3rd gen i7 upgrade advice

rubaduck

rubaduck

rubaduck

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Hi,

I currently have an i7 3770 with 16GB DDR3, gigabyte motherboard and running an old but faithful 770 GTX 2GB.

Just sold my imac so am toying with the idea of upgrading my CPU, Memory and Motherboard and maybe a graphics card also but with a max budget of £500. I have a really good PSU so i don't have to factor that in the price.

I'm asking here as I've read and watched so many conflicting reviews on motherboards that I don't know what to get now. Gaming wise i only play WoW or Diablo 3 but might like to play a newer title if it grasps me with both hands and says 'Buy me now!'. I do like to run a few virtual machines just for testing purposes etc but thats not a biggie as i have my laptop for that.

CPU wise im stuck between the Ryzen 5 2600 or 1700 (just for those extra cores), totally lost with the motherboard but after reading really bad reviews i do want to stay away from the MSI Tomahawk.

This is what i was looking at last night but was just after some expert advice and is it actually worth upgrading my GPU seeing that i only play old games?

MSI B450M Gaming Plus
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3000Mhz
AMD Ryzen 2600

If i had to upgrade my GPU i was maybe looking at this:

MSI AMD RX 580 Armor 8G OC

Thanks in advance for any replies.
 
rubaduck said:
Hi,

I currently have an i7 3770 with 16GB DDR3, gigabyte motherboard and running an old but faithful 770 GTX 2GB.

Just sold my imac so am toying with the idea of upgrading my CPU, Memory and Motherboard and maybe a graphics card also but with a max budget of £500. I have a really good PSU so i don't have to factor that in the price.

I'm asking here as I've read and watched so many conflicting reviews on motherboards that I don't know what to get now. Gaming wise i only play WoW or Diablo 3 but might like to play a newer title if it grasps me with both hands and says 'Buy me now!'. I do like to run a few virtual machines just for testing purposes etc but thats not a biggie as i have my laptop for that.

CPU wise im stuck between the Ryzen 5 2600 or 1700 (just for those extra cores), totally lost with the motherboard but after reading really bad reviews i do want to stay away from the MSI Tomahawk.

This is what i was looking at last night but was just after some expert advice and is it actually worth upgrading my GPU seeing that i only play old games?

MSI B450M Gaming Plus
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3000Mhz
AMD Ryzen 2600

If i had to upgrade my GPU i was maybe looking at this:

MSI AMD RX 580 Armor 8G OC

Thanks in advance for any replies.
Click to expand...

2600 is a side grade and worse if gaming at 1080p , specially if your games can run via DX12 the i7 4 core clocked at 4.5ghz will be the faster CPU hands down

found video of DX11 VS DX12 with i7 4c/8t overclocked


also the more powerful the card at 1080p, the stronger the CPU needs to be and where currently Intel pull away from AMD

save cash and see how Ryzen 3000 turns out in July and grab GPU to last a good while

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £279.89 (includes shipping: £9.90)​
​


RX 590 if youve got a good 550w PSU and large 1440p screen to up the resolution and view more on the field

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £451.24 (includes shipping: £12.30)​
​
 
Hi Orbital and thanks for the reply. I was thinking after watching quite a few reviews that the Ryzen 2600 wasnt worth it but was afraid that If i bought quite a good GPU then it would just bottleneck.

Took a look at the 1660Ti but thought it was overkill for my needs but it will definitely future proof me. Just found a new Zotac Mini 1070 8GB for 229. Is the 1660TI worth the extra 40?

Just off to watch that DX11 vs 12 vid.

Thanks again.
 
3770 is a pritty decent CPU, dumping it is a small upgrade for quite a bit of cash.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-3770-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-2600/1979vs3955

GPU is a majour bottleneck in your system, and dont think a 1660ti is overkill.
If anything you could drop a 2070 in your rig and it would still be adding quite a bit more preformance over the 1660ti. In your shoes, I'd count my pennies, and then decide between:

Either
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-770-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1660-Ti/2174vs4037
OR
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-770-vs-Nvidia-RTX-2070/2174vs4029

25% boost vs a 179% boost? Decision is obvious to me. You can probably afford one with a £500 budget too.
 
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Cooler running said:
3770 is a pritty decent CPU, dumping it is a small upgrade for quite a bit of cash.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-3770-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-2600/1979vs3955

GPU is a majour bottleneck in your system, and dont think a 1660ti is overkill.
If anything you could drop a 2070 in your rig and it would still be adding quite a bit more preformance over the 1660ti. In your shoes, I'd count my pennies, and then decide between:

Either
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-770-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1660-Ti/2174vs4037
OR
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-770-vs-Nvidia-RTX-2070/2174vs4029

25% boost vs a 179% boost? Decision is obvious to me. You can probably afford one with a £500 budget too.
Click to expand...

In the real world though there is no actual way that a 2070 represents that kind of increase over a 1660Ti so it's a little bit misleading. Yes it significantly faster but those numbers aren't representative in any way. If we say a 1660Ti is 25% faster than a 770 (subjectively) then are we really saying that the user would experience an additional c.150% increase on top of that with a 2070? No and we all know it. It would be much more helpful to compare the 770 to the 1660Ti, using wahtever metric you want and then think about comparing THAT to the 2070.

A 1660Ti isn't that much slower than a 2060, which in turn is only about what 25% slower than a 2070 at best? Surely that is a more realistic comparison. Is a 2070 worth paying 75% more than a 1660Ti? yes for some, no for others but it does come down to what you need/want.
 
Hi,

Thanks for all your advice. I ended up getting the AOC 31.5" (thanks oribital) for a bargain price of £163 and an MSI RX 580 8GB Armor as i saw a power washer that was going for a bargain so it dug into my funds. Random huh? :D That should last me a few years now and hopefully make my World of Warcraft look a bit better. I meant the Graphics card and not the power washer :)

Thanks again.
 
tamzzy said:
i've got that monitor. best value monitor currently on the market, barring the parallel imports with minimal warranty.
Click to expand...
What's the bleed and glare like @tamzzy (i realise this will vary from panel to panel)?

The reason i ask is someone i know wants to upgrade to a much larger monitor and has mixed needs and specific budget. I'm loathed to recommend a TN panel as he uses photoshop when he's not casually gaming - so was looking at 'ideally' IPS or VA (honestly thought a semi-decent IPS would be a non starter at that size)

On price it seems too good to be true - but would value your thoughts/experience with it, as you seem to have an attention to detail bordering on obsession like the rest of us.
 
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@Plec liveable would probably be the right word for it.
as with any budget product, quality is variable, so luck of the draw.
i did swap a couple of screens with their RMA due to dead pixels/backlight bleed. good thing with AOC is that they have a grade 1 panel policy (rather than grade 2) so anything more than 1 dead pixel is RMA-able.
on all the screens there's BLB worst affected in the bottom corners - currently mine's worst on the bottom left side. the other 3 sides aren't noticeable unless one goes hunting for it.
when my screen is black, the BLB noticeable if the room is dark, but not noticeable when there's daylight in the room. it's not noticeable on anything lighter than black.
 
tamzzy said:
>speaketh the truth<
Click to expand...
Thanks @tamzzy - sounds a solid, 'restrained', recommendation for the money/panel/size, appreciated.
tamzzy said:
when my screen is black, the BLB noticeable if the room is dark, but not noticeable when there's daylight in the room. it's not noticeable on anything lighter than black.
Click to expand...
Even the Dell UtraSharps suffer from this - that's a pass - and, as you mention, you only notice it when you hunt for faults on first receipt. I have had one Dell panel that i would class as 'verging' on perfect...
 
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@Plec at the end of the day, it's a ~£200 panel (i got it for £174, OP got it for £163 :p), so not expecting quality of a £1000 panel. (although that being said, even these said £1000 screens have QC issues themselves! lol)
for what it is - 1440p, 31.5 inch, IPS, 75hz freesync - unbeatable value, as long as you're on the right side of the panel lottery :D
 
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