What to do now ?

peneau · 23-02-2019 3:21pm #1

Hi everybody, looking for some advice coming up to 9 years ago built a fairly handy system, Intel i7 (Bloomfield) 930@2.80ghz, Motherboard Gigabyte x58A-UD3R, Graphics Card ATI Sapphire HD5970 (Great old warrior still going and capable of running last Call of Duty World at War, albeit with dummed down settings) nothing overclocked, 16gb RAM, SSD, Barracuda HD's Win 10 Pro

Would like to replace the HD5970 or should I go the whole hog and replace CPU, MB and GC any suggestions appreciated.

Many thanks.

K.O.Kiki · 23-02-2019 4:35pm

You could maybe get away with overclocking the CPU to near-enough 4GHz - it's still a 4core/8thread part.
However, you would best be served by upgrading to a new platform, as your 1% lows (i.e. micro-stutter/frametimes) will suffer compared to a new platform.

For a system with similar longevity, I'd spend around 660 eur minimum:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£148.99 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI - B450 Gaming Plus ATX AM4 Motherboard (£84.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£96.55 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX - Radeon RX 580 8 GB GTR XXX Edition White Video Card (£183.00 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: be quiet! - Pure Power 11 CM 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£63.33 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £576.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-23 15:35 GMT+0000

peneau · 23-02-2019 5:01pm

Thank you K O, less expensive upgrade than I thought it would be, think I'm okay for a PSU, there's a Corsair 1000W in the system (don't know what I was thinking at the time) thank you again, much obliged to you. Will the VC you recommended be good enough for 2560 X 1600 display ?

TerrorFirmer · 23-02-2019 5:15pm

For another 70 odd pounds you could push the boat out for a Vega 56, which is significantly better, and for your 1440P display it would be a better choice really.

Your current PC would have been very high end in 2010, the equivalent today would probably be something like an i7-8700 + RTX2070 8GB.

I would say the Ryzen 2600 is perfect, if you can afford it just consider beefing up to a Vega 56, it's great value at around 250 pounds right now.

You can get better cards, but the performance per euro rating would be way worse (eg RTX2070 or Vega 64). Other cards would include the RTX2060 but it's not massively better than Vega 56, costs a lot more, and only has 6GB VRAM (Vega has 8).

peneau · 23-02-2019 5:20pm

Brilliant will go with the Vega 56 so, thank you both again.

peneau · 24-02-2019 12:31pm

Final piece of advice Gentlemen if I may, please. My monitor has DVi-D cable out only, the Vega is hdmi or display port any way to get 1440p through this setup ?

TerrorFirmer · 24-02-2019 12:38pm

You can get a HDMI to DVI-D cable for a couple euro. Most higher-end cards now don't have a native DVI connector onboard.

peneau · 24-02-2019 12:40pm

Thank you again, are those converters capable of supporting 1440 ?

K.O.Kiki · 24-02-2019 1:35pm

peneau wrote: »

Thank you again, are those converters capable of supporting 1440 ?

Looking at Startech.com, most of their DVI-to-HDMI cables max out at 1920x1200.

So you'll have to look for a different GPU made by another vendor.

peneau · 24-02-2019 2:44pm

Thanks again K.

Oh dear, already ordered the Vega 56. Found this article, which may be a way out https://blog.briancmoses.com/2015/02/hooking-up-my-qnix-2710-to-displayport.html
DisplayPort to DVI Active Converter – Black (DPDVIA)

What to do now ?

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