What else should I upgrade

Jun 12, 2018
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Given my current rig below, what would you upgrade in order to be able to play at 4K 60hz or 2K 144hz (or as closer to it as possible)? My budget is something around 800$.
Is a GTX 1080 worth buying in this case?

My rig:

GTX 970
I5 3470
MB B75m
8GB RAM
PSU Corsair TX750

Thanks.
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
depends on which game that you are planning to run @ 144hz 2k. 970 is still somewhat okay,

use msi afterburner, what's the cpu and gpu usage is like for 2k and 4 k,

if the gpu usage is high well cpu usage is low.

1070/1070ti/1080 will be good.

if gpu usage is low, and cpu usage is high.

i think 8700, b360 and 16gb ram would give you a nice boost,

cheers.
 
I you wish to move up to 4K, then the graphics card upgrade will be most important, since an increase in resolution typically doesn't increase load on the CPU, but rather on the graphics card. Generally, the CPU will be doing the same amount of calculations at 4K, while the GPU will need to render 4 times the pixels of 1080p, or 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p. Even a 1080 Ti can't manage to maintain 60fps in some of the newer games when set to max settings at 4K, and that will only get worse with some of the games coming out a year or two from now, so in my opinion 4K isn't really all that practical yet.

Now, in the case of 1440p, there will be much less demand on the GPU to maintain at least 60fps, though if you want to push higher frame rates in newer games on a 144Hz screen, you will still want a faster graphics card. You might also want a faster CPU as well though, since at higher frame rates, CPU performance can also become a limiting factor, depending on the game. Ideally, you would look for something with not only more cores/threads, since some newer games are starting to make use of them, but also with higher performance per core, so that the CPU is less likely to be holding back the graphics card's performance when in the 100+ fps range. Something like a six-core i5-8000 series processor might be a good option since they not only have more cores, but also offer notably more performance per-core than your current processor. The 8000 series i7s also add Hyperthreading, but that doesn't really do much for today's games, and it will probably be a number of years before games benefit much from having more threads than what the six-core i5s offer.

Of course, you would need a new motherboard and RAM for those processors, which might make upgrading the graphics card within that price range impractical, at least without selling the old card for a reasonable amount. Upgrading the graphics will probably be most important for most games. However, you could probably hold off on a CPU/Motherboard/RAM upgrade for a while, and maybe just go with something like a 3000 series i7 and your existing board and RAM, as was previously suggested. It won't have much higher performance per core, but at least the extra threads could help smooth things out in some games, and even if some games are CPU-limited and don't get much more than 60fps, they should still be rather playable.
 
Jun 12, 2018
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If I buy a i5 8600K, do you think it could last for some years before getting outdated? And what good value MB I should pack with? Lastly, 16GB over 8GB (RAM) would make a significant change?
Thank you very much for your help!
 
I personally believes that 8700 will outlast 8600k, given the relatively similar cost. Current trends with amd and intel happens to increase core count so you will start to see more games starts to take advantages of more cores/threads.
 
16GB will undoubtedly be needed for games eventually. Right now, having more than 8GB can help performance a bit in some games, especially if you are multitasking with other applications like web browsers open at the same time, but otherwise performance with 8GB will typically be fine in nearly all current games. I suspect that within a couple years or so, having more than 8GB will become a requirement in many titles though. The only reason to not get 16GB now, is that the price of RAM has at least doubled from where it was a couple years ago due to something of a shortage. The price has remained high for more than a year though, and it may be a while still before it comes back down to significantly lower levels. This is probably more of an issue for lower-cost builds though.


It might, but it does cost about 30% more. The i7-8700 also boosts slightly higher at stock settings though, and includes a cooler, even if it can't overclock. I wouldn't say it's clear that games will be needing lots of cores relatively soon though. At least for the near future, I suspect most game developers will still attempt to maintain serviceable performance on CPUs with four threads, so a six core processor will probably provide a decent amount of breathing room, even without simultaneous multithreading. It's difficult to determine if that might change when games start getting designed with the next generation of consoles in mind though, which will probably be coming within the next few years.

Again, if someone is going for higher resolutions, a faster graphics card will likely help more though.
 
Jun 12, 2018
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Given these info I think I will go with i5 8600K (240$) and I can update my memory afterwards.
Regarding MB, any Z370 would do the job? I didn't want to spend too much on it.