Hi, As per this thread: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=4186009&posted=1#post4186009 my GPU bit the dust however it does mean that I get to ask all you fine people for advice on how to best spend my money Computer specs ( bought about 5-6 years ago, home build): CPU: Core i7 930 Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E Ram: 6gb of corsair 1600mhz (3x 2GB) GPU: 2GB Sapphire HD5970 PSU: XFX Black Edition 750 HDD: 1TB Samsung F3 Monitor: Acer GD245HQ I've not kept up to date too well with hardware over the last 5 years other than reading the odd review on bit-tech so fairly open to suggestion at this point. Only constraint is I don't want to have two cards running dual. Would preferably buy something that should see me through another 5 years and happy to spend a bit of money if it's worth it. Probably looking at £200-300, although could stretch to £400 if really going to see the difference. Seen a few things floating around about GTX 1070's being alright? See some of them are coming as VR ready and such, not really considered VR at the moment but would quite like to be ready for it without having to do another upgrade (as an aside, how many people use it/ getting to the point of worth paying for it yet?). If there's anything else on the list you think could do with a bit of sprucing up then feel free to suggest, it is christmas coming up after all! (I know an obvious upgrade is an SSD, never bought one since I stupidly bought an OEM version of windows and don't think I can transfer it between hard drives). Thanks in advance for all advice...have fun..
1070 will suit you down to the ground dude. 6gb of ram is not enough though and ram prices are through the roof atm which is a shame. Many modern titles refuse to run on less than 8gb. I strongly recommend one of these also. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Xeo...689862?hash=item3d27db5206:g:Nk0AAOSwzgRWumeQ It's a six core CPU like you have now, it's dirt cheap and will give you another year at least I reckon. Other than that? you don't need anything else. 1070, find some ram that you can buy four sticks of and use three (I suggest 4gb sticks for 12gb triple channel) and the CPU and you are laughing https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CM...&qid=1478017064&sr=8-2&keywords=4gb+ddr3+1600 Three of those should be fine
Considering the age and relative performance of your current card, are you really that interested in the bleeding edge anymore? If you're upgrading your display to 1440p/4k and/or want run AAA titles on max settings with 8x AA, then a 1070 is a good bet. If you're just a casual gamer, something like a RX480 4GB would be a better bet, as it's half the price and handles todays AAA games @ 1080p/High with ease.
He can't wait with a bust GPU... As above though, you haven't had a strong card in currently AAA titles which leads me to believe that a 1060 or 480 8GB would be your best buy.
Thanks for all the replies so far! TBH I hadn't checked out prices when I did the OP and didn't realise the price of the 1070 As you say not sure I would see the difference between a 1060 and 1070 at the moment, or at least not £140 worth. I'm probably somewhere between casual and serious these days (damn job...). Is there much between the 1060 and 480? I'm guessing I'm going to see a bit of a leap in performance compared to my current card with them anyway? Also interested what peoples thoughts are on the manufacturers? Thinking EVGA aren't a great bet at the moment... http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/evga-gtx-1080-1070-overheating-issue/ I'll definitely look at getting some more RAM
1060 is slightly quicker in dx11 stuff, 480 is slightly quicker in dx12 stuff and significantly faster in Vulkan. If it's only temporary then get either. IIRC that issue only applies to EVGA cards produced before August. They have a way to tell too, but will send you heat pads for free which will stop the issue. It is caused by tiny VRMs on the back of the card that get too hot if you have poor airflow.
if you have £400 to play with, get a x5650 like mine and clock it. also bump up your ram and grab a cheap 120 - 240GB SSD from here or ebay. then a good second hand GPU with what you have left. Will be massively better upgrade than just a GPU on its own. Tripple channel ram is super rare now and some of it is very expsenive second hand. I did find this tho, its a close match to what you will have, at a reasonable price: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6GB-3x2GB...363080?hash=item2375921448:g:F74AAOSwd0BVzwTt something to keep in mind, some VR headsets needs a lot of USB 3.0 bandwidth, which the x58 chipset does not have at all. I have a addon card for 4 USB3 (2 for front panel, 2 at the rear of the card) ports that are much faster than USB2 but still not full USB3 speed capable
Seems like a few people suggesting a cpu upgrade so think I willl look at that next year. (I'm a bit of a pansy about the whole thermal paste thing so bought a motherboard/ cpu bundle last time). Also hearing from some others that I should be able to move my OEM windows install from current hard drive over to an SSD so will definitely need to revisit that too! MSI GTX 1060 should arrive today from scan Never had a nvidia card before and the little boy in me always wanted one and since there doesn't seem to be much between the 1060 and 480... Thanks to all for your help, definitely given me a few thoughts around future upgrades as well
5-6? That's a 7-8 year old build! :O I agree with Otis - grab a second hand X5650/980X, if poss, and an ~entry level 256G SSD is $70-80USD now. For the cost of VR I'd be trying to grab a second hand Haswell build an 8GB of DDR3 instead..
