• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Best graphics card match for a 4790k?

Associate
Joined
9 Jan 2006
Posts
1,375
Hello any and all,

I'm looking to do an upgrade from a 970gtx for gaming at 1080p. I know my CPU will bottleneck anything too powerful, but ideally i'd like to get another year or so out of the platform before doing a full rebuild. I've been exceptionally pleased with the 4790k over the years, but the 970gtx is starting to flag a bit and is certainly the weak link in the pairing.

I know prices are bonkers right now, and availability scarce, but were they not, what card would you guys recommend? It wouldn't necessarily have to be a current gen card, but in an ideal world it would be something with enough overhead that when I do build a new system i could potentially keep the same card for a bit. I have a mid range Corsair 750w PSU, so power shouldn't be an issue.

The specific game I want to max out is Mechwarriors 5

Your help is much appreciated.

Man from Uncle
 
Associate
Joined
7 Feb 2014
Posts
1,482
Location
Lancashire
Just buy the best card you can, no need to pair it with your CPU. Best card would obviously be the 3090.
4790K is still pretty decent for gaming IMO. My old one overclocked better than my current 7700K.
If I were you I would get a 3070 or 3080 if you can get hold of one :)
 
Associate
Joined
11 Dec 2005
Posts
1,017
Location
Brighton
What about a 980Ti? I have seen a few in the low £200s in the bay.

there are better options but the prices are crazy!

PS: I have also an opteron 170 (or maybe 165, have to check) and Asus A8n- deLuxe ;) both in boxes :(
 
Associate
Joined
10 Feb 2021
Posts
608
Hello any and all,

I'm looking to do an upgrade from a 970gtx for gaming at 1080p. I know my CPU will bottleneck anything too powerful, but ideally i'd like to get another year or so out of the platform before doing a full rebuild. I've been exceptionally pleased with the 4790k over the years, but the 970gtx is starting to flag a bit and is certainly the weak link in the pairing.

I know prices are bonkers right now, and availability scarce, but were they not, what card would you guys recommend? It wouldn't necessarily have to be a current gen card, but in an ideal world it would be something with enough overhead that when I do build a new system i could potentially keep the same card for a bit. I have a mid range Corsair 750w PSU, so power shouldn't be an issue.

The specific game I want to max out is Mechwarriors 5

Your help is much appreciated.

Man from Uncle
My i7-4790k + GTX970 build lasted me a solid 6 years with the only 'upgrades' it had over the entire time being additional SSD space.
Its my '2nd rig' now, but was probably the "best" PC I ever built. Everything worked perfectly, ran everything perfectly. Was silent and small to boot.

New rig is obviously much faster and better, but its birth hasnt been as painless.

This site has a 'bottle neck calculator' https://pc-builds.com/

Shows a 1.38% bottle neck for the 970, so a "perfect match"

Going up to a 3080 shows a 40%+ bottleneck. Not sure what that actually equates to in terms of FPS or anything.

At 1080p you are going to be more CPU bound, so probably would notice a high end GPU being limited more than if you gamed at 4k.

Given the currently GPU climate.... Id say get whatever you can at a reasonable price. Its not a buyers market right now.
If you can hold out, and play the games you want to on the 970 then do that as long as you can.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Jan 2005
Posts
8,429
Location
leeds
i'm still using a 4790k (clocked to 4.6) and a 1070Ti - still good enough for me at 1440p.

not like i have much of a choice - as you say prices are stupid and i don't see me getting a new gpu for quite a while at this rate.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
9 Jan 2006
Posts
1,375
What about a 980Ti? I have seen a few in the low £200s in the bay.

there are better options but the prices are crazy!

PS: I have also an opteron 170 (or maybe 165, have to check) and Asus A8n- deLuxe ;) both in boxes :(

Ah yes. Haven't updated the signature in......well over 10 years. I do remember the deLuxe. I think i actually went from the deLuxe to the Premium when i upgraded from the opteron 147, because I think it was slightly more stable with the bigger volts. But I could be wrong.

The 980ti might be an option (it was the ideal partner of the 4790k when they were both in their prime), but I think the CPU can handle more before becoming the problem.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
25 Oct 2002
Posts
31,707
Location
Hampshire
Not totally convinced by that bottleneck calculator, it claims a HD7950 will work great with a Ryzen 1600 at 4k resolution. Yet change the CPU to e.g. a Ryzen 1700 and all of a sudden the GPU is too weak for 1080p?
The 7950 will definitely be more of a bottleneck at 4k than 1080p IMO.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
9 Jan 2006
Posts
1,375
Given the currently GPU climate.... Id say get whatever you can at a reasonable price. Its not a buyers market right now. If you can hold out, and play the games you want to on the 970 then do that as long as you can.

That's what I've been doing, but specifically Mechwarrriors 5 can't quite run as well as I'd like at 1080p. The higher graphical options are too nice and the performance hit too heavy if I turn them on. There's an expansion coming out in a few weeks and I want to play again with the best experience my current platform can offer.
 
Associate
Joined
17 Jul 2011
Posts
1,740
That's what I've been doing, but specifically Mechwarrriors 5 can't quite run as well as I'd like at 1080p. The higher graphical options are too nice and the performance hit too heavy if I turn them on. There's an expansion coming out in a few weeks and I want to play again with the best experience my current platform can offer.

Any good card will run things well ... as far as mechwarrior 5 goes ... last year when it was released I played it via a 970gtx ran ... ok then upgraded to a 5700xt ran much better (1440p) (all on my 2700k intel) this is my go to resolution when playing. Now I have a 6700xt and will be playing again once the dlc is released; hadnt played in over a year.
I tested my 6700xt on my older 2700k intel (which yours is a better processor) - and the 6700xt was better I cant remember the timespy scores but the 6700xt over the 970gtx was significant and Im sure it would run your mechwarrior 5 at 1440p nicely.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
9 Jan 2006
Posts
1,375
Any good card will run things well ... as far as mechwarrior 5 goes ... last year when it was released I played it via a 970gtx ran ... ok then upgraded to a 5700xt ran much better (1440p) (all on my 2700k intel) this is my go to resolution when playing. Now I have a 6700xt and will be playing again once the dlc is released; hadnt played in over a year.
I tested my 6700xt on my older 2700k intel (which yours is a better processor) - and the 6700xt was better I cant remember the timespy scores but the 6700xt over the 970gtx was significant and Im sure it would run your mechwarrior 5 at 1440p nicely.

I'm envious. The gtx 970 plays the game ok at high-ish settings 1080p, but I could even see the difference in quality and frame rate on the same monitor when watching a stream of someone playing it with everything set to the absolute max. Man, I love a stompy robot.

Back on point though, did you see a major improvement with the 5700xt/6700xt when you went from the 2700k to the 3900x?
 
Last edited:
Caporegime
Joined
8 Nov 2008
Posts
28,997
Not totally convinced by that bottleneck calculator, it claims a HD7950 will work great with a Ryzen 1600 at 4k resolution. Yet change the CPU to e.g. a Ryzen 1700 and all of a sudden the GPU is too weak for 1080p?
The 7950 will definitely be more of a bottleneck at 4k than 1080p IMO.

I was thinking something along the same lines. Interestingly, though, what did catch my eye was the suggestion that, apparently, a more suitable amount of ram would be 64GB for the 3900X.

I do see usage creep well into the 20s sometimes, though I don't know if just chucking in more would end up with Windows simply allocating additional resources - but not necessarily using much/any...
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
13,997
Location
Sandwich, Kent
Buying now, with overhead in GPU performance for a future system is crazy. You'd be much better buying the whole rest of the future system now, and holding off on the GPU till later.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Oct 2019
Posts
11,656
Location
Uk
Buying now, with overhead in GPU performance for a future system is crazy. You'd be much better buying the whole rest of the future system now, and holding off on the GPU till later.

OP would still get better performance with the current system and a new GPU vs the 970 with a new CPU although with the money 4790k's still fetch I'd still be tempted selling the MB/CPU/ram and replacing with a B560/11400F/ram which should give a nice boost while also costing very little in terms of net spend and sitting on that for a year or two till the DDR5 platforms mature.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
13,997
Location
Sandwich, Kent
OP would still get better performance with the current system and a new GPU vs the 970 with a new CPU although with the money 4790k's still fetch I'd still be tempted selling the MB/CPU/ram and replacing with a B560/11400F/ram which should give a nice boost while also costing very little in terms of net spend and sitting on that for a year or two till the DDR5 platforms mature.
No doubt. But have you not noticed that GPUs are pretty ridiculously priced at the moment. Instead of spending £1000 on a 2080ti now, spend £600 on the rest of the system and wait for £400 to buy a decent 2nd had graphics card later once the mining bubble bursts.
 
Back
Top Bottom