Looking to upgrade my system to 1440p and need help.

[kolecordier]

Hello, I am currently preparing for the new Mass Effect Andromeda game and would like to be able to play it in at least 1440p instead of my current 1080p. I guess my question is what all I need to upgrade in addition to my monitor obviously in order to comfortably play a game such as Andromeda at max or close to max settings. Thanks in advance!

My Current Build:
GTX 970 SSC EVGA
i5-4690k 3.5ghz Devil's Canyon
24 GB 1600 Corsair Ven. DDR3 Ram 2x8gb and 2x4gb
G1 Gaming 5 Gigabyte Motherboard
250gb 840 EVO Samsung SSD (With OS and Games Installed)
1 TB Seagate HDD 6gb/s 64mb Cache (Other Files/Programs)
Corsair RM650x 650w Gold Plus PSU
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

 

[Lutfij]

Unfortunately for 4K gaming at or close to max settings will warrant a beefier GPU and the platform as well unless you can get a hold of an i7-4790K somehow and swap the GTX970 for a single GTX1080. A dual GTX1080 would suffer from a bottleneck. The CU and GPU will need the upgrading but if you budge from your CPU, you're also going to have to migrate to Kabylake since a Haswell refresh i7 would cost as much as a Kabylake i7 albeit for more(brand new).

 

[phife]

I think your best bet would be to upgrade to a RX480 if you don't have a lot of money. The RX480 is capable to render @ 1440p @ 60fps. The 970 is slower, albeit not much, but you get DX12 support, 4.5gb extra ram. Not sure if the i5 will bottleneck, though. Maybe someone else knows.

 

[kolecordier]

So even if I got a GTX1080 I couldn't play 1440 without a better CPU?

 

[kolecordier]

Unfortunately for 4K gaming at or close to max settings will warrant a beefier GPU and the platform as well unless you can get a hold of an i7-4790K somehow and swap the GTX970 for a single GTX1080. A dual GTX1080 would suffer from a bottleneck. The CU and GPU will need the upgrading but if you budge from your CPU, you're also going to have to migrate to Kabylake since a Haswell refresh i7 would cost as much as a Kabylake i7 albeit for more(brand new).

So even if I get a GTX1080 I would have to upgrade my CPU to play 1440p?

 

[Lutfij]

Well, yes. 4K is an expensive endeavor and we were having a discussion of how long it'd take for things to dial down to affordable range...that's going to take at least 2 years from now.

 

[aylafan]

Lutfij, 1440p is not 4k; it is 2k. 4k is 2160p. There is a big difference between the both on graphic performance.


OP, your build will play many games on 1440p (2k) perfectly fine. I have no problems getting at least 60-85 FPS, ultra high settings in Overwatch, 180-299 FPS, max settings in CS:GO, extreme/ultra high settings in Starcraft 2 on a 27" 1440p monitor, a i5 4670k, and GTX 970. Of course, if you're playing something really graphic demanding then you'll need to lower some graphic settings, but most games will still play on high settings. If you're upgrading your graphics card then I would recommend at least a GTX 1070 since that's one level above your GTX 970 and a GTX 1080 if you want max performance now.

 

[Lutfij]

Hmmm, I apologize...I misread that bit.

However adding something like a GTX1000 series top tier card would yet warrant a CPU upgrade, wouldn't it? Mass Effect Andromeda would be based on the Frost Byte engine and for all intents and purposes it's CPU intensive as is the case with BF titles since BFBC2.

 

[aylafan]

Mass Effect Andromeda requires at least a Core i5 so I would recommend that the OP buy the game first and see how it runs on his current setup before spending hundreds on something he might not need. Personally, I would recommend that he buy a 1440p monitor to test the game then buy a faster graphics card if it is needed before replacing his CPU & a new platform since that means he will need to buy a new motherboard, DDR4, etc. Pretty much building a new PC when Haswell still performs well and not much slower than Kaby Lake.

Game = $60
1440p monitor = $300-800
GTX 1070 or 1080 = $400-800
Core i7 = $300-400
Motherboard = $150
16GB DDR4 = $100

It is not a cheap upgrade for the OP if he needs to replace the majority of his parts in his current build.

 

[kolecordier]

Thank you all for your input I appreciate it.