Build Advice PC Upgrade Advice For Toms Cat

[Toms_Cat]

Hello Tom's Hardware !

I'm making this post because I need some advice on upgrading my PC.
Perhaps you kind folks could help me out ?

I do apologize in advance if this is not the correct community to post this question, and kindly ask to redirect me to the correct community.

A small disclaimer: This is a long post.

System Usage:

• Gaming (Playing shooters, RPG's, RTS games, etc.)
• Workstation Tasks (Developing, Running VM's, etc.)
• Administrative tasks (internet browsing, text editing, etc.)
• Entertainment (Watching movies, listening to music, etc.)
• ...

I use my computer pretty much every day.

Why I want to upgrade - I want to:

• Have the ability to play games on higher settings without problems.
• Achieve higher & more consistent frame rates in games
• Improve my overall "PC Experience"

For example: my system currently struggles with maintaining a frame rate of 60 fps in titles such as Apex Legends on low settings at 1080p.

What I want to upgrade:

• GPU
• Internal SSD and HDD
• Monitor

I'm unsure about my CPU (see below)

Approximate time of upgrade:

This summer (2019), around July - August

Buying a monitor:

Yes, I will be buying a new monitor (more about my monitor below)

Overclocking:

Maybe.
I have no experience overclocking my hardware but would like to get into it if possible.
I am not planning on buying any watercooling equipment though.

SLI / Crossfire:

No. I am not interested in multiple GPU's.

Preferred Websites:

No real preferences here, although it seems that Amazon.de is cheapest in most cases.

Location:

Belgium, Europe

My budget:

This depends.

• Without upgrading the CPU: max. € 900
• With upgrading the CPU: max. € 1400

My Computer's current specifications:

• Case: Cooler Master CM690II Advanced (Mid-Tower)
• Power Supply: 720 Watt Cooler Master Silent Pro MII
• Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-M Pro (LGA 1155 Socket)
• CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K (3.5 Ghz, 4 Cores, 8 Threads)
• CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo
• GPU: Nvidia GTX680 (2 GB VRAM @ 1Ghz)
• RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance (DDR3 Memory @ 1.6Ghz)
• Internal SSD: 128 GB ADATA SP900
• Internal HDD: 1 TB Seagate ST31000524AS (7200 RPM)
• Optical Drive: DVD R/W+ Samsung SH-222BB
• OS: Windows 10 Home 64-Bit

Build Year: September 2012

I haven't upgraded this system since it was built.
So all the hardware in this system is about 7 years old.

My Monitor:

• 21.5 Inch Samsung S22B350 (1920x1080p @ 60Hz) - with some dead pixels

Additional Comments / My thoughts / Requested Advice:

I want to upgrade my GPU:

The Nvidia GTX 680 was a very nice graphics card back in 2012, but it's starting to struggle in modern games.
I'm not sure what GPU to choose as replacement though.

Both the RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 from Nvidia are graphics cards on my radar. They seem to be powerful cards, with the RTX 2060 (around € 400) seeminigly being great value for money. The RTX 2070 (around € 500) is more powerful, but also about € 100 more expensive. I don't know what cards from AMD stack up well against these from Nvidia ? I have seen the Radeon Vega 64 for around € 450 and also the new Radeon VII for around € 750.

I tried finding "previous gen" cards (such as the GTX 1080 or GTX 1080 TI) however they are simply just as expensive or even more pricey to buy as the new RTX cards from Nvidia. - if I can find them. Buying used might be an option, but I'm reluctant because you never know what you will get. Even used however they are still no bargain.

Currently I'm leaning towards the RTX 2070.

What do you think ? Which GPU would you reccommend ?

Unsure about CPU:

I'm not sure if I should upgrade my CPU, or not yet. If I upgrade the CPU, I will have to buy a new motherboard and RAM as well. Since the current generation of CPU's requries DDR4 memory and I still run DDR3 memory. Also, DDR4 memory is quite expensive.

I am worried however that my CPU might bottleneck my GPU when I don't upgarde. The upgrade would be kind of useless if the CPU is the limiting factor in the system and I cannot achieve the framerates I would if I had a better CPU.

I tested this a bit in Apex legends for example, but in that game my CPU is under about 45% load, while the GPU is running at 100% load. So (in that game at least) there is no bottleneck. I have no clue how well this will translate to a newer card though.

If I had to upgrade, I was thinking about the Ryzen 7 2700X (€ 300) - This seems to be good value for money.
The i7 9700K from intel is more expensive (€ 420) - Which is quite steep. Perhaps the i5 9600K (€250) is a better fit ?

Also, do sockets always change ? It seems that every generation of CPU's uses a different socket so you always have to change out your motherboard as well ?

What do you think ? Should I upgrade my CPU ?
If so, which CPU would you reccomend for me ?

I want to upgrade my monitor:

The monitor I have right now is mediocre. It's a 1080p screen, but only has a refresh rate of 60Hz. On top of that, it suffered some dead pixels last year (10+ pixels are lifeless). The dead pixels are quite distracting and I would like to have a higher refresh rate on my screen. I don't know which resolution to go for however:

• 1080p (1920x1080)
• 1440p (2650x1440)

The main questions are:

• Will the graphics card be able to drive this resolution at higher framerates (FPS > 60) in modern games ?
• Will my CPU be a bottleneck in games at higher framerates ?

I heard that the CPU can be a bottleneck on higher refresh rate monitors, when the CPU cannot keep up with the GPU.

In short, which screen resolution and refresh rate would you reccomend for my upgraded system ?

Additional Internal drives:

I plan on upgrading my 128 GB Adata SSD to a 500 GB SSD and add another 2 TB drive to my system.


Thank you for reading my long post !

Feel free to point out another component that I forgot / needs upgrading / replacing.
I hope I provided enough information. If not, please let me know.

I'm looking forward to your feedback and suggestions !

Toms Cat.

 

[Toms_Cat]

For the best price to performance, no it's not really worth it. The 360 euro cards should be no problem. The most expensive Rtx 2060 cards shouldn't be more than 5 percent higher performance than a cheaper one.

Thank you for the info !