Question Looking for help - How much can I upgrade my GPU

[Druelar]

Hi all,

I am looking to upgrade my GPU and would like to get something very current but given my computer is a few years old, I am worried that getting the latest and greatest might bottleneck somewhere else and be a waste of money. Figure there is no point in dropping $600.00 on a card and not getting the full potential due to RAM, GPU, or whatever.

I built my PC in late 2012. Here is what I have:

Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155
CPU: Intel i5-3570 Ivy Bridge Quad Core 3.4GHz
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast TX-750
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 PCI Express 3.0 x16
Memory: 2x8GB G.Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1600
Case: Rosewill Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower
OS: Windows 10 Pro

I have a 120gb solid state boot drive and a 1TB hard drive.

The EVGA GTX670 card is an amazing card and is still working. I am actually playing GTA5, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, FarCry 5, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at 1920x1080 and they all run pretty smooth - but they can bog down a little now and then and my graphic settings are pretty low. Frame rates are below 30 most of the time.

Basically, I am trying to decide if I can squeeze into an RTX 2070 or if that is just too much card for the rest of the hardware. The 1080/2080 cards are too expensive for me and I think the 1060/2060 cards are not good enough for VR. I might like to eventually work towards VR but not right away. I could expand the ram up to 32GB by adding an additional 2 8gb sticks if it that helps.

Anyway - I have enough cash to cover an RTX 2070 but not enough to build a PC around it. Should I go cheap and settle for a GTX 970 or GTX 1060 for a year or two and save up the cash for a new rig or do you think my current system will handle the latest GPU and possibly VR?

Advice will be appreciated. Thanks!

Drue

 

[jay32267]

I don't think it will work with a 2070 or even a 1080 well....as far using either cards full potential....but they would work.

I think I would go 1070 max with that cpu.

 

[Druelar]

Jay - I was kind of thinking along the same lines - but - I looked at the EVGA GTX 1070 that has a price of around $519. I compared it to the EVGA RTX 2070 that has a price tag of $499. I have to ask myself if I am going to that level of card - should I just get the RTX 2070? Not so much for ray tracing. Just that it is a more current card with other features that can help performance and the price is about the same.

The alternative is to maybe go with an EVGA GTX 1060 for $309 or possibly even go more budget with an EVGA GTX 1050 for $159. Even the 1050 will be leaps and bounds better than the 670 I run now and that might get me by for a couple of years when I can just build a new rig from scratch. If the 1050 will give me performance close to the 1070/2070 with the CPU and memory I have, then I want to go that way. If the 1070/2070 will greatly out-perform the 1050 with the hardware I have, then maybe it is worth the extra cost.

 

[pivodrums]

gtx 1050Ti is perfect (0% bottleneck) for your cpu. Anything higher than that and your cpu will bottleneck your gpu, you won't make the best out of your components.
Only problem is that 1050Ti vs your 670 is practically the same speed so you won't get much of an upgrade...

 

[Druelar]

Only problem is that 1050Ti vs your 670 is practically the same speed so you won't get much of an upgrade...

Really?!?! Well that bites. I checked and you are right - no point in looking at anything less than a 1060/2060.

I am probably going to have to live with the bottleneck then. I think I will go with the RTX-2060 for now. It looks like I can expect about a 175% increase but even if it only gets to a 100% increase due to the CPU, it is still double what I have.

 

[Serinox]

If you don't need the accelerated raytracing you could go for the 1660ti. It should be a decent upgrade for you since it's as fast as a 1070.