Upgrade advice please!

Spoony96 · 17 Sep 2020 at 11:53

Hi friends. I'm looking to upgrade my dated PC rig - I'm unsure where to start really so would love some advice.

I primarily use the PC for work nowadays, but I still game from time to time and I want to obviously have the best experience when doing that (ideally 1440p, maxed to take advantage of the new Dell monitor I recently bought).

I'm obviously looking at the new 3000 cards, but wondering if I should be upgrading my CPU beforehand or after? and what kind of performance I would see if I didn't upgrade my CPU. It's been a great build but it's starting to show it's age.

Budget isn't too much of an issue, but I don't really want to be buying all the parts at once. Would love some guidance.

Thanks dudes.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4 GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 Memory
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Video Card
Monitor: Dell S2721DGF 27.0" 2560x1440 165 Hz Monitor
Case: Fractal Design Define Nano S Mini ITX Desktop Case
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply

snips86x · 17 Sep 2020 at 12:00

From what I have seen and read, there is an element of bottleneck from the 4790k on the 3x cards and might be prudent to upgrade. However, AMD announce their 4xx zen3 line up on 8th October so I would wait.

Spoony96 · 17 Sep 2020 at 12:06

snips86x said:
From what I have seen and read, there is an element of bottleneck from the 4790k on the 3x cards and might be prudent to upgrade. However, AMD announce their 4xx zen3 line up on 8th October so I would wait.

Appreciate the reply.

Yeah, I've never paid too much attention to AMD, but now it seems the norm? I'm getting old...! So would I see more of an overall improvement upgrading from the 4790k first, then later down the line getting hold of a 3080? I assume this would mean a new mobo & RAM so the price starts to shoot up.

snips86x · 17 Sep 2020 at 12:07

Spoony96 said:
Appreciate the reply.

Yeah, I've never paid too much attention to AMD, but now it seems the norm? I'm getting old...! So would I see more of an overall improvement upgrading from the 4790k first, then later down the line getting hold of a 3080?

Yes, you probably would but would be bottlenecked by the cpu. How bad that looks is anyone's guess right now.

Spoony96 · 17 Sep 2020 at 12:11

snips86x said:
Yes, you probably would but would be bottlenecked by the CPU. How bad that looks is anyone's guess right now.

Do you not think it would be worth getting the GPU first to get one whilst they are around? I can imagine demand will skyrocket.

I guess there is a couple of ways of doing this.

snips86x · 17 Sep 2020 at 12:12

Spoony96 said:
Do you not think it would be worth getting the GPU first to get one whilst they are around? I can imagine demand will skyrocket.

I guess there is a couple of ways of doing this.

Securing a gpu does seem like a sensible option. Not sure how the demand has/will change now reviews are out though.

foster grant · 17 Sep 2020 at 12:20

Plus the price of those 3x cards have started to go up already and no one has even got one yet.

mickyflinn · 17 Sep 2020 at 12:22

Spoony96 said:
Appreciate the reply.

Yeah, I've never paid too much attention to AMD, but now it seems the norm? I'm getting old...! So would I see more of an overall improvement upgrading from the 4790k first, then later down the line getting hold of a 3080? I assume this would mean a new mobo & RAM so the price starts to shoot up.

The biggest improvement would be the 3080 first.

You can pre order from 2 p.m. today , but be fast.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/news...-pricing-on-the-overclockers-website-550.html