Upgrade Advice

Craig Beetham

Craig Beetham

Craig Beetham

Associate
Joined
3 Dec 2018
Posts
7
Hi All,

So a while back now (5 years) i built a mostly reasonable system:
16GB DDR3 12800
Core i5 3570K
Azrock Z77 MB
GTX 660
850w PSU
A bunch of SSD's and all the other cables etc

I then upgraded to a GTX980 in mid 2016 and the system has generally done well for my gaming needs since build and lets me play on acceptable settings at 1440p

However i feel its due an upgrade as since i acquired an oculus rift the system is generally starting to creek with the additional workload.

So my question is, am i better off upgrading the core system first, maybe a i7 8700k or i5 8600k with a decent new MB and some reasonable DDR 4, then doing the GPU upgrade in 3-4 months when finance allows, or reverse and find a good gpu to update my existing box to accommodate the rift then do the core bits later?

Thanks!
 
Do you have any performance issues when using the rift?

I have a 3570k and a 1080ti and have not had any issues so far with my rift.
Personally i am going to hang on for the 3000 Ryzen release as my current setup works fine as it is now and i am not willing to pay Intel's extortionate prices.
If you do want to go Intel then you will be better off going with the 9700k instead of the 8700k

If you want to upgrade your GPU then you are looking at 1080/2070/vega64 to get an upgrade but it will be around 30% increase in gaming performance for around £500.
What monitor do you currently have? do you have Freesync or Gsync?
And what is your budget?
 
Hi, i don't have major issues currently, only occasional minor stutter during the most action filled moments using the rift, otherwise it works great.

I currently have the Asus Rog Swift 27" G-Sync 144Hz monitor, its been many years since i had any AMD kit but im not opposed to a change, cant say i know much about their product line however

I budgeted approximately 700 for the "core" bits and around 500 for the GPU as i don't need a case/PSU/SSD's.
 
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Do you have your CPU overclocked?

Is that a 1440p monitor?
If so then Intel's edge in gaming performance diminishes as you climb the resolution's which makes AMD more attractive due to price/performance values.

If you do decide to go AMD then you will be able to swap the budgets you have set around and spend 500 on the core and 700 on the GPU, you would end up with something like a Ryzen 2600, 16GB RAM, decent mobo and perhaps a RTX 2080.

What make and model is your PSU? if its 5+ years old then it may be worth looking at getting a new one if you are going to do a whole system upgrade of this value.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,166.02 (includes shipping: £11.10)​
​
 
overclocked i5 running 4.5ghz will still outperform ryzen 6 core in most games due to clock speed and IPC. but going 1440p does help level the field ! and most recent and incoming AAA titles now support multi threads a LOT better !
above offers most value for cash !!!
Push High end X370 if you can for a little more then B450 :)

if your chasing min frame rate and max fps then intel with 6/8 core clocked to 5ghz

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,188.06 (includes shipping: £11.10)


seems you get COD and BFV free with intel and Nvidia.

If you enable RTX, with battlefield, may find yourself rendering at 1080p which would favour intel​
 
Yes i have it overclocked to 4.2Ghz, any more and stability soon starts to become an issue, i use a large 3rd party air cooler and don't have any stability or heat issues at 4.2
It is a 1440p monitor, was rather pricey at the time but its performance made it well worth it.

Just dug out my order and it was a Powercool 850w PSU, dont have a specific model number as its been discontinued looking at it.

given im not struggling yet is it worth waiting for the 3000 ryzens then?
 
ryzen 3000 would be q2 2019 , Gigabyte leak was careful enough not to release actual dates. Most vendors final version have board release date , doesn't always match actual chip date - hence can pre-order boards 2 weeks early etc

plus have to see how Zen 2 performs along with price
 
Thanks all, given im not really suffering yet (just got the upgrade itch!) i think it seems best to do the full blown upgrade at once instead of my piecemeal approach, gives me time to read about AMD again as well, thanks for the AMD/Intel example builds.

Really like that i5 build, maybe just because its what im familiar with
 
Have a look at some benchmarks for the type of games you are going to be playing, as i said earlier i have a similar setup and i'm going to be waiting for the next Ryzen release so it would be a bit hypocritical for me to recommend anything else.

With regards to that PSU, I would recommend changing it when you do upgrade, a quick google shows they are cheap, low quality units. I wouldn't trust it with £1000 plus worth of parts!
 
No, you wont need that much, any of these should do, i have chosen 650w as a rough guide, obviously if you needed 750w they would be slightly more.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £336.66 (includes shipping: £11.70)​
​
 
Sounds like your in a similar boat to me Craig 3750k just about hanging in there with an itch to upgrade to something new. I've been looking at the i5 9600k but not sure how much extra umph I'd get out of it with my gtx 1060 gfx card and like you probably cant afford to replace that at the same time as the other bits.
 
I have a Seasonic focus 750w, i wanted 750w so i could expand if i wanted to.

Yes my 3570k is at 4.2 as well i think, i did push 4.4/4.5 at one point but i was having stability issues, i am using a Corsair Hydro H80 to cool it and its done a good job so far.

My next upgrade will be new core, new case and new cooling.
 
Did you decide on the upgrade Craig, I'm still toying with holding on a bit longer, getting the i5 9600k or really pushing the boat out of the i7 8700k, no idea what to do tbh
 
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