[SOLVED] Upgrading from GTX 1070 to dual or?

[nixder]

I have a GTX 1070 GPU and I want to upgrade. I primarily have two requirements:

1. Play something like Red Dead Redemption 2 in 3440x1440 full quality resolution.
2. I do a lot of deep learning so it has to be CUDA compatible.

My initial thinking was too simply buy another GTX 1070 and run those in dual but I do not know whether that is a good or a bad solution.

Specs
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7600K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
MB: ASRock Z270 Killer SLI
RAM: 16gb
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Monitor: Acer Predator X34P

 

[cdrkf]

I have a GTX 1070 GPU and I want to upgrade. I primarily have two requirements:

1. Play something like Red Dead Redemption 2 in 3440x1440 full quality resolution.
2. I do a lot of deep learning so it has to be CUDA compatible.

My initial thinking was too simply buy another GTX 1070 and run those in dual but I do not know whether that is a good or a bad solution.

Specs
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7600K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
MB: ASRock Z270 Killer SLI
RAM: 16gb
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Monitor: Acer Predator X34P

Hi, dual gpu's aren't really viable any more (very few modern games support SLI tech as it doesn't work with Vulcan or DX12 out of the box) so I would say avoid that.

The 1070 is still a decent card (slightly faster than the 1660 Super / ti) so you'll need to go up to an RTX card to get a worthwhile upgrade. Honestly you probably want to be looking at a 2070 or 2070 Super (the 2060 cards are roughly on par with the 1080, which isn't a whole lot faster than your existing card, 2070 Super is ~ 1080ti performance so it's a better step up).

 

[sizzling]

I think you are in a tough place. For gaming SLi no longer makes sense. However from what I read dual cards for your deep learning I believe would be a good upgrade. Then you mention RDR2, the first thing that stands out is your CPU, a quad core is going to struggle to give an enjoyable experience in that game regardless of GPU choice. That game is also a system killer, it brings the best systems to their knees. To run 3440x1440 at "full quality" you are looking at 2080, 2080 Super or 2080Ti level of GPU.

 

[nixder]

I think you are in a tough place. For gaming SLi no longer makes sense. However from what I read dual cards for your deep learning I believe would be a good upgrade. Then you mention RDR2, the first thing that stands out is your CPU, a quad core is going to struggle to give an enjoyable experience in that game regardless of GPU choice. That game is also a system killer, it brings the best systems to their knees. To run 3440x1440 at "full quality" you are looking at 2080, 2080 Super or 2080Ti level of GPU.

Thanks for your answers. What kind of CPU would you recommend as well then?

 

[cdrkf]

Thanks for your answers. What kind of CPU would you recommend as well then?

That depends on if you want to upgrade platform or not... on your current motherboard the best you can go for is to get hold of an i7 (i.e. the 7700K)- the extra threads on the i7 really help in modern games. That is your limit though thanks to Intel's policy of killing motherboard sockets.

Alternatively you could look at a new motherboard and cpu, luckily you are already on DDR4 memory so you should be fine to reuse your ram etc. If looking at a new platform you have more options- if you are wanting to stick Intel (they are still slightly ahead in games at the top end) then I'd probably say hold fire until Intels new '10 series' cpu's drop this year, as apparently they are changing socket (again) so if you were to jump in with the 9000 series you wont have any upgrade route. If you want to buy now you are probably better looking at AMD, they offer a wide range of CPU's on AM4, they don't quite hit the high clocks intel does so can't quite hit the very high benchmark numbers in low resolution games but honestly if you are running at 1440p shouldn't be an issue. Something like the R5 3600 would be ample for gaming (that is 6 core / 12 threads) and you could always upgrade to something with more core's / threads in the future if you needed to (currently AM4 tops out with the 16 core, 32 thread 3950X and looks like AMD are going to maintain support for the next gen 4000 cpu's as well).

 

[nixder]

That depends on if you want to upgrade platform or not... on your current motherboard the best you can go for is to get hold of an i7 (i.e. the 7700K)- the extra threads on the i7 really help in modern games. That is your limit though thanks to Intel's policy of killing motherboard sockets.

Alternatively you could look at a new motherboard and cpu, luckily you are already on DDR4 memory so you should be fine to reuse your ram etc. If looking at a new platform you have more options- if you are wanting to stick Intel (they are still slightly ahead in games at the top end) then I'd probably say hold fire until Intels new '10 series' cpu's drop this year, as apparently they are changing socket (again) so if you were to jump in with the 9000 series you wont have any upgrade route. If you want to buy now you are probably better looking at AMD, they offer a wide range of CPU's on AM4, they don't quite hit the high clocks intel does so can't quite hit the very high benchmark numbers in low resolution games but honestly if you are running at 1440p shouldn't be an issue. Something like the R5 3600 would be ample for gaming (that is 6 core / 12 threads) and you could always upgrade to something with more core's / threads in the future if you needed to (currently AM4 tops out with the 16 core, 32 thread 3950X and looks like AMD are going to maintain support for the next gen 4000 cpu's as well).

Thanks again.

It's not a problem to wait really but you are saying the AMD alternatives are perfectly fine without changing my motherboard? Or do you recommend to hold my horses? If I were to change to AMD then I'd probably look at a price level in between 3600 and 3950X.

I guess another question is how much I limit myself by keeping the motherboard. If I change the motherboard then it is really only my CPU that needs to be changed as well, right?

What do you mean by "AMD are going to maintain support for the next gen 4000 cpu's as well"? Maintain support for a new product - that doesn't make sense to me!?

 

[cdrkf]

Thanks again.

It's not a problem to wait really but you are saying the AMD alternatives are perfectly fine without changing my motherboard? Or do you recommend to hold my horses? If I were to change to AMD then I'd probably look at a price level in between 3600 and 3950X.

I guess another question is how much I limit myself by keeping the motherboard. If I change the motherboard then it is really only my CPU that needs to be changed as well, right?

What do you mean by "AMD are going to maintain support for the next gen 4000 cpu's as well"? Maintain support for a new product - that doesn't make sense to me!?

Hi...

So just to clarify, AMD and Intel use completely different sockets and chipsets... long gone are the days where Intel, AMD and other CPU manufacturers could be used on the same motherboard (good old Socket 7!)....

What I was saying is you have two realistic ways forward:

1: You keep your existing motherboard (which is a really decent quality board, so not necessarily a bad idea)... in that case you can upgrade to a 7th generation core i7 (i.e. the i7 7700 or 7700K). Either of these would be a good upgrade and are both capable of running any current game without issue (the extra threads on the i7 really help over the i5 you currently have). The main downside to this route is that the 4 core / 8 threads of the i7 7000 series may not be enough in the near future. There are already a few games out that need a 6 core / 12 thread cpu for optimal performance (in these titles the i7 7700 can still deliver playable performance as it stands).

2: You buy a new platform - i.e. a new motherboard and cpu. That opens up your options allot. Currently the best value option all round is the Ryzen 5 3600 (as you've suggested) coupled with a decent B450 motherboard. If you go that way look out for motherboards with 'Max' in the name... e.g. a common recommendation for a good B450 board is the MSI B450 Tomahawk, there is now also a 'b450 Tomahawk Max' version, the latter is guaranteed to support the Ryzen 3000 series cpu's out of the box whereas the older non max version will need a bios update first (which can be difficult if you don't have a first or second gen Ryzen cpu to hand to get the board working first). For the very best in gaming performance (for a price premium and a reduction in threaded application performance) you can also look at Intel 9th gen cpu (the i7 9700K and i9 9900K are the undisputed gaming performance champions, although the Ryzen 3000 cpu's totally spank them in application tasks).

What I would say is if you want to go Intel maybe wait for them to release the upcoming '10000' series as it looks like Intel are giving a decent boost across the range to better compete with Ryzen 3000.

 

[nixder]

Sorry for reopening this thread but I've found your answers extremely helpful and returned to them a number of times. I've researched further and I'm set on buying NVIDIA Ampere generation when that's available (hopefully this fall). My question is though; should I hold back on buying everything else until then or is it "safe" to buy new MBU and CPU etc. now? It would be bad to buy a motherboard that is incompatible with the new NVIDIA Ampere GPUs (I haven't been able to find info on this anywhere).

For CPU I'm probably going for AMD. But I realized that Ryzen 4000 will arrive in the fall as well so it might just be best to wait all over. Btw. do you have any RAM to recommend for my setup? You did write "luckily you are already on DDR4 memory so you should be fine to reuse your ram etc.", is it best just to extend with the same type?