Looking to upgrade my 2013 PC!!

[Ground7even]

Hi all,

I am looking to upgrade my PC (probably in stages because I'm financialy challenged)
Last upgraded it in October 2013 xD

I'm looking to start off with my Graphics Card - I only tend to use my PC for gaming and minor work projects using MC packages and photo editing.

I originally built my PC with the help of a friend who's now 200+ miles away, so any help you could give me would be really appreciated.

I want to upgrade to a fairly decent Geforce RTX 2060 - around about the £350 mark, but I'm not even sure if my current specs would support this new part - could anyone advise?

Here are my current specs;


Gainward GeForce GTX 770 Phantom 4GB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel i7-4770K 3.5GHZ (Haswell) LGA1150 Processor
Asus Z87 Maximus VI Hero Intel Z87 (Socket 1150)DDR3 ATX Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHZ Dual Channel Memory
Corsair 650w TX Series w/120mm fan
Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler
Viewsonic VA2213W 22" TFT 300cd/m2 16000:1 5ms

 

[Ground7even]

What resolution is your current monitor and do you plan on upgrading your monitor to a higher resolution or framerate?
Also what PSU do you have and how old is it?

Hi NovaKill, thanks for the response - really is appreciated.

I run my monitor in standard 1920x1080p - Viewsonic VA2213W 22" TFT 300cd/m2 16000:1 5ms
Defo planning on upgrading it post-graphics card.

My PS is 6 years old! Corsair 650w TX Series w/120mm fan.

Cheers,
James

 

[Ground7even]

Firstly, thank you all - this is really useful info.

current CPU would be fine with rtx 2080 - would help if you overclock it . would then give rise to seeing how ryzen 3000 fairs against it in July (Reveal end of May)

any current games your playing, play at DX12 if you can as will give a healthy boost to your CPU and FPS

@orbitalwalsh I've OC'd it to approx 3.8GHZ w/the motherboard's assistance - not sure if this is a great OC level for an i7 4770k?
On a Low/Med/High/Ultra I'm still averaging 50fps on high settings on most games, altho the 770 is struggling more with anti-aliasing.
Will definately take your advice on DX12 thanks.

As above, you still have a very capable CPU - and get that K series CPU clocked (wasted MHz on tap with a few BIOS tweaks) to relieve any bottlenecking coupled with a top tier GPU.

@Plec Thanks for the advice, glad my rig isn't considered a pile of scrap just yet. 650w does run hot on games like Total War especially, but it's not worried me yet.

I think the 2060 would be fine for 1080p @ 144hz or 1440p @60hz but if you want to go to 1440p @144hz then you may want to consider going to a 2070.

As Orbital said, overclock your CPU if you have not already and it should be fine.

I'm not sure if that was a good PSU or not when you bought it (Corsair have good and bad PSU's) but it would be worth looking at changing it due to its age.

@NovaKill4 Thanks again, at this stage it'll just be 1080p gaming - might upgrade to a 1440p in a few years when it's less expensive.

 

[Ground7even]

Your 4770k in that motherboard (I had one with a 4790k in it) should hit at least 4.4Ghz with decent cooling.

@pastymuncher thanks for the advice - will have a nosey at passing the 3.9 mark this week

There's total of seven various TX650 models to choose from and for their release time all should have been good for the money.
Though all but latest have seriously outdated efficiency and design.
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page447.htm

So with likely quite low fan speed PSU would run warmer.
Also other thing possibly making PSU run hot would be antiquated case with PSU on top as case exhaust.
If that's the case (in both meanings) that's what should be upgraded first.

@EsaT can't remember off the top off my head - it was a CM Storm Scout case I remember that much - will have a nosey and if it is I'll start saving for an upgrade, thanks!

I have the 2060 and until I recently changed to AMD I had a 4690k so pretty similar CPU in terms of gaming performance at least, and I can say that for the most part the CPU did very well and I game @ 1440p so its probably fairly representative of what you are thinking of. Had my motherboard not died and forced a change in hardware I would have been happy to carry on with the 1150 CPU and 2060, at least until the new Ryzen CPUs come up in a couple of months.

@Double07 specs sound similar - great to know, gives me a bit of reassurance my CPU won't be bottling me - only 1080p for me so I'm hoping it should max out most games for a while at least. Sucks about your motherboard, always happens at the worst time.

 

[Ground7even]

@EsaT @pastymuncher thanks for the aboive advice, tried to OC my i7 4770k past 3.9 to 4.3 last night - getting avg 93c max 98c w/Prime95 so might have to look into cutting the rear exhaust mesh and maybe a fresh thermal compound as well. Could finally be time for water-cooling o_O

 

[Ground7even]

What have you got strapped to the top of that CPU?

Cutting the rear mesh isn't going to make a significant dent on those 'very high' temps - something else is amiss (what was the vCore at 4.3GHz?). A CPU refit may if it's not making full contact with the heatsink or compound has dried out.

What are your temps at stock settings at idle and load? Also, how are you going about your clock?

@Plec I have a Noctua NH-D14 (x1 120mm x1 140mm fan) strapped to the CPU, also have a 120mm blowing air out of case.

What voltage (Vcore) are you using? It's not an "auto OC" is it?

@Danny75 Have to admit I may have had it on auto OC until last year xD OC to 3.9GHZ. Voltage Core is 1.25 to reach 4.3GHZ.

NH-D14 would likely beat most waterpipe coolers in cooling performance per noise.
So save those moneys for something actually useful, because something else is amiss.
Could be bubblegum/toothpaste Intel put under the heatspreader going bad.
Or then voltage fed to CPU is aproaching dangerous level.

@EsaT Could be Prime95 possibly? I didnt pay much attention - only just read up on people saying new versions of Prime creating unrealistic stress on your CPU. That being said still can't believe my full load temp of 93 average is just purely due to that. Have given my case a full clean and de-dusting so will re-run this evening and see what happens.

@pastymuncher @_tucker_ De-lidding makes me very nervous as it'll be the first time I'll have done it x_x I orginally put some Arctic Thermal Paste on CPU but that was 6 years ago, so paste could be going bad now I guess. Have checked my wattage and expected usage is around 450W with the RTX 2060 - I have 650W so even minus 100W due to age it should still be safe, I will be getting an extra 500GB SSD soon though as well.

 

[Ground7even]

Apologies all - been on holiday!

Your power draw won't be anywhere near 450w. My old 4790k clocked at 4.6Ghz with 1.275v vcore, 4x 4Gb sticks of Samsung Green overclocked and overvolted to 2133mhz C9 at 1.5v and the GTX1070 and the rest of the pc in my siggy hit a max power draw of just under 350w at the wall and only by running Linx and Furmark both at the same time. Normal gaming use was anything up to 222w at the wall depending on the game.

Delidding isn't difficult and if you have the right tool such as the der8auer De-lid Die Mate 2 or one of the other couple of tools it can't really go wrong. My first de-lid was the 4670k and I used the hammer and vice method which was extremely nerve wracking but luckily it went fine. The 4790k was done with a proper tool (Rockit de-lid tool if I remember right) that was kindly loaned to me by a fellow forum member and I didn't even give it a thought. It was a case of insert the cpu, tighten the screw until you feel it "give" and it's done. It literally took a few seconds to do. It takes much longer cleaning the die and IHS up afterwards. The tools available now even come with a clamp to relid the cpu after appying liquid metal. It's certainly a very worthwhile task. First though, if your thermal paste hasn't been changed for 6 years take the cooler off, clean it and the cpu, get rid of any dust on the cooler at the same time if there is any, apply a fresh layer of thermal paste to the cpu and reattach the cooler. Fire the pc up and see if the temps have improved. After 6 years I would be very surprised if they don't improve.

@pastymuncher Seriously thank you for the advice and link - I will definitely be ordering that; I've googled the vice method and I think I **** an actual brick just watching. I've bought some compressed air to further clear up the inside of dust, will order the paste and de-lid mate asap.

Other than dusting and re-pasting (which should help), the temps you are getting could be due to Adaptive voltage. 1.25v would then become 1.35v in Prime with AVX. At which point even a D14 begins to struggle. See if that's the case and change to Fixed/Manual/Override (should be called one of those three depending on board) voltage.

@Danny75 When I OC to 4.3GHZ adaptive voltage was off, but I was still getting average temps of 85-90 on all cores. Just re-set my OC to standard (with auto-volt.) and I'm still getting an average of 75 with Prime?!
For gaming in 1080p even on max I know I wont be getting 100% CPU but those temps will still be high on average, and as @pastymuncher says summer is coming :/ Idle temp is 40, spikes +30 with 100% with no OC.

 

[Ground7even]

Morning all,

Just wanted to say thanks for all the advice given on this post. I have now delidded CPU and as a result have been able to get a stable OC to 4.5ghz @ 82 degrees on Prime95. RTX 2060 has been installed and was well worth the purchase.

Thanks again.
James

 

[Ground7even]

That's a good result. In normal use you won't get temps as high as prime 95 so you should have a nice bit of temp headroom for when/if summer comes.

Just a friendly bit of advice regarding your siggy. We are only allowed 5 lines of text so best to edit it before a mod comes along and delete's the lot.

Thanks, and thanks for your help. I think I'm averaging approx 80% CPU load even with GTA V and the Total War series so here's hoping. Nooo! Too late haha.

Echo @pastymuncher - great result, your nerve paid off.


In addition to the above, if you view the forum using 'Dark Theme' - you can't read the the darker red text, it blends into the black (although my wife is always trying to convince me i'm colour blind - so may just be me).

I will admit I may have been shi**ing a brick during the delid process but the DieMate makes things so much simpler than the horror videos with razors and vices - really easy. Again thankyou for your help - really is appreciated.

Spent far too long working out the colour coordination on that sig to do it again, my specs will have to remain a mystery. Well if you goto the supermarket and tomatoes start looking grey she may have a point!