Question Skylake + 1070 upgrade

[stan33]

Hello,

I own a PC which at the time it was bought (2016) was a decent machine. It's a GTX 1070 and i7 6700k (overclocked to 4.7) supported by 16 GB RAM 2666mhz CL15.
It enabled me to play loads of games like GTA 5, Battlefields, Dying Light etc. on high settings in 60fps+. Since 2019 I haven't been playing that much and now while in college I am playing only CS:GO in which it does pretty well, 200-300 fps which enables me to play on a 144hz monitor without complaining.

But, Hogwarts Legacy is releasing in February this year, and since I am a huge potterhead I would love to play it. I own PS4 but am not interested in playing in 25fps, so I thought maybe I'll upgrade.

Now, considering it will be the only game of this type (with high requirements) I will ever play, what should I upgrade? I was thinking about buying new CPU (most likely i9 12900k and support it with DDR5 32GB RAM 6400mhz), but the bottleneck would be enormous. It will provide great opportunity to upgrade a monitor to a 240hz and let me play cs:go in more comfortable conditions (this game is only CPU, gpu almost does not affect the gameplay). I acknowledge that for Hogwarts Legacy the case may be different but still, would it run with this HUUUGE bottleneck (i9 + GTX1070) on medium settings in 60 fps? Would good quality low latency 32GB ram slightly reduce this bottleneck?

What would you recommend if you were in my position? I am very hesitant in investing 1000$+ in a GPU because literally, this game and Counter Strike are the only games I will be playing.

Please share your thoughts, thanks!

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Given your usage, I don't think you need to go so high on CPU and DDR5.

Keeping your existing ram (with maybe an upgrade to it down the line), you could get something pretty decent. Something like this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13500 2.5 GHz 14-Core Processor ($300.74 @ MemoryC)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B660 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($189.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac GAMING Twin Edge OC GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card ($353.49 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT H510 Flow ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Best Buy)
Power Supply: Corsair RM650 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.95 @ B&H)
Total: $1154.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-14 12:51 EST-0500

You could even drop the 12400, but the 13500 is going to be the best price/performance CPU of this gen, whether AMD or Intel. It's a stellar CPU. The 3060 12gb give you great 1080p performance and good 1440p performance.

Worth a consideration.

@Why_Me is good with build options, so maybe other users will have better builds, or different opinions.

 

[kerberos_20]

you will know how it runs once it gets released

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

you will know how it runs once it gets released

Which, what?

Do you mean the 13500? There already some benches out there, and it's essentially the equivalent of the 12600k!

 

[kerberos_20]

Which, what?

Do you mean the 13500? There already some benches out there, and it's essentially the equivalent of the 12600k!

hogwart

 

[logainofhades]

The system requirements are pretty beefy. A 13th gen i5/7, or Ryzen 7000, should handle it just fine. I personally would do AM5, for more future upgrade options. https://wccftech.com/hogwarts-legacy-full-pc-specs-are-out-1440p-4k-ultra-require-32gb-ram/

MINIMUM:

OS: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i5-6600 (3.3 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 1400 (3.2 GHz)
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 4GB or AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 85 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD (Preferred), HDD (Supported), 720p/30 fps, Low Quality Settings

The recommended requirements for Hogwarts Legacy are largely unchanged except for the doubled RAM mentioned above.

RECOMMENDED:

OS: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i7-8700 (3.2 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (3.6 GHz)
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 1080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT or Intel Arc A770
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 85 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD, 1080p/60 fps, High Quality Settings

The newly added Ultra settings require 32 GB of RAM to play Hogwarts Legacy at 1440p or 4K with the Ultra graphics preset.

ULTRA:

OS: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i7-10700K (3.8 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 7 5800x (3.8 GHz)
Memory: 32 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080Ti or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 85 GB SSD
Additional Notes: SSD, 1440p/60 fps, Ultra Quality Settings

ULTRA 4K:

OS: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i7-10700K (3.8 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 7 5800x (3.8 GHz)
Memory: 32 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090Ti or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 85 GB SSD
Additional Notes: SSD, 2160p/60 fps, Ultra Quality Settings

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($329.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($35.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 AORUS ELITE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Flare X5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory ($135.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX6700XT CLD 12G Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card ($359.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case ($88.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RM750x (2021) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1368.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-14 14:23 EST-0500

 

[Why_Me]

@stan33 Intel is due to release the RTX 4060 / 4060 Ti / 4070 cards this March. By then the US will have more B760 boards available such as this Gigabyte board down below which is already available in Europe.

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B760-GAMING-X-rev-10#kf
GIGABYTE B760 GAMING X $150 if I had to guess

https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i5-13400f-core-i5-13th-gen/p/N82E16819118431
Intel Core i5-13400F $209.99

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PCWK7SP
DeepCool AK400 CPU Cooler $34.99

https://www.newegg.com/team-32gb/p/N82E16820331839
Team T-Force Vulcan DDR5 5600 32GB (2x16GB) CL36 $128.99

 

[DAG93]

Hear me out, while I love pc gaming more then any other if you will not be playing many high end titles, why not invest in an Xbox or ps5? They seem pretty available these days. Unless you plan to play lots more games on PC seems like a lot of cash to throw down for a new system that works just fine for you for the most part.

 

[cryoburner]

A 12900K would be massive overkill, and completely unnecessary to run the game well. If it required that kind of hardware, it wouldn't sell because 99% of its target audience wouldn't be able to run it well. I definitely wouldn't expect it to utilize the 12900K's extra cores, which is the main thing you are paying for with an i9. For today's games, recent i5s should perform nearly identical, and if the graphics card is limiting performance, even older and lower-end CPUs will tend to perform similar.

And of course, the game is designed to run on last-gen consoles and the switch (albeit at around 30fps) so it likely isn't going to be especially demanding on the CPU, considering the CPUs in those devices are roughly half as fast as your existing i7. Even if the PC and newer console releases are designed to be more demanding on the CPU, I would expect your processor to run the game reasonably well. Minimum requirements call for an i5-6400, with an i7-8700 being recommended for 60fps, and your processor should fall in-between the two. Depending on how many cores it utilizes, your CPU might potentially be fine for a 60fps experience. It might be worth seeing how the game performs on your existing hardware before deciding if you even need to upgrade.

 

[logainofhades]

Why would anyone with a 144hz monitor want to settle for 60fps?

 

[cryoburner]

Why would anyone with a 144hz monitor want to settle for 60fps?

Because aside from fast action games, titles more like this are not as likely to benefit as much from running at really high frame rates. And as they specifically pointed out in their original post, they were only looking to ensure a 60fps experience...

"would it run with this HUUUGE bottleneck (i9 + GTX1070) on medium settings in 60 fps?"

If their existing hardware were to manage that goal, then building a new system primarily for that one game might be a bit of a waste.

 

[logainofhades]

Many people upgrade, for a particular game, that they want to play, but can't with their existing hardware, at settings they would enjoy, or at all in some cases. That has happened for as long as there have been PC gamers. The other game they are playing is Counter Strike, which you don't want to limit yourself to 60fps, unless you have 0 choice. Competitive FPS you want all the frames you can get.