[SOLVED] Looking for a "most effective / price range" upgrade for FPS gaming

[hamedamin98]

Hello!

Currently having an issue with my current rig. I'm experiencing rather irritating fluctuations in FPS when playing games (Overwatch primarily). My current system is as follows:

GPU: MSI geforce 970 gaming
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600K CPU @ 3.50GHz, 3501 Mhz, 4 Core(s)
RAM: 16gb
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170X-SLI

I'm going from 180/190 fps in fights, to around 130/140 and I'm wondering if upgrading my gpu (and which one) will make my system enable me to get around 220to 240 fps stable, even in mass fights. I'm not very familiar with how components work and how I can avoid bottlenecks so I was hoping you guys could help me out. I'd say if I would buy new components my budget would be around 600 EUR.

 

[tennis2]

1) A GTX1070Ti for $360 will be about 45% faster than your GTX970.

2) You'd probably see an FPS boost by simply overclocking your CPU. You can probably set it to 4GHz all-core at stock voltage, or simply turn on Multi-Core Enhancement on your mobo so it'll run all cores at 3.9GHz automatically. Online gameplay tends to be CPU-limited.

3) What monitor do you have? 140fps is pretty dang high. I have a 144Hz monitor and I honestly can't tell the difference from 90fps on up. You might be splitting hairs here.

 

[dontlistentome]

Run MSI Afterburner as you play, have it set to show onscreen your CPU and GPU usage. It's possible that in mass fights your CPU could be maxing out. Then again it's possible your 970 could be maxing out, then again it's possible both could be maxed out.

If you see one component at 100% while the other is lower, the 100% component is the one holding you back. If both are at or around 100% in mass fights then it's likely both are a bit too slow for the framerate you want.

 

[becominq]

like "tennis2" said, what monitor do you have? if its a 144hz monitor you're splitting hairs and the frames above 144 that you are wanting are not needed, if you have a 240hz monitor then I can see why youd like an upgrade

 

[alexdwilsons]

You have to reduce your quality settings to get such FPS, even with 1070 ti.

 

[hamedamin98]

Yea the primary reason as to why I'm asking is because I have a 240Hz monitor and I play at the highest level, so even small adjustments and fps drops can be "lethal", so you guys think its best if I go for a 1070ti?

Also atm I do have my cpu OC'd at around 3.5, I dont have any watercooling and such so I was kinda skeptical about OC'ing abit higher. Still think I should go for it? thanks alot for the fast answers!

PS. i'm already running everything at the lowest possible settings with a 75% renderscale

 

[tennis2]

As I said, your CPUs base clock speed is 3.5GHz. It will easily do the single-core turbo frequency of 3.9GHz on all cores if you turn on MCE in the BIOS.

As I said, at this point, yes, a GTX1070Ti will help, but (if it's not already) upgrading your CPU is likely to offer considerable improvement also. Since you've already got DDR4 then, I do wonder if it's worth buying a used i7-7700K (depending on price) when the 6C/6T i5-9600K @4.6GHz for $250 would outperform it. Then you only have the added cost of a $150 mobo since you can carry over your RAM.

Obviously you can do one without the other. Just some things to consider. You should definitely get your CPU up to 3.9GHz all-core right away though. Before you even buy a new GPU.

 

[hamedamin98]

As I said, your CPUs base clock speed is 3.5GHz. It will easily do the single-core turbo frequency of 3.9GHz on all cores if you turn on MCE in the BIOS.

As I said, at this point, yes, a GTX1070Ti will help, but (if it's not already) upgrading your CPU is likely to offer considerable improvement also. Since you've already got DDR4 then, I do wonder if it's worth buying a used i7-7700K (depending on price) when the 6C/6T i5-9600K @4.6GHz for $250 would outperform it. Then you only have the added cost of a $150 mobo since you can carry over your RAM.

Obviously you can do one without the other. Just some things to consider. You should definitely get your CPU up to 3.9GHz all-core right away though. Before you even buy a new GPU.

Awesome, will do as you've said however there is one small issue, I actually opened bios but I couldn't find the MCE, even after looking at guides, my mobo doesnt seem to have that option (?) any idea as to what might be the cause?

 

[tennis2]

It's called "Enhanced Multi-Core Performance" in the M.I.T. tab in the BIOS.

You can also go into the M.I.T. tab in your BIOS and change "CPU Clock Ratio" to 40 (40x100MHz = 4GHz). Save and Exit and you're done. My 3570K is running 4GHz at stock voltage, so I'd be shocked if you can't do better.

Note that your mobo may apply more voltage at 4GHz than what's needed. First open a software like CPUz and look at what the voltage reads when your CPU is at 4GHz and make a mental note that that's PLENTY. The easiest way to disable Auto voltage is to go into "Advanced CPU Core Settings" and set a very small core voltage offset (+ or -, just use the smallest value allowed). Of course, not supplying enough voltage at a given frequency can cause system crashes, so if you experience those, bump up your offset.

Also this review is a good read for manual voltages albeit only on the 6700K so your 6600K might not quite reach those same frequencies/voltages but it should be in the ballpark.