Upgrading PC for Witcher 3

Bobybobp

Bobybobp

Bobybobp

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I have heard through the grapevine that the Witcher 3 is going to be a very difficult game to run and my 3 year old system will probably struggle on higher settings, so i wanted to know what people thought would be some good upgrades to make.

My GPU = MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards

CPU = Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail

Motherboard = Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Power supply = Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply

RAM = Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU)

Thanks for the help
 
What case?

I would be looking firstly at a GPU upgrade
Do you have a CPU Cooler? You could overclock the CPU too, and add a new GPU (your current PSU should be fine) and you will have a fully beast system :)

Any budget at all? For example these are good ~£200-£300 buys depending on your case limitations

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £293.99
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infin8 Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **WorldWide Exclusive** £289.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £281.99
1 x Asus Radeon R9 290X ROG Matrix 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (MATRIX-R9290X-4GD5) £249.95
Total : £1,115.92 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).

 
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Case is Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller, its pretty huge so i think space shouldn't be much of a problem

and yeah the cooler i have is Akasa AK-CC4007EP01 Nero 3 CPU Cooler

Budget not too sure yet but £300 seams quite reasonable.
 
Bobybobp said:
Case is Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller, its pretty huge so i think space shouldn't be much of a problem

and yeah the cooler i have is Akasa AK-CC4007EP01 Nero 3 CPU Cooler

Budget not too sure yet but £300 seams quite reasonable.
Click to expand...



Spacious Interior for Installing 290mm Card
Click to expand...

So you have 290mm to play with

The 290X ROG Matrix is 300mm, so that's out of the window, and the Gigabyte G1 is 312mm, so that's out of the window too

Do you already have Witcher III? The nvidia cards are coming with it free if you don't :)

The standard Direct CU II (https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-364-AS) comes in at 28.8cm, so should *just fit*

On the Nvidia side, all these will fit

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 970 "NVIDIA 970 Cooler Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £289.99
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infin8 Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **WorldWide Exclusive** £289.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC rev2.00 ACX 2.0 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (04G-P4-3975-KR) £289.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £281.99
Total : £1,151.96 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).




I'd highly recommend the Infin8 out of these lot, but the MSI is also especially good at that price
After this I'd overclock the CPU. It's still a very very strong CPU and will be even more so once overclocked!
 
Is this for adding a second card or just replacing the one i already have, i would prefer to just replace as some games don't allow for two, just checking :) and no i don't have the Witcher yet either :)
 
Bobybobp said:
Is this for adding a second card or just replacing the one i already have, i would prefer to just replace as some games don't allow for two, just checking :) and no i don't have the Witcher yet either :)
Click to expand...

Replacing of course :) So there you are, sorted. GTX 970 with the game you want to play included haha
 
You'd actually be surprised how much extra (FPS) overclocking the GPU (swell as the CPU) will give.

Overclocking the CPU, doesn't affect the FPS alone, it 'releases' the GPU to be increase the FPS more, when its Overclocked.

With overclocking you need good cooling, so make sure you have a good coolerand case with good airflow.

As people above have said, getting a 970 and OCing the CPU is a great upgrade. :)
 
The only other option is the 980,which honestly not worth the extra £170-200 it costs.A 970 heavily Oc'ed will match a 980.

A 970 with TW3 and Batman is a great deal atm.
 
If you're gonna wait then it's likely the new cards will be out by then so any recommendation now will be obsolete. Right now though the only other option for about 500 (if you don't want two cards) is the 980, but that's only about 10% faster than the 970.
 
If you will wait, then things get a bit risky. The new cards should all release within the next several weeks, but the free Witcher 3/Batman offer runs out at the end of this month. 970 will do the job, the MSI one is very popular and overall a great card, but I heard it's the worst for coil-whine. Though with Witcher 3, if its as intensive as expected, there shouldn't be any.
 
I had pretty much the same system & case as you before upgrading my GPU this week. Intended on getting a 290x but so many don't fit in our case, so splashed a bit extra on the MSI 970. Fits perfectly in the Z9 plus and couldn't be more happy.

It's ran everything I've thrown at it so far on ultra as smooth as butter (GPU not clocked, CPU at 4.5ghz)

Obviously it's going to have a harder time with the Witcher 3. But TW2 still looks amazing maxed out, and if I can get it to look anything like that I'll be happy.

Not to mention the LED white/red logo on top of the card looks awesome through the window of the case, and the cards not so tall that you have to remove the side window fan, which I was worried about.
 
OK guys thank you very much for the help, i'll probably end up getting the 970 then :), shame ill have to wait until those deals are gone though as i can't afford it atm. :(

Thanks again, Sam
 
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