What part should I upgrade?

[SonicSnipe]

Currently running:

Intel i5-4690k @ 3.50GHz
2x4GB DDR3 @ 800MHz
Asus Maximus VI Hero (Socket 1150)
EVGA GTX 970

Got some extra money, don't mind upgrading, just want the most bang for my buck.

 

[Guest]

Those specs are already decent. Why do you want to upgrade and what's your budget?

 

[SonicSnipe]

Idk, I recently picked up 144hz 1080p monitor, want to run things max and hold a consistent 144 frames. Budget is 300-400

 

[Outlander_04]

do you have an SSD , decent cooling?

Game performance increase will come from a new graphics card . Probably the GTX 1070

 

[SonicSnipe]

My cooling is stock, idk if it's great. No SSD.

 

[metathias]

Maybe upgrade your ram. 8gigs is a tad on the low side for modern games. Or consider getting a reasonably priced SSD. Could get a nicer cooler, and overclock your CPU, Those go up pretty easy to the mid 4ghz range. Obviously stay away from a video card upgrade until the 10 series are out the door.

 

[Guest]

The GTX 1070 is coming out on June 10th, at $379. Then you can sell your GTX 970, and double your RAM to 16GB. You should still have enough left to get a SSD and a new cooler (recommend 212 EVO if it will fit) with the money from the 970.

Your CPU and Motherboard are decent so I would stick with those.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If that's the case, then I'd suggest you save a few more bucks, and wait a couple of weeks for the new Pascal 1070 card to release. That's about the only thing that's going to be an even remotely worthwhile upgrade from what you currently have and be even slightly close to the budget you've outlined.

 

[SteelCity1981]

i would upgrade the gpu to a gtx 1070 when it comes out. i mean you already have a decent rig as is upgrading to a skylake rig isn't going to give you any real performance gain that you are looking for, you maybe looking at 10% if that clock for clock going with skylake over haswell. the noticeable performance gain will be going from a gtx 970 to a gtx 1070. thats where you should put your money towards.

 

[Darkbreeze]

The GTX 1070 is coming out on June 10th, at $379.

No, it's not. That price is for stripped down models without cooling and from what I've been able to determine those are the AiB partner prices. Reference models are more expensive and aftermarket models, which is what you'll want, will likely be even more expensive.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Bottom line here is that an SSD isn't going to increase your frame rates, and neither is an upgrade to any of the current CPU platforms considering what you already have. A higher tiered GPU card is the only thing that's going to get you where you want to be, or even close to it, and it's going to cost more than 400 bucks to do it. AND, as close as we are to the release of the 1070 and 1080, even if they only have a fraction of the performance increase that's hinted at in the latest Nvidia propaganda, it's still probably the best option and certainly a better option than a 600 dollar 980TI, if it does in fact end up outperforming it. I'd wait, and see what shakes out over the next couple of weeks once a few legitimate reviews are released.

 

[aberiggs]

The GTX 1070 is coming out on June 10th, at $379.

No, it's not. That price is for stripped down models without cooling and from what I've been able to determine those are the AiB partner prices. Reference models are more expensive and aftermarket models, which is what you'll want, will likely be even more expensive.

What do you mean stripped down prices??? That was what they announced for the price???

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you take the time to read the quote, the same one you quoted, you'll see it says "stripped down models", NOT "stripped down prices".

And, that is not what they announced for the price. They said that was the price for a bare board, meant for those Add In Board partners (EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte, Etc.) that will then add their own features and cooling to those components and sell them as aftermarket models. The reference cards, now apparently called "Founders editions", are supposedly going to be somewhere around 100 dollars more than a bare card. Aftermarket models will likely be more like 150 dollars more, but that is merely an assumption since there are none on the market yet to verify the fact.