PC upgrade

h0neybadger

Hi folks,

Toying with the idea of upgrading my gaming PC.

Currently have a
core i5 4690k
32gb ddr3 ram
z97-a asus
gtx 970

Thinking of going for a
core i5 9600k
16 gb ddr4
asus z270
970 evo m2

total cost is about £615.

I'll be keeping
tower - NZXT Source 340
monitor - LG 34UM68 ultrawide screen 2560 x 1080
GPU - Gigabyte GTX 970
Windows, HDD's etc.

Current cooler is a Corsair h55. Does this fit 1151 sockets?

Anything better available for that price / budget?

TerrorFirmer

If it's purely for gaming it seems a bit pointless especially when you've such an old GPU.

If your budget is at that level, you could pick up a 2nd hand i7-4770 or 4790 for about €120 from CEX, which is a big upgrade, and spend the rest on something like a cheap GTX1070, GTX1070Ti or Vega 56/64 (if Freesync is of interest).

New RTX2060 to be announced soon so may be worth waiting for that either, should offer 1070Ti performance, have newer features, and be cheaper, hopefully.

Or if you just want a system upgrade, a Ryzen 2600, B450M, 16GB DDR4 and one of the above cards isn't too much off £615 either and is way better balanced.

Inquitus

Yep, TerrorFirmer has it right, your weakest link is defo your Graphics Card, if anything upgrading that and keeping your current CPU, Mobo, RAM etc. would give you by far the best gains from your €500, or just a CPU and Graphics card upgrade as also mooted.

wotzgoingon

Them 970's weren't that great even when new. They were really cheap which is why they sold so many. A few years back my overclocked 290 could easily beat a HIGHLY OVERCLOCKED 970.

TerrorFirmer

That's really not true. The 970 was incredibly popular because it was an excellent performer at a reasonable cost. It was faster than the R9 290 and ran cooler and quieter.

It also wasn't that cheap, it was similar in price to the R9 290 as well. I think it was about €330-350 here, I remember I got an R9 290 at launch for about €360 or so.

Possibly one of the best mid-range cards ever and definitely one of the most popular as well.

wotzgoingon

I agree the 970 was more power efficient/cooler and was far quieter but performing better than a 290 I don't agree with, at stock yes it did but once both were overclocked the 290 performed better by a bit.

h0neybadger

cheers guys.

It's mainly to upgrade as I got an oculus Rift off the gf for christmas, and playing Skyrim, it shíts the bed after 10 minutes and frame rate dies

wotzgoingon

It's the GPU that needs replacing as was said in thread. And maybe a second hand i7 if on the cheap but a higher core count CPU + GPU combo would be best.

unkel

How's the mining, man?

h0neybadger

unkel wrote: »

How's the mining, man?

you don't wanna know....

unkel

I do!

Thankfully you're still around and posting here on boards after what was a devastating year for crypto

K.O.Kiki

There's a Gigabyte Vega 56 on eBuyer for £320 right now
https://www.ebuyer.com/823274-gigabyte-radeon-rx-vega-56-gaming-oc-graphics-card-gv-rxvega56gaming-oc-8gd

Should do you nicely for 2560x1080 @ 60Hz with FreeSync, max settings.

Or even an RX 590 which should get 60fps at a mixture of High/Ultra
https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=gra16_512&xf=653_AMD%7E9809_14+6769+-+RX+590

Alternatively, wait a week to see what gets announced at CES.

TerrorFirmer

h0neybadger wrote: »

cheers guys.

It's mainly to upgrade as I got an oculus Rift off the gf for christmas, and playing Skyrim, it shíts the bed after 10 minutes and frame rate dies

Not sure that's the inherent spec at fault.

The 4690K and GTX970 are getting long in the tooth, but still capable (esp if i5 is overclocked), and with settings adjusted accordingly Skyrim VR should run fine.

If it runs fine for 10 minutes and then craps out, there's something else at play.....either the CPU or GPU is downclocking most likely.

Inviere

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

If it runs fine for 10 minutes and then craps out, there's something else at play.....either the CPU or GPU is downclocking most likely.

Suggesting a cooling issue?

h0neybadger

nah, it's not a cooling issue. temps are no higher than 65 for cpu and gpu under benchmark load.

I think I've figured it out. I had afterburner, but something went wrong with the OC profile.
Remade it, and all seems to be much more stable and better performance now.

Will still look at upgrading the GPU and CPU, but maybe not such an urgency anymore

CPU has been stable at 4.2GHz for almost 2 years now.
GPU stable again now at 1550MHz / 3570MHz.