Upgrade my pc or no?

Alternateline · 30 Mar 2020 at 22:21

As you can see from my sig this PC is about 4/5 years old. Still runs smooth and quiet, plays plenty of games at over 60hz 1080, including the latest COD and Witcher 3 and so on.

I'd like to jump up to 1440p - what is the least I'm looking at to do that smoothly? Ideally I'd like to be over 60hz.

Thanks!

Joxeon · 31 Mar 2020 at 00:17

You ideally would be looking at a ryzen system with a 3600 or 3700x paired with an rtx 2070 super or 5700xt.

EsaT · 31 Mar 2020 at 14:19

Quad core is definitely bottleneck for heavier games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
Especially any background softwares eat game performance.
For perspective about how low end it is next-gen consoles will bring doubled CPU power as base level.

Also GPU will be struggling with 2560x1440.
Now is just pretty much historically bad time to buy expensive cards with bad or very bad performance/future proofness per price courtesy of Nvidia having focused for years into pumping users' butts... err price tags.
Next-gen consoles will bring likely around 2080 Super level performance as base level.

Do you have normal room lightning or prefer dimly illuminated room?
That affects to what LCD type is the best.
IPS has the most stable colours/viewing angles and consistent response times with latest matchings matching many TNs in response times.
But contrast is at usual level and in darker room VA's ways best of LCDs contrast/black beats it.
At expense of "challenges" in viewing angle stability of dark shades and response time issues of darker transitions.

Alternateline · 3 Apr 2020 at 22:06

From both replies it is looking like a big money effort

Participant · 4 Apr 2020 at 06:35

I've got a 4690K with a GTX 970 (both overclocked of course) and played Witcher 3 no problems on ultra wide 3440 x 1440.

Yes I had to keep the graphics settings modest but it was fine and for 1440p, no problem.

Can't you sweat that kit for a little longer until you've saved up and the new cards are out later in the year?

Terrorfirmer · 4 Apr 2020 at 14:21

980Ti should still do Cod or Witcher 3 at 1440P fairly handily. Neither are that CPU heavy either so an overclocked 4690K should be totally fine.

Problem in general is that for new games generally and 1440P >60hz in mind, you ideally would need something like Ryzen 3600 + RTX2060 Super at a minimum, 2070 Super ideally.

JollysH1 · 5 Apr 2020 at 01:42

I rebuild every 5 years or so as a standard. The tech moves on so fast it's pointless to chase the top end, but building a "Bang for buck" system every 5 years seems about right. Your not really chasing anything other than the software developers who are predetermined to write for future markets! that's where the issue lies. My last build (Now updated) was a complete showoff thing which was never great, and always impractical (The components now are considered cool, so they have a great resale

) but it has given me a few years of good usage, and hopefully my present build (Much more conservative) will do the same.
£200 per year, for a good PC of any type, is good value! so I recommend a £1000 BFB build every 5 years. Unless you have money to burn or a specific purpose to achieve.

JollysH1 · 5 Apr 2020 at 01:47

By the way a GTX 980 ti (Always wanted one) is still a brute, but for how long is the question.

orbitalwalsh · 6 Apr 2020 at 13:51

RX 5700, RTX 2070/260S OR RX5700XT be fine with 1440p - AMD would be cheaper

if you have 1080p 144hz then just upscale to 1440p or

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming OC 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £398.99
1 x AOC AGON AG322QC4 32" 2560x1440 VA FreeSync 2 144Hz 4ms Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor= £399.95

Total: £798.94 (includes shipping: £0.00)

Stoner81 · 6 Apr 2020 at 15:45

I am on a i7-4770K and a GTX970 (I do have a second one but SLI hardly works these days so I leave it disabled) and don't have a problem running games at 1440p. OK sure I have to turn down some settings but I can't tell a massive difference if any at all in how games look. Turn down bloom effects and AA etc and you will get a lot out your system still imho.

Stoner81.

orbitalwalsh · 6 Apr 2020 at 16:22

Stoner81 said:
I am on a i7-4770K and a GTX970 (I do have a second one but SLI hardly works these days so I leave it disabled) and don't have a problem running games at 1440p. OK sure I have to turn down some settings but I can't tell a massive difference if any at all in how games look. Turn down bloom effects and AA etc and you will get a lot out your system still imho.

Stoner81.

Newer AAA titles guessing the VRam is more if an issue

MissChief · 6 Apr 2020 at 16:27

As one of the many who have signatures off I can offer nothing constructive to this thread other than a request to put any and all information into your posts. Thank you.

Seearbe · 6 Apr 2020 at 16:54

It doesn't strike me that you would need to do this all in one hit. First step is you'll need a new monitor (I'm taking it as read that you're not gaming at 1080p on a 1440p monitor!) so might as well get that bit out of the way. Give it a test with the current rig and you'll soon know whether the machine is currently up to it and where any bottlenecks are.

For what it's worth, until recently I was on a pair of 670's and just about coping with 1440p, so I'd guess a 980Ti has a bit more life left in it. Even if not, I'd stick it out for a few more months, see what the 3xxx series brings in way of performance increase or discounts to 2xxx series.

Stoner81 · 6 Apr 2020 at 16:55

orbitalwalsh said:
Newer AAA titles guessing the VRam is more if an issue

Yeah pretty much, only having 4GB is a right pita but I am hoping to do a monster upgrade later on this year, and on top of that for the first time in 10+ years I am thinking of going with AMD!

Stoner81.

orbitalwalsh · 6 Apr 2020 at 18:38

Stoner81 said:
Yeah pretty much, only having 4GB is a right pita but I am hoping to do a monster upgrade later on this year, and on top of that for the first time in 10+ years I am thinking of going with AMD!

Stoner81.

Well, 3.5GB + 0.5gb