GTX 580 in SLI Vs Xbox S - advice needed

BobMarley69 · 11 Dec 2019 at 18:35

Hi guys,

I have an old PC which has been unused for a while, and I'd just like to know how this will hold up for modern games in 1080p.

The PC's specs are:

- I7 2600k (may be 2700k but I think it's 2600k)
- Two GTX 580 MSI lightnings with 3GB VRAM running in SLI
- 16GB DDR3 RAM

IIRC the CPU was overclocked to 4Ghz

How would this compare to the Xbox in running Forza Horizon 4?

How would it compare generally speaking for modern games now? The PC was built in 2011 and I worry about how it will hold up.

I don't want to spend any more money on hardware though so I'd just like to get people's thoughts on how it compares.

Any help would be much appreciated. Cheers!

Xystophori · 11 Dec 2019 at 20:55

Might wan't a new processor and gpu

BobMarley69 · 11 Dec 2019 at 21:33

Xystophori said:
Might wan't a new processor and gpu

Do you think it's necessary mate?

How will a pc with that spec hold up to modern games in 1080p?

Xystophori · 11 Dec 2019 at 21:48

Not sure I would test it first and see if it has reasonable performance

Minibiker · 11 Dec 2019 at 22:07

Some people on here are still rocking that i7 processor... With its quad core and 8 threads it will still do a great job in games, if you don't mind knocking a few settings down.. If you was to change anything I'd recommend GPU first

BobMarley69 · 11 Dec 2019 at 22:58

Minibiker said:
Some people on here are still rocking that i7 processor... With its quad core and 8 threads it will still do a great job in games, if you don't mind knocking a few settings down.. If you was to change anything I'd recommend GPU first

Do you know how it'd perform?

I have an Xbox S that I can buy for £80, so it's a no brainer vs a hardware upgrade to the PC which would cost several hundred.

The Xbox S isn't as powerful as the X, but I only have a 1080p monitor so I'm not sure what to do really, to be honest.

Minibiker · 12 Dec 2019 at 07:29

BobMarley69 said:
Do you know how it'd perform?

I have an Xbox S that I can buy for £80, so it's a no brainer vs a hardware upgrade to the PC which would cost several hundred.

The Xbox S isn't as powerful as the X, but I only have a 1080p monitor so I'm not sure what to do really, to be honest.

If you have around £80 to spend, I've seen a few RX570 going for around that price, that would sort your PC out

Joxeon · 12 Dec 2019 at 07:50

Minibiker said:
If you have around £80 to spend, I've seen a few RX570 going for around that price, that would sort your PC out

Selling his 580s would probably raise that.

bimbleuk · 12 Dec 2019 at 08:02

You should be able to get £150 or more for the bits on Ebay. Just sold two i5 3xxx processors for £30 quid each and they were priced to sell quickly (hmm actually both went in a hour!). Expecting to get ~£40 for a HD5870.

i5-3570K + HD5870 could still play games like Fornite at 1080p with 50 fps so still capable but the 2GB VRAM on the HD5870 was a big limiter.

I'd sell the bits and put it towards a console or more modern CPU/GPU/mobo/RAM combo or as suggested just the 2 x GTX 580s to start with and try a more recent single GPU.

Average Ebay Price Checker suggests possibly £50 per GTX 580.

Threepwood · 12 Dec 2019 at 08:33

Why don't you try it?

bimbleuk · 12 Dec 2019 at 08:37

As above not sure if you need Win10 but there's a trial for Horizon 4.

BobMarley69 · 12 Dec 2019 at 15:00

bimbleuk said:
As above not sure if you need Win10 but there's a trial for Horizon 4.

bimbleuk said:
You should be able to get £150 or more for the bits on Ebay. Just sold two i5 3xxx processors for £30 quid each and they were priced to sell quickly (hmm actually both went in a hour!). Expecting to get ~£40 for a HD5870.

i5-3570K + HD5870 could still play games like Fornite at 1080p with 50 fps so still capable but the 2GB VRAM on the HD5870 was a big limiter.

I'd sell the bits and put it towards a console or more modern CPU/GPU/mobo/RAM combo or as suggested just the 2 x GTX 580s to start with and try a more recent single GPU.

Average Ebay Price Checker suggests possibly £50 per GTX 580.

I have an 1155 socket on the motherboard, would I have to buy a new motherboard too?

Depressing this really. When this pc was built in 2011 in was worth almost £1500. Now it's no more useful than an £80 Xbox, surely that can't be right?

BobMarley69 · 12 Dec 2019 at 15:03

bimbleuk said:
As above not sure if you need Win10 but there's a trial for Horizon 4.

Oh god, that didn't even occur to me.

The PC has windows 7. So I'm going to have to spend on a new operating system I don't need or want just to be able to play it?

I can't get my head around how a system that was aimed at being future proof and cost so much at the time, can be less useful than a sub £100 Xbox now. I thought it'd be alright

snips86x · 12 Dec 2019 at 15:07

It all depends on what games you're playing. There are modern titles that will max out the 4c/4t CPUs causing stuttering ingame (my brother had this issue due to 100% CPU usage). I would be looking at a GPU upgrade and then if you have performance issues, upgrading the CPU/Mobo/RAM.

Also, you don't need to spend lots on a Win 10 upgrade. You can still get Win 10 for free or pay £2-3 for a key off the bay.

Armageus · 12 Dec 2019 at 15:22

BobMarley69 said:
I can't get my head around how a system that was aimed at being future proof and cost so much at the time, can be less useful than a sub £100 Xbox now. I thought it'd be alright

Eh? Try playing Forza Horizon 4 on a ~2011 vintage XBox... oh wait you can't.

Threepwood said:
Why don't you try it?

Massively underrated comment.

It will probably work, given that the minimum graphics card recommendation for Horizon 4 include GTX650ti/GT740/R7 250x, which are all much less powerful cards than a GTX580, especially if you do indeed have the 3GB Models.

Indeed a quick look suggests that the GTX580 holds up reasonably well against newer budget cards:
https://www.techspot.com/article/1565-geforce-gtx-580-eight-years-later/

Forza Horizon 4 PC minimum requirements

OS: Windows 10 version 15063.0 or higher

DirectX: DirectX 12 API

Memory: 8GB

VRAM: 2GB

Processor: Intel i3-4170 @ 3.7Ghz or Intel i5 750 @ 2.67Ghz

Graphics card: Nvidia GTX 650 Ti or Nvidia GT 740 or AMD R7 250x

bimbleuk · 12 Dec 2019 at 15:55

i7 2600K is 2nd gen and we are on the 10th gen so there's a lot of hardware out there now despite the CPU still being very capable of many tasks. My brothers i5-3570K system was still playing many games quite happily but lack of RAM and the HD5870 with only 2GB VRAM. Then it died!

So now he has my i7-5280K + GTX 980 Ti and that's everything fine at 2560 x 1080. I'm still on another i7-5820K @ 4GHz + 1080 Ti and that doesn't suffer any stutter on modern games probably due being one of the first affordable 6 core processors.

Check this article out though and a good match is a GTX 1070 or RX580 and even when tested with a 1080 Ti it was still 60fps+ in just about all games which compares very well with consoles.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1546-intel-2nd-gen-core-i7-vs-8th-gen/

BobMarley69 · 12 Dec 2019 at 15:58

snips86x said:
It all depends on what games you're playing. There are modern titles that will max out the 4c/4t CPUs causing stuttering ingame (my brother had this issue due to 100% CPU usage). I would be looking at a GPU upgrade and then if you have performance issues, upgrading the CPU/Mobo/RAM.

Also, you don't need to spend lots on a Win 10 upgrade. You can still get Win 10 for free or pay £2-3 for a key off the bay.

How would you get it for free mate? I've never installed an operating system over an existing one, how easy is it?

Armageus said:
Eh? Try playing Forza Horizon 4 on a ~2011 vintage XBox... oh wait you can't.

Have you misunderstood mate?

On what planet is a pc worth well north of £1k equivalent to an Xbox of the same gen?

My point was that you would expect an 8 year old high end over £1k pc to stand it's ground vs an entry level present day Xbox you can get for sub £100.

Otherwise what's the point of spending all that money? Where's the investment?

Armageus said:
Eh? Try playing Forza Horizon 4 on a ~2011 vintage XBox... oh wait you can't.

Massively underrated comment.

It will probably work, given that the minimum graphics card recommendation for Horizon 4 include GTX650ti/GT740/R7 250x, which are all much less powerful cards than a GTX580, especially if you do indeed have the 3GB Models.

Indeed a quick look suggests that the GTX580 holds up reasonably well against newer budget cards:
https://www.techspot.com/article/1565-geforce-gtx-580-eight-years-later/

Thanks for the link.

So I may he alright, but I'll have to download windows 10 for definite it seems?

snips86x · 12 Dec 2019 at 16:08

BobMarley69 said:
How would you get it for free mate? I've never installed an operating system over an existing one, how easy is it?

MS are still offering win 10 upgrades from win 7 for free as a 'windows update'

https://www.howtogeek.com/266072/yo...ws-10-for-free-with-a-windows-7-8-or-8.1-key/

Armageus · 12 Dec 2019 at 16:28

BobMarley69 said:
Have you misunderstood mate?

Not at all

BobMarley69 said:
On what planet is a pc worth well north of £1k equivalent to an Xbox of the same gen?

They were both designed for the games that were around in 2011?

BobMarley69 said:
My point was that you would expect an 8 year old high end over £1k pc to stand it's ground vs an entry level present day Xbox you can get for sub £100.

No I wouldn't - 8 year old tech is 8 years old, things have moved on in the PC world. If you want a fixed platform for gaming that only needs updating every 5 years or so then you absolutely should buy a console.

BobMarley69 said:
Otherwise what's the point of spending all that money? Where's the investment?

Because when you invested in a high end PC in 2011, the graphics capability was hugely better than the equivalent console at the time (XBox 360), You would have been playing at 1080P Max settings, vs a console that managed at best 720P.

The point of spending "all that money" is to get a better experience now - longevity isn't guaranteed. If all you want is console quality graphics, then there was no need to spend all that money - it could have been done at the time for much less.

John Summon · 12 Dec 2019 at 16:44

Get both, Xbox for £80 can't go wrong!