[SOLVED] Worth upgrading my old PC?

[dt192]

HI all,

I have a budget gaming PC I built years ago with an i7-3770, 16GB DDR3 1600Mhz, GTX560 and a cheap 21.5" 1080p monitor.

I'm now getting a bit old and going a bit blind so am thinking to upgrade to a 1660ti with a 1440p 144Hz 24-27" monitor.

I don't play a lot of games and the one's I do play are not super demanding, over the the last 5 years I've only really played Halo 2, Eldewirito (Halo 3 PC), Old WoW servers and Wolfenstein New Order. I am planning on getting MCC PC when H3 and Reach are added and wouldn't mind playing some more modern shooters, although I don't mind playing them at lowest detail settings as I much prefer fast response over looks.

So the question is...Is it worth upgrading just the graphics card and monitor? Will there be any compatibility issues, like my PC bottle necking my graphics card? Will things like Apex Legends and Overwatch play ok on my old PC with the modern graphics card at 1440p or would I end up having to lower the resolution?

Thanks in advance for your advice

 

[Eximo]

i7-3770 and 16GB is still reasonably quick.

Not sure about the resolution increase, 27" 1080p would make things 'bigger' without effecting performance. 1440p will require a lot more oomph. High refresh rate is fine if you plan on lowering settings to get FPS, though that is when you will run into CPU issues. No reason not to buy the high refresh display, you can always upgrade the CPU/MB/RAM at a later time.

Resolution is mostly about graphics horsepower, the game engine is the limitation for CPUs primarily. So games like WoW probably won't see as much improvement as your shooter games with a new GPU, but at some point the FPS will be limited by the CPU's output.

I would say anything up to a GTX2060 is probably fine for an i7-3770 or a 1660Ti. That won't net you the best possible performance, but you wouldn't be limiting the GPU too much, especially if you cranked the graphics settings up rather than down.

 

[dt192]

Many thanks for the response.

I've just been having a look at the price of used graphics cards and my only choice as far as price would be either GTX1080 (non ti) or 1660TI.

I've had a look at various game benchmark charts at 1440p/1080p and there seems to be little difference between the two cards, with the 1080 coming out on top just about.

Any reason to pick the GTX1660Ti over the GTX1080?

 

[dudeman509]

Any reason to pick the GTX1660Ti over the GTX1080?

Power consumption/efficiency/heat output. Faster VRAM.

The 1080 still has a slight performance advantage in most current games, and more VRAM to boot.

It's mostly a toss up.

 

[Eximo]

I have a GTX1080 and it does 1440p well enough that I am not considering an upgrade to the 16 or 20 series. I will hold out for the next release from Nvidia. (Running my memory at 10400Mhz, effective)

If you can wrangle one of the GTX1080 with 11000Mhz memory, then it would be that much closer to the 12000Mhz of the 1660Ti.

The 20 series are the ones running 14000Mhz memory.