Upgrading to GTX 1070 from AMD, Advice?

[Stansfield]

Hey forum friends, I'm looking at upgrading from my AMD chipset to an NVidia after a pretty long while on a fairly old system. I'm pretty interested in the GeForce GTX 1070 in one form or another, and I thought I might get some input on what the best option would be, to see if I was being stupid and forgetting anything in making the final purchase. I'll put my full system specs down towards the bottom. My general budget is nothing over $550 for the card, but I can stretch it a bit as needed. I'm also picking up a new 256GB Samsung 850 Pro, as the 830 series I have is giving me some concerns due to odd system freezes I haven't been able to figure out after a second, newer & faster, ssd was added for games (a clean windows 10 reinstall + bios update is coming up this weekend).

So, currently I have an AMD 7870, which more or less works fine for what I do with my PC*. But I've been meaning to change over to an NVidia chipset ever since I put the rig together, and I'm looking at getting a full new rig in a year, year and a month. So some parts I'm currently purchasing will kinda transfer over as placeholders onto whatever I use for the next Mobo + CPU, etc.

* The video games I mostly play are pretty old (Mass Effect 1 - 3, Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout 3 GotY, CS:GO, Wasteland 2, some others (I actually still play HL2 and it's episodes (I know))).

I'm considering a number of EVGA cards, but one card I kinda have my eye on is the MSI GeForce GTX 1070 DirectX 12 GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ATX Video Card. (Yeah, a mouthful, sorry). Links to the NewEgg product page.

After I recently picked up a new SSD but failed to realize I was missing a spare but needed SATA III cable (as well as some screws), I'm curious about what other odds and ends I might want to pick up, even if only as spares. I have to admit, I'm also wondering if there's any general advice people have on switching over from AMD to NVidia? My current plan basically involved using DDU to wipe 'er out and down, shut off the machine, and then switch out (a more thorough plan is upcoming). But I'm wondering if there are any little fancy customizations in software or whatnot that might be recommended to make it the best experience.


Full System Specs - homebuilt

OS:
♦ Windows 10 Home 64-bit (free upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM)
CPU:
♦ i5-3570k @ 3.40 GHz (3.8 Turbo)
CPU Fan
♦ COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+
Motherboard
♦ ASUS Maximus V EXTREME Extended ATX Intel Motherboard
RAM
♦ 16 GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum at 1600MHz
PSU
♦ COOLER MASTER RS-A50-SPHA-D3 Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W Intel ATX 12V V2.3 & SSI EPS 12V V2.92
Graphics Card
♦ AMD 7870, 2 GB VRAM (XFX Double D FX-787A-CDBC Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition Black Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ most current driver)
Primary Drive
♦ (Local Disk ( C: )) - SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal SSD
Secondary Drive
♦ (Games (E)) - SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal SSD
Tertiary Drive
♦ (in two Volumes (F & G)): Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal HDD

Peripherals / Other

Spoiler

Case – COOLER MASTER COSMOS II RC-1200-KKN1 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Monitor – Dell UltraSharp U2410 24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor with PremierColor
Mouse – Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum RGB Tunable Gaming Mouse
Keyboard – Corsair K95 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard w/ Cherry MX RGB Red switches

 

[maxalge]

Hey forum friends, I'm looking at upgrading from my AMD chipset to an NVidia after a pretty long while on a fairly old system. I'm pretty interested in the GeForce GTX 1070 in one form or another, and I thought I might get some input on what the best option would be, to see if I was being stupid and forgetting anything in making the final purchase. I'll put my full system specs down towards the bottom. My general budget is nothing over $550 for the card, but I can stretch it a bit as needed. I'm also picking up a new 256GB Samsung 850 Pro, as the 830 series I have is giving me some concerns due to odd system freezes I haven't been able to figure out after a second, newer & faster, ssd was added for games (a clean windows 10 reinstall + bios update is coming up this weekend).

So, currently I have an AMD 7870, which more or less works fine for what I do with my PC*. But I've been meaning to change over to an NVidia chipset ever since I put the rig together, and I'm looking at getting a full new rig in a year, year and a month. So some parts I'm currently purchasing will kinda transfer over as placeholders onto whatever I use for the next Mobo + CPU, etc.

* The video games I mostly play are pretty old (Mass Effect 1 - 3, Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout 3 GotY, CS:GO, Wasteland 2, some others (I actually still play HL2 and it's episodes (I know))).

I'm considering a number of EVGA cards, but one card I kinda have my eye on is the MSI GeForce GTX 1070 DirectX 12 GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ATX Video Card. (Yeah, a mouthful, sorry). Links to the NewEgg product page.

After I recently picked up a new SSD but failed to realize I was missing a spare but needed SATA III cable (as well as some screws), I'm curious about what other odds and ends I might want to pick up, even if only as spares. I have to admit, I'm also wondering if there's any general advice people have on switching over from AMD to NVidia? My current plan basically involved using DDU to wipe 'er out and down, shut off the machine, and then switch out (a more thorough plan is upcoming). But I'm wondering if there are any little fancy customizations in software or whatnot that might be recommended to make it the best experience.


Full System Specs - homebuilt

OS:
♦ Windows 10 Home 64-bit (free upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM)
CPU:
♦ i5-3570k @ 3.40 GHz (3.8 Turbo)
CPU Fan
♦ COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+
Motherboard
♦ ASUS Maximus V EXTREME Extended ATX Intel Motherboard
RAM
♦ 16 GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum at 1600MHz
PSU
♦ COOLER MASTER RS-A50-SPHA-D3 Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W Intel ATX 12V V2.3 & SSI EPS 12V V2.92
Graphics Card
♦ AMD 7870, 2 GB VRAM (XFX Double D FX-787A-CDBC Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition Black Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ most current driver)
Primary Drive
♦ (Local Disk ( C: )) - SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal SSD
Secondary Drive
♦ (Games (E)) - SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal SSD
Tertiary Drive
♦ (in two Volumes (F & G)): Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal HDD

Peripherals / Other

Spoiler

Case – COOLER MASTER COSMOS II RC-1200-KKN1 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Monitor – Dell UltraSharp U2410 24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor with PremierColor
Mouse – Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum RGB Tunable Gaming Mouse
Keyboard – Corsair K95 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard w/ Cherry MX RGB Red switches

a total rebuild is not worth it to you, skip this generation easily

get a i7 3770k overclock it a bit


get a gtx 1070, and you would be set for a long time

 

[leeashton]

wait for the new AMD stuff the raizen CPU is faster than a core I7 (proven) and the new Vega cards The RX480 is already faster than the card it compete staging the GTX 1050 by a million percent, both coming Q1 this year

 

[RobCrezz]

wait for the new AMD stuff the raizen CPU is faster than a core I7 (proven) and the new Vega cards The RX480 is already faster than the card it compete staging the GTX 1050 by a million percent, both coming Q1 this year

Come on now... I want Ryzen to be good and competitive as much as anyone. But its not proven yet, lets wait for it to be released. Good plan to wait for it to come out though.

 

[maxalge]

wait for the new AMD stuff the raizen CPU is faster than a core I7 (proven) and the new Vega cards The RX480 is already faster than the card it compete staging the GTX 1050 by a million percent, both coming Q1 this year

proven by who? you have a time machine and waste your time posting here?

 

[Stansfield]

Snippet of OP

a total rebuild is not worth it to you, skip this generation easily

get a i7 3770k overclock it a bit


get a gtx 1070, and you would be set for a long time

Well, I'm not currently planning on doing more than upgrading anything other than the GPU and storage; a full system rebuild with a new mobo, cpu, etc. is probably not going to happen until next year, this time or a little later. But it sounds like you'd say this is as good or better as any 1070 for my system?

 

[chef7734]

I have had great experience with EVGA over the years as well as asus. For gpu's I usually purchase EVGA. If you want a gtx 1070, it is hard to beat the ftw edition. Many times you can find them close to 400.00-429.00

 

[Stansfield]

I have had great experience with EVGA over the years as well as asus. For gpu's I usually purchase EVGA. If you want a gtx 1070, it is hard to beat the ftw edition. Many times you can find them close to 400.00-429.00

Hmm, yeah, I've been thinking about EVGA as well, NewEgg's rating system certainly puts the EVGA FTW at the front end there. I'm looking at MSI mostly because I haven't before, and I'm trying to avoid becoming hypnotized by brand names. Also, it did get a pretty good review from Tom's Hardware and a number of other sites. I have a similar feeling in regards a number of other components as well however, like Asus for motherboards, Corsair for memory, logitech for mice, etc. Thanks chef7734, I'll weigh that in. Thinking thinking.