Upgrading a 2012 gaming PC

Amenthea

Amenthea

Amenthea

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14 Sep 2015
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4
Hi,

I've got a gaming PC from around 2011/12, and it's starting to show its age now. Although I can run things like BF3/4 on high settings at 1920*1200, things like No Man's Sky have to be run in a window at 1680*1050 to get smooth/playable frame rates.

It's still technically a decent PC, but I've been out of the hardware loop for quite some time now and what I need to know is if I can just upgrade the GFX to get that boost I need, or would the rest of the rig (4 year old chipset/slower bus speeds etc.) bottleneck the available speed?

Rig is as follows:

i7 2700K (OC to 4GZ on air)
8GB DDR3 1600
P8Z68-V-Pro
GTX 580
Asus Zonar
Cooler Master 850W Silent Pro PSU
Windows 10 64bit

I've not got a huge budget on upgrades at this time, so thinking about getting either a 970 or a 6gb 1060. Would this be a worthwhile upgrade to hold me over until next year do you think?

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks for looking.
 
New GFX card and SSD.

Thats all you need.

What case do you have as some of these cards are long. Also the motherboard may or may not need a BIOS update (meaning you have to redo the overclock) to recognise the new component.

Is 1920x1200 the native res of your monitor?
 
stulid said:
New GFX card and SSD.

Thats all you need.

What case do you have as some of these cards are long. Also the motherboard may or may not need a BIOS update (meaning you have to redo the overclock) to recognise the new component.

Is 1920x1200 the native res of your monitor?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply and sorry, I just realised that I never stated the HD's. I've got 3x Crucial M4's in there already so the SSD thing is sorted.

The case is a Corsair Obsidian 650D so has plenty of space. The BIOS on the MB is as it was when it was built so stock, and may very well need a BIOS update. If I remember correctly there were only another 1/2 updates for it since I've had it though so not sure how much functionality they add.

Monitor is a SyncMaster 245B, and 1920*1200 is indeed its native res.
 
Thanks. Everyone seems to be flipping their lids over having 16/32GB RAM but I'm pretty sure that's still overkill if its just used for gaming. Would I be correct in this assumption?
 
I'm sure a lot of people are running 8, I am and I haven't run into any issues because of it yet. Also I agree with Stulid, new GPU as you've still got a really capable gaming machine with a single upgrade.
 
I recently upgraded my 5 year old PC (i7 2600, 12GB RAM, 120GB SSD + HDDs, Radeon 6870 1GB) with a 1060 6GB and it flies in games again. Benchmarks put it about 4-5 times faster than with the 6870 and it's played everything I've tried so far flawlessly at 1920x1200/60fps at high settings.
 
As others have said just upgrading the GPU would be the way to go. A second hand 970 for the £140 mark would be a huge upgrade for you for relatively little money.

The RAM aspect isn't quite so clear cut imo. I have 16GB and there is the odd time where I catch myself using more than 8gb. Both GTAV and Arkham Knight spring to mind. When all the uproar was going on about Arkham Knight I didn't have anywhere near as many issues as some and I put that down to the fact I have 16GB of RAM as others with it seemed to have a smoother experience as well.

In short, I would definitely swap the GPU and I would probably consider adding another 8GB of RAM if my budget allowed but I wouldn't make it a priority.
 
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