Upgrading Asus Strix GTX 970

[UcShrek]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within 1-2 Weeks
BUDGET RANGE: $300 Before MIR
USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT:
Gaming FPS: BF4, BF3, Arma 3; And Flight Sims such as: FSX and DCS: FC3

SYSTEM SPECS:
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690K
GPU: Asus Strix GTX 970
PSU: EVGA 750W
MoBo: Gigabyte G​A-Z97X-Gam​ing 5 ATX ​LGA1150
Memory: G.Skill Sn​iper Serie​s 16GB (4 x​ 4GB) DDR3​-1866 Memo​ry
Case: Corsair Ob​sidian Ser​ies Black ​450D

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS:
newegg.com, amazon, ebay, ncix.com, pretty much all of them based on best price

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: US
PARTS PREFERENCES: I just want to stay away from XFX brands
OVERCLOCKING: No
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes/Maybe
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080, 1920x1200
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: None

 

[atomicWAR]

Honestly for a 300 dollar budget anything you are going to get is going to be a parallel step at best. A gtx 970 is a hair under a GTX 1060...so the first serious upgrade would be a GTX 1070 which is more like 400+ dollars. i would wait for volta to launch early next year or save more money.

 

[Kunra Zether]

I would also agree with atomic. It would be best to just wait or add $200 to that budget and get a 1080.

 

[Karadjgne]

The gtx970 shouldn't have any issues at all with any of those games, even at ultra on 1080p/60Hz.
If pushing a 1440p/60Hz or 1080p/144Hz then might scale back on some games to high/very high. If trying for 4k monitor, you don't have the budget for the gpu necessary.

I7 3770k /Asus strix 970 @124% OC and only MGS:V (The Phantom Pain) will put my 970 to 99% usage when using a 4k DSR at ultra settings through GeForce Experience. Any other game doesn't usually get more than 55-60% usage at max settings.

 

[UcShrek]

Well, here is another option: What if I just get a second GTX 970 and I go SLI, Maybe I can go with Triple Monitor for 1080p or 1440, Will my specs be able to support something like this?

 

[Karadjgne]

Sure. Cpu is strong enough, psu is large enough.
Only problem is sli. There's not much support in DX12 titles, since DX12 was supposed to be mgpu support, not sli/crossfire, the majority of sli is found in DX11 titles, some of which is good, some isn't so good and some is so bad it's better to use a single gpu as sli will lower framerates. So unless you'll get a very good deal on a 2nd card, it's generally not worth it unless the games you play have strong sli support available. The other issue is the 970, for all intents and purposes is a strong 3.5Gb card, the last 0.5Gb being slow vram, so even sli will run into issues, lack of available ram. Mgpu would solve a lot of that, you'd be seeing the better part of 8Gb vram, no worries, but the game devs are being stubborn about full mgpu support, so DX12 is mostly wasted hot air.

 

[UcShrek]

So if I increase my budget and I go with a 1070 or 1080, would there be any bottleneck with my CPU?

 

[atomicWAR]

In certain games yes but for the most part you would be good. Games are becoming more well threaded so your CPU is on the short list for being replaced but you should get another year or so out of it still. Some games like BF1, and even then mostly in larger 64 player servers in the case of BF1, will it be a problem maintaining 60FPS. There are some others as well like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Watch Dogs 2, The Witcher 3, Ghost Recon Wildlands, The Division, etc where you could face some CPU bottlenecking but not to the point I would discourage a GPU upgrade like the GTX 1070/80. Just know you are going to need a new CPU in the nearish future.

 

[Karadjgne]

Any bottlenecks will be due to the fact the cpu is an i5, not that it's a 4690k. But that applies to every i5, even the 7600k which matches the fps of the i7-7700k in some games but looses out to others as it doesn't have the thread count to compete with the i7's. But fps loss isn't drastic on the i5, it'll still be higher (roughly) than what your monitor can handle. The 1070 is solid easily at 1080p, but the difference in price between that and a 1080 is pretty small relatively, there are even 1080s that cost less than some editions of the 1070 so that can be an option.

 

[atomicWAR]

^absolutely true. 4C/4T CPUs in general are losing their luster for gaming.