VR: Upgrade or Replace?

Hoopy · 2 Nov 2017 at 18:35

I've read through forums here and am hoping someone might give me some friendly advice, please?

I want to get the Oculus bundle and be able to run it at full potential-I have the DK2 and understand that the CV1 is worth the money. I'm a sim-racer but the thought of Fallout 4VR has tipped it for me. Anyways, this is my current, aged setup:

Cooler Master Elite 431 Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ Front USB 3.0 & X-Dock HDD Hot Swap
750W High Efficiency G7 Extreme Modular Super Silent Power Supply
MSI Z77A-G43 Intel® Z77 ATX Motherboard - CrossFireX™ Support
Intel® Core™ i7-3770K Quad Core Unlocked Processor (3.50GHz, 8MB Cache)
16GB DDR3 1866MHz Memory (2x8GB) Kit
2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti - 1344 Cores,2 DVI,HDMI,DP - 3D Vision Ready
120GB SSD - Solid State Drive
2TB SATA III 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache, 8ms Hard Drive
Pioneer Blu-Ray Writer (read & write Blu-ray, DVD and CD)
Integrated 7.1 High Definition 8-channel Audio
High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)

Predictably this fails the VR spec tests, but only because of the GTX660Ti. Seemingly everything else is good to go-however, I'm not sure by what margin. So...assuming a budget around £1200-£1400 am I better to just get a new build, or upgrade a couple of individual parts? I don't know, for example, if I will need a new processor to make a new graphics card work at full potential, and if I should then splash out on DDR4. I have a very limited and dated understanding of the tech.

Another consideration I have is how capable I'll be at replacing hardware and installing the appropriate drivers etc. to make everything work together. I'd give it a go if there are significant advantages, otherwise should I just play safe and get a pre-built job? And if so what would you recommend?

Any advice is very much appreciated!

southernorth · 2 Nov 2017 at 18:51

I would upgrade the GPU + PSU. CPU's have certainly moved on since your 3770k, but nowhere near the amount that GPUs have. a 3770K is still quite capable in most games, especially when overclocked.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Seasonic Focus Plus 550W 80 Plus Platinum Modular Power Supply= £84.95
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 1070Ti EX 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £428.99

Total: £524.44
(includes shipping: £10.50)

I would usually recommend a GTX 1080, but OCuk's pricing is not competitive. Shopping around gives much better prices. If you can find a GTX 1080 for around £475 or less, then choose that option over the 1070ti. As an added bonus, GTX 1080's come with a free copy of Destiny 2 at the moment. If you sell this game for ~£30, then the 1080 becomes an even better option.

If you were wanting to upgrade everything, I would recommend a build with either an Intel i5-8600k, i7-8700k or Ryzen 7 1700. Unfortunately the best options for gaming at common resolutions, the 8600k and 8700k, are either massively price-gouged or OOS.

As such, I would just get the new GPU + PSU and see how performance is from there.

Hoopy · 2 Nov 2017 at 19:09

Thanks for the input southernorth, I’ll go looking for a 1080 in that price bracket. This is very helpful as I wouldn’t have a clue if I was getting a competitive price.

southernorth · 2 Nov 2017 at 19:53

Hoopy said:
Thanks for the input southernorth, I’ll go looking for a 1080 in that price bracket. This is very helpful as I wouldn’t have a clue if I was getting a competitive price.

If you wanted to see the performance difference between your 3770k and the current top-end 8700k at 1080p:

There are definitely some gains, but at an upgrade cost of £700+ you'd need to decide if that's worth it for you