Looking to improve a 5-year-old rig for PC Gaming: Best Value Upgrades?

[theproductofboredom]

Hello, this is my rig:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core 3.4GHz
GPU: Geforce GTX 670 (2 GB VRAM)
Memory: Ballistic Sport 8 GB
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Intel Motherboard
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint Internal Hardrive 320 GB | Samsung 830 Series 128 GB SSD
Power Supply: Rosewill HIVE-650 Power Supply
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Case: Rosewill Gaming Computer Case - ATX Mid Tower
Monitor: LG27EA33V Black 27" HDMI LCD Monitor

I put this computer together five years ago to play Video Games and it has been performing admirably ever since. I'm still in mild disbelief that it actually works; which is why I've been apprehensive about upgrading it, replacing parts, or really anything that requires I open up the case. I haven't had the courage to risk messing with whatever pixie dust or divine miracle that has kept it working this long.

But I've started having to sacrifice graphics settings to improve my FPS, or vice versa. So since it's been 5 years and I have some disposable income, I figure there are probably some upgrades I can make for a low cost that would make a dramatic improvement. Ideally looking for some combination of components in the price range of 100-200$, though I'm willing to spend up to 300$ total if the value's there.

Thank you all in advance, this website has been an invaluable resource for me since I was first researching components for this computer all that time ago

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TL;DR I am looking for affordable upgrades to the above computer build that will have a substantial affect on Video Game performance. I'm looking for the best value possible, but a loose "budget" would probably be around 300$.

 

[Sakkura]

Just upgrading the graphics card would make a big difference in gaming performance. Your CPU is still okay, especially if it's overclocked decently.

Nothing too unusual about it lasting for 5 years. Good parts can easily last 10 years.

 

[theproductofboredom]

Just upgrading the graphics card would make a big difference in gaming performance. Your CPU is still okay, especially if it's overclocked decently.

Nothing too unusual about it lasting for 5 years. Good parts can easily last 10 years.

What model graphic card do you think would be a substantial upgrade for good value? I was looking at the GTX 1060, which is priced reasonably around 225$.

 

[Achint2000]

Hahahahaha... I also had my 7 year old PC which stopped working 2 months ago... Specs here->

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i5 2310
GPU: GTX 650 Ti BOOST
RAM: G.Skill Sniper 8GB RAM
MBD: ASUS P8Z77-V
PSU: Corsair GS 700 PSU,
HDD: WD Caviar Green 1 TB
Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX400 Cooler
NO CASE
Screen: 19 inch LG E1942

As far as you want to upgrade, CPU has hardly any bottleneck in this case, just get a good GPU who's +12v Rail Wattage is under your PSU's limit, and try getting 8GB more RAM for games like GTA 5. OC your CPU if you feel any bottleneck. It'll be worth it. I'd say try GTX 1060 is the best GPU upgrade under the limit.

Good news as your PSU seems great:

Spoiler

((this is a quote from newegg description))
The Rosewill HIVE-650 power supply delivers continuous 650W @ 104°F (40°C) of safe, reliable output for your computer systems. One single strong +12V rail with max 552W output and 2 x 6+2-Pin PCIe connectors can juice up your high-end CPU and even multiple graphics cards.

What I did wrong while upgrading my 7 year old build:

Spoiler

I upgraded to Strix 970 and BIOS-OC'ed it's wattage overloading the +12v Rail and my PSU burnt down, motherboard completely destroyed after 6 Months of heavy daily gaming. I still have those parts and the HDD :L

Good luck

 

[theproductofboredom]

Hahahahaha... I also had my 7 year old PC which stopped working 2 months ago... Specs here->

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i5 2310
GPU: GTX 650 Ti BOOST
RAM: G.Skill Sniper 8GB RAM
MBD: ASUS P8Z77-V
PSU: Corsair GS 700 PSU,
HDD: WD Caviar Green 1 TB
Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX400 Cooler
NO CASE
Screen: 19 inch LG E1942

As far as you want to upgrade, CPU has hardly any bottleneck in this case, just get a good GPU who's +12v Rail Wattage is under your PSU's limit, and try getting 8GB more RAM for games like GTA 5. OC your CPU if you feel any bottleneck. It'll be worth it. I'd say try GTX 1060 is the best GPU upgrade under the limit.

Good news as your PSU seems great:

Spoiler

((this is a quote from newegg description))
The Rosewill HIVE-650 power supply delivers continuous 650W @ 104°F (40°C) of safe, reliable output for your computer systems. One single strong +12V rail with max 552W output and 2 x 6+2-Pin PCIe connectors can juice up your high-end CPU and even multiple graphics cards.

What I did wrong while upgrading my 7 year old build:

Spoiler

I upgraded to Strix 970 and BIOS-OC'ed it's wattage overloading the +12v Rail and my PSU burnt down, motherboard completely destroyed after 6 Months of heavy daily gaming. I still have those parts and the HDD :L

Good luck

Do you think that the GTX 1060 is enough, or is it worth splurging for the GTX 1070?

 

[Achint2000]

Do you think that the GTX 1060 is enough, or is it worth splurging for the GTX 1070?

The power consumption on nvidia website says 150W so recommended PSU is 500W+, I think your PSU can handle the load easily as it's +12v Rail is great. As it's already 5 yrs old, don't play too long on it, you won't want it to stop working.

 

[Achint2000]

Yes, I think 1070 is worth going for because you don't change GPUs like socks. You do one upgrade in a long while. With GTX 1070, you get 2GB more VRAM and a significant performance increase over 1060. If you have the money, go for it.

UPDATE: If you manage to get the ASUS Strix 1070 OC, it's my personal favorite one. DC2-OC and Strix are the best GPUs I've ever had.

 

[theproductofboredom]

Yes, I think 1070 is worth going for because you don't change GPUs like socks. You do one upgrade in a long while. With GTX 1070, you get 2GB more VRAM and a significant performance increase over 1060. If you have the money, go for it.

UPDATE: If you manage to get the ASUS Strix 1070 OC, it's my personal favorite one. DC2-OC and Strix are the best GPUs I've ever had.

I like the idea of purchasing a new Graphics Card and upgrading from 8 to 16 GBs of RAM.

I'm torn, however, on whether to get a 1060 or splurge for a 1070, because they seem to be relatively similar value-wise. Also the latter option, combined with the RAM, will probably cost me around 600$, which is money I'm not sure I'm comfortable spending right now.

But on the other hand, I'm not actually that unhappy with my graphical performance (maybe because I still play at 1080p), so perhaps I'd be perfectly satisfied with the 1060. Or perhaps I'd be better off waiting until I can afford to buy a graphics card that will last me another 5-6 years.

Are there any recommendations on RAM models?

 

[Achint2000]

Trust me, a new GPU is much much better for an upgrade than just RAM. I'll share a little favorite graphics enhancer, go to reshade.me and download it. It'll make your games magical and perfect, just needs a lot of configs. Once you find your config, it's on every game, making it perfect.

As for RAM, you need to list the exact RAM you're using, and for compatibility, get the EXACT SAME RAM Stick/Module.

 

[theproductofboredom]

Alright, thanks! I think I'll focus on upgrading my GPU to either the 1060 or the 1070 for now, and maybe picking up a RAM upgrade.

These are the GPU Models I am looking at:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 6G (290$)
ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1070 STRIX (470$)

The GTX 1070 is almost 50-60% more expensive, but also sports a significant boost in performance over the GTX 1060. But at the same time, I'm not sure I'll actually need all that actual firepower, since I do not plan on using graphically intensive hardware like VR or 3D or making the jump to 1440p anytime soon (though I might pick up a 144 hz Monitor this year).

Is the different in performance really worth the value? Or would a 1060 fufill all my needs for the next few years? Is it worth future-proofing if I don't have any plans to upgrade to 1440p?

Any other recommendations for models?

 

[Achint2000]

Alright, thanks! I think I'll focus on upgrading my GPU to either the 1060 or the 1070 for now, and maybe picking up a RAM upgrade.

These are the GPU Models I am looking at:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 6G (290$)
ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1070 STRIX (470$)

The GTX 1070 is almost 50-60% more expensive, but also sports a significant boost in performance over the GTX 1060. But at the same time, I'm not sure I'll actually need all that actual firepower, since I do not plan on using graphically intensive hardware like VR or 3D or making the jump to 1440p anytime soon (though I might pick up a 144 hz Monitor this year).

Is the different in performance really worth the value? Or would a 1060 fufill all my needs for the next few years? Is it worth future-proofing if I don't have any plans to upgrade to 1440p?

Any other recommendations for models?

If your RAM configuration is 8 GB x1, get another RAM stick, exactly same as the first one. If your RAM config is 4 GB x2, leave it be for now.

As far as it's about your screen resolution,
Use Nvidia's Custom Resolution to apply a much higher resolution than your monitor's native one. I have a 19 inch 1366x768 Monitor from 2012, and I use a custom resolution upto 3600x2025 Stable. Closest I could get to 4K without ending up with a blank screen.

Nvidia's Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) is also a way to have higher resolutions in games... And the downscaled ultrasharp resolution is worth it. xD

1060 isn't future proofing. My Strix 970 is more powerful than it. It has just 1280 CUDA Cores, vs 1070 having 1980 CUDA Cores (Huge difference). Then the memory, 6 GB on 1060, vs 8 GB on 1070. 1060 is more value for money but 1070 is much better future proofing.

So I'd say get the Strix 1070. ASUS has great utilities as well, like GPU Tweak II and it's Strix cooling design is super effective. And let's say anytime in future, you do any sort of hardware upgrade on your PC, the better GPU will make it overall much better.

Good luck

 

[theproductofboredom]

Alright, thanks! I think I'll focus on upgrading my GPU to either the 1060 or the 1070 for now, and maybe picking up a RAM upgrade.

These are the GPU Models I am looking at:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 6G (290$)
ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1070 STRIX (470$)

The GTX 1070 is almost 50-60% more expensive, but also sports a significant boost in performance over the GTX 1060. But at the same time, I'm not sure I'll actually need all that actual firepower, since I do not plan on using graphically intensive hardware like VR or 3D or making the jump to 1440p anytime soon (though I might pick up a 144 hz Monitor this year).

Is the different in performance really worth the value? Or would a 1060 fufill all my needs for the next few years? Is it worth future-proofing if I don't have any plans to upgrade to 1440p?

Any other recommendations for models?

If your RAM configuration is 8 GB x1, get another RAM stick, exactly same as the first one. If your RAM config is 4 GB x2, leave it be for now.

As far as it's about your screen resolution,
Use Nvidia's Custom Resolution to apply a much higher resolution than your monitor's native one. I have a 19 inch 1366x768 Monitor from 2012, and I use a custom resolution upto 3600x2025 Stable. Closest I could get to 4K without ending up with a blank screen.

Nvidia's Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) is also a way to have higher resolutions in games... And the downscaled ultrasharp resolution is worth it. xD

1060 isn't future proofing. My Strix 970 is more powerful than it. It has just 1280 CUDA Cores, vs 1070 having 1980 CUDA Cores (Huge difference). Then the memory, 6 GB on 1060, vs 8 GB on 1070. 1060 is more value for money but 1070 is much better future proofing.

So I'd say get the Strix 1070. ASUS has great utilities as well, like GPU Tweak II and it's Strix cooling design is super effective. And let's say anytime in future, you do any sort of hardware upgrade on your PC, the better GPU will make it overall much better.

Good luck

Thanks!

I ended up going for the MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5; it was the same price as the ASUS, it was the editor's choice at Tom's Hardware, and though it looks kinda derpy idk why that matters when it's in my computer case so. I also went and picked up some extra ram, since I already skyrocketed past my original budget anyways.

Thanks for the help!

 

[cpmackenzi]

Hehe, I like your logic. Already overspent so spend more. Go big or go home!