[SOLVED] Upgrading 7 year old PC with 4090 - or would you buy a new case and other components first?

[moot1414]

Hi there, don't know a ton about PCs, and had built my first gaming PC 7 years ago. Please let me know if I need to provide any additional info, or if something doesn't make sense.

I was planning on upgrading my 7 year old PC with new case and components over the next couple of weeks, and then get a GPU in a year or so, when I have the money. But I expectantly was able to get a 4090 today, but now it means that I cannot upgrade any other components for a year.

Given the specs of my case, I'm worried the clearance for the width is too narrow to close the case and have the GPU adapter at an angle where it won't cause hardware failure. I'm really trying to not have to buy any other components (due to $$ limitations).

But it seems in the very least I may have to buy a case. If I do, I won't be able to buy one for another month or two, which would negate my ability to properly test GPU before the return period. But I also, don't really want to give up my GPU order, since I've been actively trying to upgrade for 3 years.

Details on specs below. Please let me know what you think. Am I OK to put the new GPU in the current case, save up for new case, risk letting the return period lapse, or maybe start upgrading other components first, in hopes that GPUs become more plentiful in the future. Much appreciated!

Specs:
i7-8700K CPU
Razer NZXT Case
Seasonic 850 Prime
Current GPU Aorus 980 Ti
New GPU: MSI 4090 Gaming Trio X

GPU dimensions: 337L x 140 W x 77H mm
Case dimensions: 220.0W x 510.0H x 476.0D mm

Case: After taking our HD bay of my case, I have 3 CMs of clearance from the radiator of my AIO to the end of my the new GPU. Height is fine, after I take out my audio card. Width of new GPU may be problematic as there's only 2 CMs of clearance, so not sure if this aspect will fit. I know I can't leave the case panel open, as it will cause cooling issues and I think I remember reading that the 4090 needs a certain amount of clearance on the adapters, or else there might be a fire/hardware failure?

 

[Nighthawk117]

The 8700K is still capable today but it's a bit underpowered for a 4090. What do you want to use the 4090 for and what's your total budget for an upgrade?

 

[moot1414]

The 8700K is still capable today but it's a bit underpowered for a 4090. What do you want to use the 4090 for and what's your total budget for an upgrade?

I had saved up around 1,800 over the past 3 years. And can likely save another 1.5K USD by the end of 2023. And slowly upgrade the other components. I plan for just a case, mobo, and CPU upgrade over the next year. I just don't have the funds now.

I understand that the CPU will prb. be a big bottleneck, but I think it will still be a huge upgrade for me. I plan to use the GPU for gaming on a 1400p with ultrawid, and RTX on.

I'm just not sure if the case will be OK due to the clearance needed on the GPU adapter and the case panel.

 

[GarrettL]

A 4090 is overkill for 1440p. The premium price of the 4090 could have been spent on a 4070TI and other new hardware in my opinion.

Save up your cash and see what things look like when ready to purchase. A lot can change in a year.

 

[mjbn1977]

If you only plan to use this for 1440p, a 4080 or 4070Ti will be absolutely fine. Save yourself the money. What are you trying to accomplish with the 4090? I don't know a game that is not CPU limited (MS Flight Simulator comes to mind) that cannot run games with great frame rates on highest graphic settings with raytracing on 1440p with a RTX 4080.

How much did you pay for the 4090? 8700k with 4090 on 1440p is not ideal. You basically can get same performance with a 4080. The extra performance you buy with the extra money over something like a 4080 cannot really be utilized in 1440p with an 8700k. Unless you upgrade CPU or decide to play 1440p you basically pay for performance you cannot really use....this statement depends a little on the games you play, but generally this should be true.

 

[Kona45primo]

Buy the 4090, assuming you got a good price for it try and sell it for more. Buy a new case with that money and go hunt down another 4090 at the same or better price.

Assuming you got a good enough deal to make a profit. If you didn't, cancel your order.

 

[Eximo]

Nothing preventing you from testing your new GPU. Doesn't have to be pretty, you can always extract your motherboard from the chassis and bench test it. Or if there is enough room, just leave the side panel off for a while.

See if you can track down a used 9900k on the cheap is my only additional suggestion.

 

[John Chesterfield]

Buying a 4090 but potentially not upgrading the rest until the end of the year is a waste of money, especially at 1440p.

Get a 4080 if you must get a graphics card now.

 

[John Chesterfield]

Also, your power supply possibly isn't good enough for such a high end card. It's been known to have issues with the transient power spikes of high end cards.

 

[moot1414]

A 4090 is overkill for 1440p. The premium price of the 4090 could have been spent on a 4070TI and other new hardware in my opinion

Save up your cash and see what things look like when ready to purchase. A lot can change in a year.

Thanks! I plan to switch over to a 4K 42inch OLED TV, down the road, within 8 months. New Mobo and CPU within 6 months. So I'm kind of buying with the future in mind. I'm in the process of saving up for new components, as I go. I also saw that some new games require 16GB of ram (Forspoken) for GPUs for recommended, so I figured I'd try to buy for the future a bit again, since I usually keep GPUs for 3-4 years. I know I can buy a cheaper GPU and go on an annual or every other year upgrade cadence, but I've had a lot of issues selling electronics in the past, and don't think I'd want to do try and sell a GPU.

Does any of this change your outlook? I did get this at MSRP, which is part of the reason it took so long to get a new GPU (I don't want to pay scalpers for scalping).

I def. hear what you're saying though. And will give it some serious thought.

If you only plan to use this for 1440p, a 4080 or 4070Ti will be absolutely fine. Save yourself the money. What are you trying to accomplish with the 4090? I don't know a game that is not CPU limited (MS Flight Simulator comes to mind) that cannot run games with great frame rates on highest graphic settings with raytracing on 1440p with a RTX 4080.

How much did you pay for the 4090? 8700k with 4090 on 1440p is not ideal. You basically can get same performance with a 4080. The extra performance you buy with the extra money over something like a 4080 cannot really be utilized in 1440p with an 8700k. Unless you upgrade CPU or decide to play 1440p you basically pay for performance you cannot really use....this statement depends a little on the games you play, but generally this should be true.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. To answer your question, I plan to switch over to a 4K 42inch OLED TV, down the road, within 8 months. New mobo and CPU within 6 months. So I'm kind of buying with the future in mind. I'm in the process of saving up for new components as I go. I also saw that some new games require 16GB of ram for GPUs (Forspoken), so I figured I'd try to buy for the future a bit again, since I usually keep GPUs for 3-4 years. I know I can buy a cheaper GPU and go on an annual or every other year upgrade cadence, but I've had a lot of issues selling electronics in the past, and don't think I'd want to do try and sell a GPU.

Does any of this change your outlook? I did get this at MSRP, which is part of the reason it took so long to get a new GPU (I don't want to pay scalpers for scalping).

Will def. give what you said some thought. I can save a ton of money with a 4070Ti. I usually don't upgrade often, so when I do upgrade, I try to get the best possible. I haven't upgraded anything in 7 years this time, due to GPU shortage.

Buy the 4090, assuming you got a good price for it try and sell it for more. Buy a new case with that money and go hunt down another 4090 at the same or better price.

Assuming you got a good enough deal to make a profit. If you didn't, cancel your order.

I got it at MSRP after waiting 3 years to get a GPU at MSRP! I did not expect there to be a ton of drops today, and had planned on upgrading other components for a few PC first.

I'm kind of really tempted to do this. It will allow for me to buy a new mobo, but I also kind of hate the state of GPUs currently and don't want to add to it.

 

[Lafong]

I would be wary of buying major parts (CPU, RAM, motherboard) at separate times.

How could you identify a bad motherboard purchased in February if you didn't buy the CPU until June?

 

[mjbn1977]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. To answer your question, I plan to switch over to a 4K 42inch OLED TV, down the road, within 8 months. New mobo and CPU within 6 months. So I'm kind of buying with the future in mind. I'm in the process of saving up for new components as I go. I also saw that some new games require 16GB of ram for GPUs (Forspoken), so I figured I'd try to buy for the future a bit again, since I usually keep GPUs for 3-4 years. I know I can buy a cheaper GPU and go on an annual or every other year upgrade cadence, but I've had a lot of issues selling electronics in the past, and don't think I'd want to do try and sell a GPU.

Does any of this change your outlook? I did get this at MSRP, which is part of the reason it took so long to get a new GPU (I don't want to pay scalpers for scalping).

If you plan to switch to 4k and you got the 4090 at MSRP you are good to go. In terms of case. Its a big card, make sure it fits. You only have a 850 Watts power supply, 1000 watt quality PSU would be a good idea. Down the road you want to think about a processor upgrade! The 8700k is pretty good, I used it myself until recently, but finally upgraded.

 

[moot1414]

I had the night to think/slept on it, and after the excitement of finally getting a GPU at MSRP after 3 years, and looking at things objectively, what you all had said made sense on multiple levels (sorry, if I forgot to tag someone).

-I had adapted to mostly playing indie games
-There's only a small handful of games that really need a 4090, and even smaller that supports DLSS 3.
-There's nothing I'm terrible excited about in terms of games coming out this year, except 2-3 games and I can always play on console. PC gaming seems so expensive these days, that even if I can "afford" it, I'm not sure I want to at the moment.
-Upgrading GPU meant getting back into the upgrade cycle and upgrading my other parts.

I still love PC gaming, but the cost of GPUs, even at MSRP/value of 4080 and 4070ti just didn't make sense to me. I ended up canceling the GPU.

Thanks all for your measured/sensible approach.

A 4090 is overkill for 1440p. The premium price of the 4090 could have been spent on a 4070TI and other new hardware in my opinion.

Save up your cash and see what things look like when ready to purchase. A lot can change in a year.

If you only plan to use this for 1440p, a 4080 or 4070Ti will be absolutely fine. Save yourself the money. What are you trying to accomplish with the 4090? I don't know a game that is not CPU limited (MS Flight Simulator comes to mind) that cannot run games with great frame rates on highest graphic settings with raytracing on 1440p with a RTX 4080.

How much did you pay for the 4090? 8700k with 4090 on 1440p is not ideal. You basically can get same performance with a 4080. The extra performance you buy with the extra money over something like a 4080 cannot really be utilized in 1440p with an 8700k. Unless you upgrade CPU or decide to play 1440p you basically pay for performance you cannot really use....this statement depends a little on the games you play, but generally this should be true.

Buy the 4090, assuming you got a good price for it try and sell it for more. Buy a new case with that money and go hunt down another 4090 at the same or better price.

Assuming you got a good enough deal to make a profit. If you didn't, cancel your order.

Nothing preventing you from testing your new GPU. Doesn't have to be pretty, you can always extract your motherboard from the chassis and bench test it. Or if there is enough room, just leave the side panel off for a while.

See if you can track down a used 9900k on the cheap is my only additional suggestion.

Buying a 4090 but potentially not upgrading the rest until the end of the year is a waste of money, especially at 1440p.

Get a 4080 if you must get a graphics card now.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

If you can find a good deal on an rtx 3080 or an rx 6800xt you may find those are good deals.

Although poking around Newegg I came across this 6900xt for 669. Sure you aren’t at the 4070ti performance exactly but you get into that bracket and get more vram which could matter more later. Plus you save over 100 bucks compared to the 4070ti. Worth a look. If I hadn’t gotten my 3080 for 600 just this past month and had cash I might pick one up myself.

https://www.newegg.com/asrock-radeon-rx-6900-xt-rx6900xt-ocf-16g/p/N82E16814930057

 

[Nighthawk117]

You could always pair a lesser GPU with your existing 8700K and give your current machine some extra life.

 

[moot1414]

You could always pair a lesser GPU with your existing 8700K and give your current machine some extra life.

Yeah, deff thinking about it. I think I might finally go back to AMD or maybe a 3000 series Nvidia. Although, for some reason the 3000 series are super expensive right now. The 4000 series aside from 4090 just seem to be such horrible value. I'm also hoping that maybe the 5000 series will bounce back to more reasonable pricing, like what happened with 2000 series to 3000 series.

 

[Kona45primo]

Good choice, chasing high end hardware for gaming purposes is expensive and futile.

Be patient, the computer industry is sprinting into the largest PC recession in 30 years. Prices will come down, staff levels will be cut & R&D budgets will be slashed.

I've got a full "mid range" pieced together AMD system and it works pretty darn well, 5700x paired with a 6900xt and some used 4x8 3600mhz B-die on an old B350 board. Does games really well. But I deleted them all the other day, better things to do than play games. Now my PC only crushes small Excel sheets and emails.... Scrolling through rows is butter smooth, lol.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Yeah, deff thinking about it. I think I might finally go back to AMD or maybe a 3000 series Nvidia. Although, for some reason the 3000 series are super expensive right now. The 4000 series aside from 4090 just seem to be such horrible value. I'm also hoping that maybe the 5000 series will bounce back to more reasonable pricing, like what happened with 2000 series to 3000 series.

The 4000 series isn't particularly good value right now, though a 4070 Ti for $800 is palatable.

Cheaper options that would still be a big improvement over your 980 Ti are the AMD Radeon 6700XT:
https://www.newegg.com/xfx-radeon-r...=6700XT-_-14-150-852-_-Product&quicklink=true

And the Nvidia 3070:
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-gef...re=3070-_-14-932-449-_-Product&quicklink=true

 

[ohio_buckeye]

To give a reference each of those should be in the realm of the 2080ti.