Odd upgrade plan - Advice sought

Associate
Joined
1 Sep 2018
Posts
188
Hello all and thanks in advance for any advice and feedback you can give me.

The reason for the proposed 'odd' upgrade (discussed below) is a reaction to two things above all else:

1) Nvidia RTX pricing more than anticipated in my budget (performance uncertainty aside)
2) Wedding is ******* expensive but I don't steer that particular ship so oh well... :D

I had planned a full upgrade of GPU, CPU/mobo/ram, SDD, PSU, intended to be an update to the 1080 Ti and i7 8700k combo (or current equivalent). However this isn't feasible at the moment for the above reasons, plus RTX uncertainty and various potential die shrinks to 10nm/7nm for CPU/GPU in 2019 suggest that a full upgrade next year when I've the funds might not be a bad thing (I know there's always better tech tomorrow and the waiting trap this can bring).

The alternative 'odd' upgrade is to change the GPU only to help me for the next 12 months until the full upgrade. I am considering a 1070 Ti as an upgrade to the following rig:

1) i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz
2) 8gb ram + mobo - Not sure of details apologies, but mid-range parts from 2011 bought in bundle with CPU, so average 2011-ish parts
3) 970 GTX in SLI
4) 1440p @ 144hz
5) I presume other parts irrelevant

I get this is strange, but my thinking is that I can do this relatively cheaply at a net cost of £250 once the 970s are fleabayed.

Things that I understand about the proposed upgrade:

1) Limited performance boost in well-optimised SLI games
2) No brainer for non-SLI supporting games (I seem by pure misfortune to only play Unreal engine games which don't use SLI)
3) Whilst i5 2500k is hanging in there, it will be bottleneck and may cause stuttering
4) Better CPU and RAM may give just as good performance increase, but see original comments plus lot more work to replace that stuff/reformat etc.
5) Won't get me much more FPS so 144hz will remain a dream, but hopefully can kick up quality settings in game (I'm dropping to 1080p and med/low in modern games to get 60-90 FPS)
6) The net £250 cost of this will be lost and I won't get this back in any future sale to fund the big upgrade.
7) 1070 Ti chosen on basis that 1070 might not be too much better than 970 SLI, whilst 1080 might be no better particular given CPU bottlenecking (which is why 1080 Ti is not even being considered here).

Things I don't know:

1) Is it worth it given my objective of minimal FPS gain / reasonable quality improvement / short term upgrade? What I am really after is a stop-gap solution such that (a) SLI-supported games can be run at 1440p/High rather than 1080p/med-low, and (b) Good boost on non-SLI games.

2) Will I be able to look back over the next 12 months as they flash before my eyes knowing that they were not ray-traced? (insert appropriate TomsH / Jensen meme).

Thanks guys! :)
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2015
Posts
18,514
Personally, wait till 14th and then sink an RTX 2080, if your waiting on older gen to drop prices, October when rtx 2070 is unleashed but Nvidia know stock details of cards to the last detail so can be delayed etc
 
Associate
OP
Joined
1 Sep 2018
Posts
188
Thanks for your comments on this. I'm not really looking for a price drop on older gen tech, so upgrading now is fine - if it's worth it of course.

I'm not sure why a 2080 is a good idea though in light of my rationale here? It would be almost double the price, isn't a short term upgrade, and surely performance would be wasted given CPU bottleneck. I suppose what I'm trying to ask in my original post is whether the 1070 Ti is the 'sweet spot' in terms of my specific goals; that is to get some graphical improvement at a low price in the short term, with a full upgrade in 12 months when my wallet and the market are hopefully in better position. Does that make sense?

Thanks.
 
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