Question Which card should I get? Should I even bother?

[Wonderclam]

My budget is around $500. I can go a bit higher, too, if warranted.

Here are my speccs. I was thinking of upgrading my videcoard. Is it worth upgrading noting this is what I'm rocking with? Will all my other stuff bottleneck my GPU?

I'm leaning towards Nvidia, but if AMD is that much better price to performance ratio-wise, then I have no problem going with an AMD card.

I'm trying to play Fallout 4 and I dont like the sub 60FPS I'm getting when I'm out it the open world. Also, I have a 24" monitor that's 1920x1080 which I'm not getting rid of any time soon. Should help a lot in FPS since I'm betting most of the new cards are geared towards 1440 and up.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the EXACT model of your current power supply, and how long has it been in service?

 

[Wonderclam]

PC Power and Cooling 610 EPS12v power supply. I've had it maybe 8 years and the PC is on 24/7

Zero issues. PC&C used to be the top dog PSU, but that was when I was heavily into PCs back during the MaximumPC era

 

[Wonderclam]

so far, Im leaning towards RTX 2070 and if I purchase ritht now on Amazon, I get it tomorrow

 

[EndEffeKt_24]

Are you sure that you are gpu limited? I would lean more towards a platform upgrade. RAM, CPU, motherboard and a new psu. GTX 970 is ok for 1080p.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Yeah, I'm also thinking your i5 is a little dated. Games are moving toward multi core these days.

 

[Wonderclam]

Didn't think my CPU would be outdated this quick, I just built it 2 years ago, while I've been just transfering my videocard during my last 2 builds... and I don't build a new PC that often

Anyway, I just bought this off Amazon and I'm thinking of building around a PC around this videocard when I get my tax refund

I get the new card tomorrow

 

[Darkbreeze]

The FIRST thing you should have done, and let me just say congratulations on being wise enough to choose an EVGA graphics card if you're going to go Nvidia, but really you are in serious need of a power supply at if you were seeing issues with a lack of performance on your GTX 970 there's a very good chance it was due to inadequate power delivery.

And even if you were NOT seeing that, and were just feeling the itch and a desire for a bump up to something newer and better, let me just say that you would be VERY wise to not run that new graphics card on ANY power supply that old, especially when it's a unit that only had a five year warranty so is clearly long past it's intended life expectancy.

Truthfully, that unit is probably more like 10-14 years old since ALL the reviews of that Silencer 610 EPS 12v unit are from back around 2008 and I know they didn't continue making that model for more than about two or three years, at most, before it was superceded by the Silencer MKII in 2010. It HAS to be at least 9 years old and that's about four years more than it should have be trusted to continue being in use for with any hardware you value and would like to see stick around. Literally, being as old as it is, whether it actually currently has any obvious faults or not, it should be discarded because it is definitively at the age where capacitor failure is no longer an "if" but a "when". As are likely some of the components that make up the protections in that unit. It could die with a whimper but it could just as well be more of a hammer to the forehead of your graphics card or motherboard or simply a potential fire unto itself that lets out some magic smoke and gets rid of some of that unnecessary plastic insulation on those pesky cables.

Seriously though, definitely not worth taking ANY kind of risk with a brand new 500+ dollar investment, when a very good, safe, replacement unit can be had for around 80-100 bucks.

I would absolutely not use that card until you replace that power supply. A GOOD 550-650w unit should be plenty for that or any system using that card, if you are not doing any significant overclocking of any kind. Might want a 650-750w unit if you do plan to do so.

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As far as the platform goes, I'd have to agree that you should not be seeing any GPU limitations at 1080p with the GTX 970. The 2070 Super is more like a 1440p card, but you certainly won't be GPU limited at 1080p no matter what game you are playing with it. Probably, any limitations you have are FPS limitations and those are going to be due to your fairly old, low core count i5. Practically ANY current mainstream Ryzen or Intel CPU will be a good choice by comparison.

 

[Wonderclam]

Welp...

I was getting the same FPS as my old videocard, even after I bought a new Thermaltake PSU...

.. turns out it was all game settings. I had to change some numbers in the fallout .ini file..

.. now I got a new $550 videocard and a $120 PSU

 

[EndEffeKt_24]

Yeah thats a lesson on pulling the trigger too fast. But in the end there is no real damage done. You got a new gpu and more important a new psu (thank god).

You now can decide if you want to keep the gpu or refund it. Its a good piece of hardware and will serve you well the next couple of years with a new platform.

 

[rolli59]

Only problem there is the brand of the PSU.

 

[Darkbreeze]

The brand of the PSU isn't NECESSARILY a problem, depending on the model. If it's one of the various Toughpower grand models, then it's probably a good unit, but even so you undoubtedly overpaid for it. For 120-160 bucks you could have purchased a Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum or Titanium and had what is arguably the best consumer power supply currently being sold.

Besides which, as has been said several times in this thread, your graphics card rarely has a lot to do with FPS. FPS is almost always a product of CPU performance especially when we already know, and we did, that the graphics card in question is more than capable enough for the resolution. If you want to increase your FPS beyond whatever you were able to gain by making some settings changes, upgrade the CPU or platform.