomb Raider for $8 and decided that 8 bucks couldn't hurt me at all.

My question, I know my CPU is ancient but I can overclock it at 4ghz with good temps, will I be throwing money away if I purchased something like a GTX 980 or 980 Ti? I am really liking the fact that I can do some playable games in 4K. Of course, I will upgrade my rig. If I do get a 980 or 980 Ti, I would buy another one with my new gaming rig for a nice SLI rig. Everything is running smooth with Windows 10 with my 4K videos, so I will most likely keep my 4K HTPC as it is, but I am ready for the next generation of gaming in 4k and beyond. With how little improvement Skylake seems to be, I can wait out until the next generation and dx12 gets much improved. If I can improve my gaming for the next year or 2(maybe) with my current system, any and all suggestions are a huge help.
 
Solution
If you can get 4GHz out of your chip, you should be okay with a single 980Ti, though you would still likely lose some performance in more CPU bound titles. Do keep in mind that 4GHz is pretty much the upper limit of what is achievable on Lynnfield on air, and once you get past 3.6GHz you usually have to start really piling on the voltage, leading to really high temps with most air coolers. I would not bother doing SLI without upgrading to a newer platform, that old Lynnfield i7 will hold back high end SLI setups unless you manage some kind of extreme overclock that would require highly exotic cooling and would probably kill the chip within a few months even then.
If you can get 4GHz out of your chip, you should be okay with a single 980Ti, though you would still likely lose some performance in more CPU bound titles. Do keep in mind that 4GHz is pretty much the upper limit of what is achievable on Lynnfield on air, and once you get past 3.6GHz you usually have to start really piling on the voltage, leading to really high temps with most air coolers. I would not bother doing SLI without upgrading to a newer platform, that old Lynnfield i7 will hold back high end SLI setups unless you manage some kind of extreme overclock that would require highly exotic cooling and would probably kill the chip within a few months even then.
 
Solution