Upgrade path for a better 4K experience

northun_munky

northun_munky

northun_munky

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Near Longleat, Raaaar!!
Afternoon all, having been away from PC gaming for quite a while (2 young kids....absolute Time thieves!! :) ) I've recently got back into it. Having also started to work from home, work kindly gave me a contribution towards getting set up, so I bought a nice new 4k monitor.

I've been pleasantly surprised with how well my aging rig has handled moving up from 1440p to 4k but I have experienced a downside to moving up; lower framerates, stuttering and texture pop. I'd imagine that by moving up a gear on the gfx card, say a 1080ti, 2070 or maybe even a Radeon VII when they launch might well help with the framerates, but it's the micro stuttering that's causing me the most grief to be fair. The new monitor is my first with freesync so the low framerate isn't too bad really. Last time the stuttering and pop got this bad, moving from a OC q6600 to my current 2500k made all the difference without having to change much else in the rig. Sadly 8gb of my 16gb also developed issues yesterday and from what I can tell, 8gb isn't going to do me any favours with 4k.

My question is, do I try to get another 8gb DDR3 and spend my money on a new GFX card or will I have the same issues with just a higher framerate? Am I better off upgrading the 'core' of the rig so to speak? With 3rd gen Ryzen around the corner, am I best off holding off for a little while?

I'm guessing the cost of each path is roughly the same when you factor in DDR4 prices. Input greatly appreciated :) Thanks in advance

Rough Spec below:
2500k @ 4.5
z77x-ud3h
8gb 2133hz DDR3
Asus STRIX 1070
Boot mSata SSD
SSD for the games
monitor is a samsung lu28h750uquxen
 
A lot will depend on your available budget to be honest. Ideally you'd be gutting that and replacing most of it but not everyone has pockets deep enough. How much do you have to spend?
 
Well, that's the question I suppose. As little as possible really.

A 2070 is what? £500 give or take? I would imagine I could get a new CPU/MOBO/DDR4 combo for about the same. Maybe a AM4 ryzen 2600 or something like that?

What I wouldn't want to do is spend 500 notes on a new card, to find out that aging CPU is whats causing my stuttering issues. I haven't got the budget to uprade both CPU combo and GPU at the mo. #1stworldproblems
 
I'd definitely go the CPU/motherboard/RAM upgrade route first. 4 core/4 thread Intel's are so very near the end of their useful life, and with 1 stick of DDR3 gone, it sounds like the time is ripe to go for the upgrade.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £385.43 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​

It's tempting to go the GPU route when dealing with a high resolution, though the description of microstutter-type issues suggests the core of the system should be sorted first. The GTX 1070 still outperforms the RTX 2060 at 4K thanks to its superior VRAM, and anything less than a GTX 1080 Ti/2080+ will be hardly noticeable as an upgrade from a GTX 1070.

The alternative is hold out to summer for a hopefully on-schedule launch of Ryzen 2.
 
Vexr said:
I'd definitely go the CPU/motherboard/RAM upgrade route first. 4 core/4 thread Intel's are so very near the end of their useful life, and with 1 stick of DDR3 gone, it sounds like the time is ripe to go for the upgrade.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £385.43 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​

It's tempting to go the GPU route when dealing with a high resolution, though the description of microstutter-type issues suggests the core of the system should be sorted first. The GTX 1070 still outperforms the RTX 2060 at 4K thanks to its superior VRAM, and anything less than a GTX 1080 Ti/2080+ will be hardly noticeable as an upgrade from a GTX 1070.

The alternative is hold out to summer for a hopefully on-schedule launch of Ryzen 2.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, exactly the sort of advice I was after. In the back of my mind I sort of guessed that the issues were more of a CPU thing but you're right, the temptation is to throw money at a gpu

I was leaning towards a 2600 based system but would it be worth finding a cheap 2nd hand 1600 and maybe swap in a 3rd gen ryzen later in the year? Or would a 1600 just not cut it? Not worth the hassle?
 
You're welcome - been in a similar situation myself recently regarding a 3440x1440 GPU vs CPU upgrade dilemma.

The 1600 is perfectly decent compared with the 2600, but it has a fussier memory controller that may cause some compatibility / getting full speed from your RAM issues - and Ryzen's love fast RAM. For simplicity's sake, it's always easier to recommend a Ryzen 2xxx series over the 1xxx equivalent, even though performance is usually similar. If you can find a 1600 at a killer deal though, that'd probably be fine.
 
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