Upgrade options for this older PC?

trackerman

Current spec:

CPU - Intel i9-990k @3.6GHz

GPU - HD 7900 (my 2070 super died, so using this a spare, but it's poor)

Mem- 32Gb RAM DDR4 Dual at 1066MHz

MB - MPG Z390 Gaming Plus mother board

Looking to spend between 400 and 600 Euro to eek out the best/optimal upgraded for FPS Gaming.

Should I just upgrade the GPU to something like a 4060 ? (prices seem to have come down).

Would any other parts be worth upgrading, like CPU or Memory?

Thanks

Tracker!

K.O.Kiki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058394563/upgrade-options-for-this-older-pc

RTX 4060 only makes sense if you're only looking to spend 300eur & have a low-power PSU.
For your budget, you'd be best looking at Nvidia RTX 4070 / AMD RX 7800 XT, or wait 1 month for RTX 5070 / RX 9070 to release.

trackerman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123144393#Comment_123144393

Thanks, PSU is 850w Crosair so it should be good for something beefy. I will look at the 4070 or 7800.

Cheers!

trackerman

So just doing some final checks before pulling the trigger…

I can afford the RTX 4070, but when checking Bottleneck calculators online…

https://pc-builds.com/bottleneck-calculator/

It shows the RTX 4060 as being almost perfectly matched to the i9-9900k CPU, whereas they say the 4070 is bottlenecked at the CPU.

How reliable at these these online bottleneck calculators? and am I committing a PC build sin by getting the 4070 or better?

I don't think I will be upgrading the Motherboard or CPU any time soon, so perhaps the best 'return per Euro' is the RTX 4060 at Euro 325 from Amazon Uk, whereas the RTX 4070 is costing about Euro 600 and Euro 560 for the RX 7800.

Thoughts?

Coyler

Those bottleneck calculaters are worthless. All that matters is if you are getting the desired FPS at your desired resolution. I really suspect that you are not looking for 144+ at 1080p for competitive gaming and more towards 1440p60 at a high settings. The i9-9900K will be not be ideal but at 1440p but I strongly suspect you'd have to run benchmarks to be able to tell the difference outside of some edge cases.

Do Not Get The 4060 for your system. The cards only run at x8 which is fine on PCIe gen 4 but your motherboard is gen 3. Nevermind a CPU bottleneck, this would be far worse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU5jYCgnT7s

I'd not get a new card until the 9070XT is launched. If you were desperate, buy one from CEX and sell it back to them in a month. Or pick one up from Adverts and shift it for similar price later. A 580 or 1070 would be fine for now.

Barring that check out Hagglezon or geizhals.eu for pricing. I found a 7800XT for €504 on Amazon de. 4070s' are floating around the €600 mark. I understand people want to buy Nvidia but I'd think there is an obvious choice for me given that pricing.

https://www.techspot.com/review/2736-geforce-rtx-4070-vs-radeon-7800-xt/

trackerman

Thanks Coyler, good to know.

So I'll need a gpu which uses all 16 Pcie lanes, something like the 7800xt . I'm not in a major rush so I reckon I'll wait for the new gpus in March to hopefully knock down the 7800xt prices.