Upgrading from a GTX 960

[skimmynz]

Hey everyone,

I've had my build for a while now and have slowly replaced parts. It's really struggling on newer titles and I wanted some opinions on how best to upgrade.

Should I go for a completely new build or can I continue to replace individual parts?

CPU: Intel i5-4460 CPU @ 3.2GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-Gaming 3
RAM: G.Skill 16GB DDR3 F3-12800CL9-4GBXL
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 GDDR5 2GB
SSD: Samsung SSD 850 PRO 256GB
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64 Bit

My initial idea was to purchase a GTX 2070 to future proof me for a while. Please advise.

 

[clutchc]

It depends on how much money you want to spend and how much effort you want to put into the project. While a new build would be great, there's nothing wrong with yoyr present platform for gaming at 1080p. You just need a better gfx card. Your CPU is still listed as tier one according to Tom's CPU Hierarchy chart.
So, moving to a GTX 1060 or RX-580 would probably give you what you want. Whilke your CPU can probably handle a GTX 1070 in most games, upgrading to an i7 would double your threads. Games are finally getting to the point that they can utilize more than 4 threads.

You didn't list your PSU,but I presume it is enough for the GTX 1060 if it can handle the GTX 960. But might need more than that for the RX-580.

 

[skimmynz]

It depends on how much money you want to spend and how much effort you want to put into the project. While a new build would be great, there's nothing wrong with yoyr present platform for gaming at 1080p. You just need a better gfx card. Your CPU is still listed as tier one according to Tom's CPU Hierarchy chart.
So, moving to a GTX 1060 or RX-580 would probably give you what you want. Whilke your CPU can probably handle a GTX 1070 in most games, upgrading to an i7 would double your threads. Games are finally getting to the point that they can utilize more than 4 threads.

You didn't list your PSU,but I presume it is enough for the GTX 1060 if it can handle the GTX 960. But might need more than that for the RX-580.

Thanks for the response.

I'm prepared to shell out a fair bit of money towards a complete overhaul piece by piece so an RTX 2070 sounds like a good start. How bad would the bottleneck be with this CPU?

 

[clutchc]

The RTX 2070 is even faster than a GTX 1080. I can't say how bad the bottleneck would be (it varies from game to game), but there would definitely be some. But the good news is there are still Haswell CPUs that can fix that, but you'll pay top dollar for them now that they are discontinued.

If you have the money to spend on a RTX 2070, maybe you should consider a new platform, rather than piece-meal the system you have now.

Btw, have you considered upgrading to Win 10? You can still do it for free, you know. At least it was still free up til when I did my last Win7 upgrade a couple months ago.

 

[ajjaatar.tech]

tbh your specs seem fine for 1080p gaming. But form what you have said if you want to add a 2070, its best if you can find an i7 to replace your i5. Something like a 4770 or 4790 would be alright if you can find them for a good price. Also you must make sure you have a powerful enough psu that can support your i7 and 2070.

However the best case scenario for using a 2070 would be to get a new mobo and a recent ryzen or i7 cpu. which means more new upgrades like newer ram sticks which can be costly.

So the easier and more realistic path here would be to just buy a 1060 and save up more to build a whole new system later when you see the 1060 cant keep up anymore. So, with your i5 + 1060 would be a great gaming system. This will make you happy and take away the stress of getting new parts and summing up the budget and all that stuff.

 

[clutchc]

+1^
Or heck, just go ahead and get the 2070 anyway as long as you have a 550W or more; good-quality PSU. Then add the i7 when funds allow. The 2070 won't over-heat at 1080p 😉