Question Upgrade Advice - Graphics + Monitor - £1k and Eventually Gaming

[petedw]

Approximate Purchase Date: No rush but see more details below

Budget Range: Roughly £1k

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Writing, Surfing the net, Basic Video Editing (Camtasia) and eventually some casual gaming

Are you buying a monitor: Yes


Parts to Upgrade: Probably everything eventually...

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Anything UK based at a reasonable price

Location: UK

Parts Preferences: I'd like to stick with Intel and NVidia. I've had better experiences with these.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: Currently 1920x1080. Looking to upgrade this 2K+

Additional Comments: The main goal is to increase my screen real estate so I can view more at once on the monitor. For more info, please see below.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:

My current build:

• ASRock S1155 Z68 Pro3-M DDR3 mATX
• Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked, S1155 @ 3.30 GHz
• 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz DIMM 240-pin CL9 LP
• PNY NVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti 850MHz 1GB PCI-Express
• ThermalTake TR2 700W PSU TR-700P 80plus BR
• 22" ViewSonic VX2239WM 2ms Monitor

I'd like to upgrade my current system for everyday work use/video editing. The video editing is nothing major, just screen recordings via Camtasia. I have a 27" 5K iMac with FCPX for the majority of my video editing.

The main goal is to increase my screen real estate so I can view more at once on the monitor. 1080p on a 22" just isn't enough. I'm thinking 1440p @ 27" and 144Hz. Probably an IPS panel because of their superior viewing angles although backlight bleeding tends to worry me?? I'm considering G-Sync too. However, I don't know enough about monitors for this to be a final decision.

I've also been considering the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 as great value for money?

I should also add that I do not want to add a 2nd monitor to the mix.

Eventually, I'd like my setup to be good enough for casual gaming at a half decent performance too.

I'm thinking the best move is to buy a new monitor and graphics card. That graphics card can then be used in my system when I upgrade the remaining hardware.

I should state that I'm in no rush but the sooner I can increase my screen real estate, the better.

The budget for now is roughly £1k (for the monitor and GPU...IF that's the smart thing to do).

Thank you for all your help.

 

[petedw]

Any one?

 

[maziech]

is it 1k for everything (monitor and entire new unit included etc?). Are You going to spend additional money later for parts upgrades, or are You trying to get the best value out of Your 1k?

 

[petedw]

is it 1k for everything (monitor and entire new unit included etc?). Are You going to spend additional money later for parts upgrades, or are You trying to get the best value out of Your 1k?

The 1k (it's flexible) is for a new monitor and GPU. I plan to spent additional money later for part upgrades.

I've had my current setup for 8 years and it's served me extremely well. The plan is to slowly replace the parts over the next couple of years to give me a new setup that'll hopefully give me a lengthy service too.

Thanks for your help!

 

[maziech]

I'd go for that for example:

Monitor (it's without G-sync !)

Card

But... only if You are going to exchange CPU in near future (i mean "for a moment"). This card will definitely bottleneck the CPU and You won't be able to keep up it's 100% performance.

 

[maziech]

The budget for now is roughly £1k (for the monitor and GPU...IF that's the smart thing to do).

To answer this, You'd have to define what "Eventually Gaming" means (topic).
The card above is for gamers and it somehow fits the budget You posted.

If "Eventually Gaming" means "I play fortnite once a week on high settings" it will be an overkill. If You play AAA titles and want a good performance on 2K screen and 144Hz, then it should work, when You upgrade Your CPU.

 

[petedw]

If You play AAA titles and want a good performance on 2K screen and 144Hz, then it should work, when You upgrade Your CPU.

The above is what I mean by eventually gaming. I have plenty of big titles. Just not had the time to play any of them yet.

A few other people (not on this forum) have also recommended an RTX 2070. I'm not sure about a TN panel though because of the viewing angles. My current monitor irritates me a little when I move in my seat and then have to change the tilt on the monitor to see the colours etc correctly.

Thanks again!

 

[maziech]

2070 performance is very close to 2060 (it's like 15-20% more over 2060), so it's not the best value for money, but You'll need that additional 2GB of VRAM sooner or later.

You could also buy something like second hand 1080ti (that's what i did), if it comes with a long warranty. A bit risky, but it's faster than 2070 and you can get it for similar price.

 

[petedw]

After lots of reading, I think I'm set on the BenQ EX3501R 35" 3440X1440 VA Curved 100HZ HDR Freesync Gaming Monitor.

Looks like I'm going to have to increase my budget and look at an RTX 2080...