Upgrading but not to the bleeding edge!

kinetis

kinetis

kinetis

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Joined
28 Apr 2012
Posts
22
Hi all,

It's that time, upgraded a few years back, now I need some advice to get to the next level.

I'm after a 4K, VR capable rig. Mostly for gaming on Elite Dangerous and MMOs, looking to get as near as possible to the best noticeable performance on ED and immersive experience (not quite ready for lower res Oculus approach). Don't really know if HDR will be a significant thing to have/not with the setup I am looking for. However, I also want to use the monitor for work, hence wanting to up the size to 32 inch or bigger screen and ideally a screen that can house two windows of a sensible size for working. I currently have two screens, the second is really old and much smaller than the BENQ.

Current rig:

Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
Intel Core I5 2500K Sandybridge socket 1155 LGA @ 3.3 Ghz stock
sitting on Asus Sabertooth P67
16 GB Kingston DDR3 (4 x 4Gb)
Nvidia Geforce GTX670
BENQ 27 inch DW2765 monitor
Have a couple of hard drives, including an old Samsung 127 GB SSD, but that does not seem to like being used to boot from any more, so may need to be changed.

Interestingly, on benchmarks, the CPU seems to be the real bottleneck, but I'm assuming the GTX 670 needs to be upgraded too although it is capable of 4K using Display Port. Budget, let's keep that open, but I'm not after the latest rig, just something to give me a noticeable jump and some future proofing.

Thanks
ian
 
Do your games take advantage of many cores? If so, you should be looking at the Intel 9900K and the Ryzen 3900.

Given the length of time you keep things and your requirement of VR you should go with the RTX 2080 Ti for the GPU if you can afford it.
 
Quartz said:
Do your games take advantage of many cores? If so, you should be looking at the Intel 9900K and the Ryzen 3900.

Given the length of time you keep things and your requirement of VR you should go with the RTX 2080 Ti for the GPU if you can afford it.
Click to expand...

Hey Quartz, thanks for the response.

Wow, that CPU and GFX both appear to be top end, but yes, you are right, I tend to upgrade every 4-5 years. Looking at the spec below for Elite Dangerous, that will be well above the recommended specs for a VR setup. Likewise, given I already have a 670 and the recommended is only a 770, I'm guessing going up to a 1660 Ti would be enough bang for buck and give me some future proofing?

Any views on a motherboard, a screen or whether I need to upgrade RAM? I already have 16GB, so guessing that will be fine albeit it is DDR3.

Minimum:
  • OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
  • Processor: Quad Core CPU (4 x 2GHz)
  • Memory: 6 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 470 or AMD R7 240 (Direct X 11 functionality required)
  • Network: Broadband Internet Connection
  • Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
Recommended:
  • OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad Core CPU or AMD FX 4350 Quad Core CPU
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 770 / AMD Radeon R9 280X or better
  • Network: Broadband Internet Connection
  • Hard Drive: 25 GB available space
 
kinetis said:
I'm guessing going up to a 1660 Ti would be enough bang for buck and give me some future proofing?
Click to expand...

From what I've read a GTX 1070 is the absolute minimum for VR, so that would be a 1660 Ti for the current generation, but you want the very best card to maximise smoothness and minimise reprojection. Otherwise you will literally be sick. And then there's the longevity issue.

kinetis said:
Any views on a motherboard, a screen or whether I need to upgrade RAM? I already have 16GB, so guessing that will be fine albeit it is DDR3
Click to expand...

Modern motherboards are DDR4 so you'd need to replace it.

I think you should look at a Ryzen 3600 on a MSI Tomahawk Max with 16 GB and a RTX 2070S / 5700 XT as a working minimum. But again, longevity is an issue.
 
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