[SOLVED] PC upgrade or monitor, which should I do first?

[CluelessPCGamer]

Hi folks,

So I managed to get my hands on an RTX 3070 (At MSRP), but in my aging system I'm experiencing some severe bottlenecking when running on my 1080p monitor.

Specs:

ASUS Maximus VI Formula
i7 4770k
16GB RAM @ 2400Mhz
Gigabyte Aorus RTX 3070 8GB
2x Samsung Evo 870 1TB SSD
Corsair 750W PSU

I know this GPU was a misfit for my aging system, but I'd planned on upgrading my PC completely this year, so when I got through the waiting list for the 3070 I had to jump on it. Now I'm need of some advice for my upgrade path, because I'm unsure what would be wisest to go with first, as I can't buy everything in one go. I'm running it on a 1080p monitor, so I'm running into some severe performance issues at the moment.

I'm looking to upgrade to an AMD 5900X, 16GB DDR4 @ 3200Mhz, 1000W and NVME storage, as well as a 4k ultrawide monitor.

My question is, what would be wisest to start with? A 4k ultrawide monitor, or start building the PC itself? I'm looking for the path which will give me the least amount of bottlenecking, before the entire setup is complete, and I won't be able to buy both the monitor I have in mind and the PC components in one go, I have to spread it out over a couple of months.

 

[AlexTheFern]

fo

Hi folks,

So I managed to get my hands on an RTX 3070 (At MSRP), but in my aging system I'm experiencing some severe bottlenecking when running on my 1080p monitor.

Specs:

ASUS Maximus VI Formula
i7 4770k
16GB RAM @ 2400Mhz
Gigabyte Aorus RTX 3070 8GB
2x Samsung Evo 870 1TB SSD
Corsair 750W PSU

I know this GPU was a misfit for my aging system, but I'd planned on upgrading my PC completely this year, so when I got through the waiting list for the 3070 I had to jump on it. Now I'm need of some advice for my upgrade path, because I'm unsure what would be wisest to go with first, as I can't buy everything in one go. I'm running it on a 1080p monitor, so I'm running into some severe performance issues at the moment.

I'm looking to upgrade to an AMD 5900X, 16GB DDR4 @ 3200Mhz, 1000W and NVME storage, as well as a 4k ultrawide monitor.

My question is, what would be wisest to start with? A 4k ultrawide monitor, or start building the PC itself? I'm looking for the path which will give me the least amount of bottlenecking, before the entire setup is complete, and I won't be able to buy both the monitor I have in mind and the PC components in one go, I have to spread it out over a couple of months.

for games, I would say the 4k monitor. with high resolutions, you computer will become a lot more gpu reliant in games. However, it all depends. If you are playing cpu intensive games such as Minecraft of valorant, you might actually want to upgrade that pc first. however, in the long run, I would say the 4k ultrawide would be a good idea

 

[CluelessPCGamer]

fo

for games, I would say the 4k monitor. with high resolutions, you computer will become a lot more gpu reliant in games. However, it all depends. If you are playing cpu intensive games such as Minecraft of valorant, you might actually want to upgrade that pc first. however, in the long run, I would say the 4k ultrawide would be a good idea

Thanks for the reply!

As far as games are concerned, currently I'm playing Hunt: Showdown, Escape From Tarkov, The Division 2 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Tarkov as I'm aware is a lost cause as far as FPS are concerned, no matter what hardware you run. But the other games, do you think I would benefit more from the monitor?

 

[Why_Me]

Hi folks,ks
So I managed to get my hands on an RTX 3070 (At MSRP), but in my aging system I'm experiencing some severe bottlenecking when running on my 1080p monitor.

Specs:

ASUS Maximus VI Formula
i7 4770k
16GB RAM @ 2400Mhz
Gigabyte Aorus RTX 3070 8GB
2x Samsung Evo 870 1TB SSD
Corsair 750W PSU

I know this GPU was a misfit for my aging system, but I'd planned on upgrading my PC completely this year, so when I got through the waiting list for the 3070 I had to jump on it. Now I'm need of some advice for my upgrade path, because I'm unsure what would be wisest to go with first, as I can't buy everything in one go. I'm running it on a 1080p monitor, so I'm running into some severe performance issues at the moment.

I'm looking to upgrade to an AMD 5900X, 16GB DDR4 @ 3200Mhz, 1000W and NVME storage, as well as a 4k ultrawide monitor.

My question is, what would be wisest to start with? A 4k ultrawide monitor, or start building the PC itself? I'm looking for the path which will give me the least amount of bottlenecking, before the entire setup is complete, and I won't be able to buy both the monitor I have in mind and the PC components in one go, I have to spread it out over a couple of months.

Google reviews/benchmarks of that card (RTX 3070). You'd be better off with a 1440p monitor if you want decent FPS in games. It's still a major step up from 1080p.

 

[avg9956]

If concerned about FPS of games, go for a higher Hz monitor. Note that you should also be running your game in full screen (not in windowed mode) in order to utilize the higher refresh rate of monitor, otherwise it would default to 60 Hz.

I'm experiencing some severe bottlenecking when running on my 1080p monitor.

You may have been using a 60 Hz monitor?

A 60Hz monitor won’t prevent your GPU from generating more frames, but it will prevent you from seeing more than 60 of them in a second.
https://www.quora.com/Does-a-monitor-refresh-rate-limit-the-max-FPS

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/resources/highest-refresh-rate-gaming.html

The refresh rate of your display refers to how many times per second the display is able to draw a new image. This is measured in Hertz (Hz). For example, if your display has a refresh rate of 144Hz, it is refreshing the image 144 times per second.

1440p monitor @ 144Hz refresh rate is good enough for gaming. As you increase refresh rate (Hz), the difference becomes even more subtle to notice.
1440p @ 144Hz monitors: https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/best/1440p-144hz

 

[CluelessPCGamer]

If concerned about FPS of games, go for a higher Hz monitor. Note that you should also be running your game in full screen (not in windowed mode) in order to utilize the higher refresh rate of monitor, otherwise it would default to 60 Hz.


You may have been using a 60 Hz monitor?

A 60Hz monitor won’t prevent your GPU from generating more frames, but it will prevent you from seeing more than 60 of them in a second.
https://www.quora.com/Does-a-monitor-refresh-rate-limit-the-max-FPS

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/resources/highest-refresh-rate-gaming.html



1440p monitor @ 144Hz refresh rate is good enough for gaming. As you increase refresh rate (Hz), the difference becomes even more subtle to notice.
1440p @ 144Hz monitors: https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/best/1440p-144hz

My current monitor is running at 144hz, but it's an ASUS VG24QE without G-Sync, so the bottleneck is very noticeable. Just as an example, playing Kingdom Come Deliverance on the 3070 at very high settings, it goes from 130 FPS and dips into the 40s, so it's really uncomfortable to look at.

 

[CluelessPCGamer]

Google reviews/benchmarks of that card (RTX 3070). You'd be better off with a 1440p monitor if you want decent FPS in games. It's still a major step up from 1080p.

It's not "just" FPS, I'm really more looking for stable FPS coupled with high presets. Whether the games are running at 60 or 100 FPS aren't a dealbreaker for me, mostly that I'm getting stable frames instead of the insane highs and lows I'm getting right now. So my conundrum right now is mostly just figuring out whether to upgrade my rig first, or my monitor, both will be upgraded in the next couple of months just not at the same time, so I'd prefer that the first upgrade is the one that alleviates my bottlenecking problem the most. Right now my frames are all over the place.

 

[Why_Me]

It's not "just" FPS, I'm really more looking for stable FPS coupled with high presets. Whether the games are running at 60 or 100 FPS aren't a dealbreaker for me, mostly that I'm getting stable frames instead of the insane highs and lows I'm getting right now. So my conundrum right now is mostly just figuring out whether to upgrade my rig first, or my monitor, both will be upgraded in the next couple of months just not at the same time, so I'd prefer that the first upgrade is the one that alleviates my bottlenecking problem the most. Right now my frames are all over the place.

Something to ponder .. both Intel (November '21) and AMD (mid '22) are due to release their new platform which will mean new board, cpu and RAM (DDR5). Those new platforms will most likely become mainstream within the next two years. You can do a cheaper upgrade ($450 - $500) for now which means you'll only have to replace your board, cpu and RAM if you choose to move over to one of those new platforms later on.

 

[CluelessPCGamer]

Something to ponder .. both Intel (November '21) and AMD (mid '22) are due to release their new platform which will mean new board, cpu and RAM (DDR5). Those new platforms will most likely become mainstream within the next two years. You can do a cheaper upgrade ($300 - $350) for now which means you'll only have to replace your board, cpu and RAM if you choose to move over to one of those new platforms later on.

I've thought about it, but as you can probably tell by my current build, I'm not one to upgrade all that often. I prefer to do one major upgrade with top of the line components that'll last me several years, and maybe upgrade my GPU every few years or so, so that I can run my games at high presets. This past year/year and a half has been the dying breath of my current build, as I can no longer play newer games at those presets with stable frames. Considering that this build has lasted me this long, I suspect that a top of the line build, right now, might also last me several years. All I really want when upgrading my PC, is that I don't have to worry about upgrading anything but the GPU for years to come, if that makes sense 😆

 

[Bob.B]

My current monitor is running at 144hz, but it's an ASUS VG24QE without G-Sync, so the bottleneck is very noticeable. Just as an example, playing Kingdom Come Deliverance on the 3070 at very high settings, it goes from 130 FPS and dips into the 40s, so it's really uncomfortable to look at.

Run this and post a link to the results.
PC Benchmark
Maybe it will show something or not.

 

[CluelessPCGamer]

Run this and post a link to the results.
PC Benchmark
Maybe it will show something or not.

I don't think I need to benchmark to be honest. Just looking at MSI Afterburner when gaming gives a pretty clear picture, the CPU is maxed out and the GPU is hovering between 50-65%, depending on the game. Even games that used to run fine, are now experiencing stutters and severe framedrops. But thanks for the reply!

 

[Bob.B]

I don't think I need to benchmark to be honest. Just looking at MSI Afterburner when gaming gives a pretty clear picture, the CPU is maxed out and the GPU is hovering between 50-65%, depending on the game. Even games that used to run fine, are now experiencing stutters and severe framedrops. But thanks for the reply!

The benchmark is just a quick look at how a few systems are running.
If you don't want to show it that's your call.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

For sure monitor first, but 4K is a bad fit for that card. It can't quite handle 4K at high detail, and the next resolution down wold be 1080p. For a 3070 I think the general consensus is that a 1440p monitor is a good fit for that card. If you ran a 4K monitor at 1440p it would look quite ugly.

 

[CluelessPCGamer]

For sure monitor first, but 4K is a bad fit for that card. It can't quite handle 4K at high detail, and the next resolution down wold be 1080p. For a 3070 I think the general consensus is that a 1440p monitor is a good fit for that card. If you ran a 4K monitor at 1440p it would look quite ugly.

Hmm, that's the impression that I'm getting. But 1440p is also just fine for me, that important thing for me as far as the monitor is concerned, is that it's an ultrawide, I've been wanting to upgrade to one for a while.

 

[Fatalzo]

It's been biologically proven that 4K makes an extremely small effect to our vision and most of the "wow that is so sharp" is just a placebo effect.
Upgrade the PC, not the monitor.

 

[CluelessPCGamer]

It's been biologically proven that 4K makes an extremely small effect to our vision and most of the "wow that is so sharp" is just a placebo effect.
Upgrade the PC, not the monitor.

Yeah, honestly, I've even been pretty happy with my 1080p monitor for all these years. But, as I stated above, whether it's 4k or 1440p, that's not particularly important to me, I'm mostly just looking to upgrade to an ultrawide monitor. Thanks for the advice!

 

[smartmantech47]

Yea 1440p, 4k, no difference almost. I'd rather upgrade the pc so my components are ready for whatever resolution I throw at it

 

[CluelessPCGamer]

Yea 1440p, 4k, no difference almost. I'd rather upgrade the pc so my components are ready for whatever resolution I throw at it

Thanks for the advice! I'm tallying up your votes as we go along, as it seems there's a pretty even split between both sides. I'll leave it up for a few days, I'm not gonna order anything until thursday/friday.

 

[CluelessPCGamer]

And just to reiterate, this decision is just for the short term, I'm gonna be upgrading both here in june/july, so I'm really just looking for the best solution so that I can play games somewhat comfortably on my PC through june.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

I'm surprised to see how capable the 4770K still is after all these years.

It seems amazing, almost unbelievable that an 8-year-old CPU can still hold its own against brand new CPUs coming out today, but it just goes to show that people weren't joking back then when they said that improvements in CPU speed were ending. Adding more and more cores seems to be the strategy these days, but most software simply cannot use more than 3 or 4 cores, and only certain workloads can take advantage of more than that. Games have been happy on 4 cores for over 15 years at this point, and I just can't see that changing any time soon.

FPS in games is mainly impacted by the single-core and dual-core speed of a CPU, and your 4770K benchmarks only 20% and 23% slower than an i5 10500 on those stats, which is fully 7 years newer:
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-4770K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-10500/1537vs4078
Kind of amazing to see, and certainly most people would find it difficult to notice the difference from a 20% improvement in CPU power in games. It is there, but you need to run benchmarks to see it really, we're talking single figures of FPS.

The FPS drops you're seeing in certain games likely won't be solved by a CPU upgrade, those are just badly optimised games. This is becoming a bit of a fact of life these days, programmers have become very lazy and most games aren't optimised before release, and after release there's no incentive to optimise code so most games just stay the way they are forever. Sad really. Notable exceptions include PUBG, which was horrible on launch and did eventually get somewhat optimised so that it would work on the Xbox One and PS4.

 

[CluelessPCGamer]

Just a little update:

I went with the monitor first, as there was a weekend deal this weekend for a 1440p Gigabyte ultrawide at 20% off, so with that discount I also had a little extra in the budget and snagged an ASUS ROG Strix X570-E mobo so I'm ready for the main upgrade in july.

So far after a couple of days, this monitor seems to be correcting the bottleneck in some of the games I play. The Division 2 for instance runs very smoothly now, on ultra the average FPS is around 110 and lows in 70-80 FPS and I can see on Afterburner that it actually manages to max out the 3070. Kingdom Come is also running pretty smoothly, stable at right around 80-90 FPS, with lows in the 60s. Although Hunt Showdown seems to be running about the same as before, which is curious as it runs on the same engine as Kingdom Come. I'm gonna test out a few more games in the coming week, but so far it's running a lot better.

A big thank you to all of you who replied an gave me a lot of stuff to think about, as well as talked me out of buying a 4K ultrawide. So again, THANKS!

 

[animekenji]

As was already mentioned, a higher resolution monitor will take a lot of the stress off of the CPU and offload it onto the GPU, where the weakness of CPU doesn't matter as much. With component prices being what they are today, extending the life of your existing hardware for as long as possible until price and availability gets better, starts looking like a more and more attractive option.