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Upgrade or wait?

Wondernoob

Wondernoob

Wondernoob

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Joined
11 Dec 2015
Posts
3
I have recently come into £500 (could possibly push it to £600 absolute max) that I can invest in upgrading my PC which is growing a bit long in the tooth now.

The area which instantly struck me as being most worthy of investment was the graphics card. I originally bought a card for 60hz 1080p but later bought a 1080p@144hz monitor and I've never rely been able to drive it properly. (I also run my old monitor as a 2nd screen but this is only for teamspeak/chats/media etc.)

SLI/Crossfire is not an option for me.

Whatever I buy will have to last me a fair while. I will be sticking for 1080p@144hz for the forseeable. If I do upgrade it will most likely me to 1440p rather than 4k due to costs.

I do not often have the cash for an upgrade like this so whatever I do needs to last me a fair while, 2-3 years+

I'm quite an avid gamer and I play most of the most demanding titles out and generally expect close to or near maximum settings unless they drop me below say 60hz. That's my general fps/quality tipping point with my current build but obviously 144hz@max on everything is the holy grail as such.

I am looking to buy team green (I have my reasons, one of which being my aa yet unused 3d vision kit... I'm aware of the issues with this.).

I was tempted to just buy a 980ti and be done with it but from what I've read I'm really unsure if this would be a smart decision or if I should wait for the next gen cards to either pick up one of them or have them knock the price down. (I'm terrible at holding onto money, it burns a hole in my pocket...)

My current build is:

CPU: I5 4670k (oc @ 4.2Ghz)
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H ATX LGA1150
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
GPU: MSI R9 280X 3GB
PSU: XFX PRO Black Edition 850W 80+ Gold
SSD: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5"
HDD: 2x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Sound: Asus Xonar DGX 24-bit 96 KHz
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 ATX Mid Tower
OS: Win10

Apologies for the long post but wanted to make sure I gave a clear picture of my situation and requirements.

I'd appreciate any advice you guys can give me (would prefer if it was related to my PC upgrade though).
Thanks.
 
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No matter which "Team" you are thinking of going with I would most certainly say wait to see what happens in 2016. Both manufacturers are going to be unveiling some good stuff this year and £500-£600 will come in handy when they do get this stuff out.

Most of your gear is younger than mine, apart from GFX card (I incidentally have upgraded from a 280X myself and I think that will keep you going until 2016 for sure). I probably would have hung onto it but I wanted FS compatibility for my new monitor. It's still a good performer though and my lad is benefiting from it right now.
:)
 
The obvious question is what have you got that's not running as smoothly as you'd like? If all your current games are good, then holding off has to be the better choice. Pascal does look hella fast, and personally I'm waiting on it to see whether single-card 4k becomes a bit more practical at a sane price point ^^

The other question is whether an i5 drives a 980Ti at full speed, or whether you'd be introducing a bottleneck... I don't know the answer, hopefully someone will be along who does :)
 
eddiew said:
The obvious question is what have you got that's not running as smoothly as you'd like? If all your current games are good, then holding off has to be the better choice. Pascal does look hella fast, and personally I'm waiting on it to see whether single-card 4k becomes a bit more practical at a sane price point ^^

The other question is whether an i5 drives a 980Ti at full speed, or whether you'd be introducing a bottleneck... I don't know the answer, hopefully someone will be along who does :)
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Googled the question for you ;) some sites reckon i5 will be fine for 980ti.

But to answer the question in the thread I would wait till next gen being so close.
 
If you are looking to upgrade your monitor to 1440p (which is stunning btw) I would highly recommend a 980Ti. If you're wanting to stick to 1080p, then a 970 would be the better choice but that's more of a side-grade than an upgrade.

You won't see a bottleneck with an i5 running any single card but dual cards with an i5 would give you a bottleneck.

Now, while I appreciate March will see new cards I do believe that the 980Ti will hold its ground very well against small pascal.

Your choice :)
 
After your advice I've gone and OCd the card a bit to see if that helps.

I've not seen much change though to be honest.

My fps in Fallout 4 avgs low to mid 30s outside on high (not highest) settings. No idea what I'd have to drop it down to to be able to drive it at 120-144hz which is a bit disappointing.
 
A 390/390X/Fury would be a great upgrade from a 280X. That's probably your best bet atm, unless you want to wait for the next gen.

Stay away from the 970's - they are crippled by lack of VRAM for the latest games (COD for example) and future titles with larger textures will surely take it's toll on the 970.
 
Wait. Pascal is slate spring I hear.

Dave2150 said:
A 390/390X/Fury would be a great upgrade from a 280X. That's probably your best bet atm, unless you want to wait for the next gen.

Stay away from the 970's - they are crippled by lack of VRAM for the latest games (COD for example) and future titles with larger textures will surely take it's toll on the 970.
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My 970 isn't crippled by VRAM at all. The new COD plays just fine, hell all the new games play great. Must be your 970 mate.
 
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FoxEye said:
Source please :) All we (think we) know is /probably/ 1H 2016. That's up to end of June.

And AMD potentially as late as September.
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I don't have a link, but seen many times Nvidia saying 1st or 2nd Quarter 2016. (Hoping spring) Think about it. Do you really think Nvidia going to go a full year without releasing anything new.
 
The first Pascal card will be a joke card costing around £150 with no PCIE power sockets.

Maybe come summer time we will get mid range Pascal, then maybe later in the year high end. I strongly doubt they will replace Maxwell any earlier than that.
 
Simon Belmont said:
I don't have a link, but seen many times Nvidia saying 1st or 2nd Quarter 2016. (Hoping spring) Think about it. Do you really think Nvidia going to go a full year without releasing anything new.
Click to expand...

I really don't know enough to come to any useful conclusion by just "thinking about it". So unless there is a quote from nV saying Q1, I'm not going to make any assumptions :p

ALXAndy said:
The first Pascal card will be a joke card costing around £150 with no PCIE power sockets.

Maybe come summer time we will get mid range Pascal, then maybe later in the year high end. I strongly doubt they will replace Maxwell any earlier than that.
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What do they say... "past performance is no guarantee of future performance", or something like that.

We don't know the first product will be a pipe cleaner. Again, source please? :p
 
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I don't see the point in buying a 980TI now for around £500+, chances are the mid-range pascal cards should be with us within the next 5-6 months, which will be around the same performance for £300 or less with custom coolers.

1 year and 5 months has been the max in recent years, it's not long in terms of a release date.
GeForce 200 Series - 16th June 2008
GeForce 300 Series - 27th November 2009
GeForce 400 series - 12th April 2010
GeForce 500 series - 8th November 2010
GeForce 600 series - 22nd March 2012
GeForce 700 series - 23rd May 2013
GeForce 900 series - 18th September 2014
GeForce 1000 series - 2016?
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