Looking for upgrade advice, please.

D

Doodlehed

Limp Gawd
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Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
155
Soooo with taxmas looming and the impending release of Ryzen in the coming months I'm looking to upgrade......Something. I'm either going to upgrade my monitor, GPU or my cpu/MOBO.

Currently I'm gaming on:
4670k
8gb ram
1060 gtx
My monitor is some cheap 21" AOC 60hz.

Really interested in a 120hz or better monitor.
My cpu seems to be pretty decent still. The 1060 leaves something to be desired. I previously had a 970 which took a dump on me so I got the 1060 and it's more of a lateral move imo. My 3D mark scores are only about 10% higher which was not impressive.

Soooo, GPU, CPU/mobo or high refresh rate monitor?
 
I'd go with GPU first. A bigger monitor is just going to make you even more disappointed with your current one. Overclock your CPU, slap in a new GPU, upgrade your monitor next time you get some money.
 
Lets see here. I wouldn't buy any new CPU/mobo until Ryzen arrives early next year - it could turn out to be a fantastic deal if the price it right and it performs as early indications suggest. Even with that, having a strong Haswell platform will mean you aren't going to be weak in the CPU regard for awhile. If you're on a quality Z97 board and have sufficient cooling, make sure your CPU is overclocked, for more performance. If you lack a quality cooler, that's the thing to upgrade! RAM wise, don't spend a fortune since you're probably working with DDR3, but you could probably buy another 8gb or a 16gb kit from someone here on the forums for pretty cheap - that would give you a bit more performance in some circumstances. You just bought a GPU and its a decent one, but if you really want an upgrade you could try grabbing a 1080 or 1070 (preferable, I think 1080s aren't worth it this year) but I'd caution you to appraise with a cool head because AMD Vega is going to debut early next year and it would be nice to see how it stacks up before spending the cash (though you could probably flip your 1070 if need be). Oh, one more thing - not sure what kind of HDD or SSD you're using, but if you're NOT using a solid state drive for your system drive, that's an inexpensive upgrade that can be a big change; pick up a Samsung 850 EVO and you'll be in a good place.

Now, on Monitors. You would probably enjoy a much bigger and better monitor, but you need to have the GPU power to deal with it, especially if you want something above 1440p and aren't fond of turning down some of the game settings. For not a lot of cash, you can buy a high quality 1440p 27" (ie $300 or so) AH-IPS display. For a bit more , you can get a 4K. Alternately, getting a 40-something-inch TV from Samsung or Sony is what some are doing instead, at the 4K level. Now, as far as refresh rates are concerned, sadly most of the faster ones are crappy TN panels but there are some IPS or VA panel powered ones that can handle them. Oh also consider getting a monitor with some adaptive sync as well; FreeSync is the one I favor - AMD cards use the implementation that is part of the DisplayPort spec and generally are inexpensive to add to a monitor. Conversely, Nvidia favors GSync which requires a proprietary hardware controller built into the monitor thus raising the cost. Ultimately, It does come down to how much you want to spend and what you value. Pick the things that are of most importance to you first, size, resolution, frequency etc... and then go from there to find what you wish to spend!
 
I'm leaning towards GPU at this point. However, I don't mind scaling back the quality to hit high fps for some buttery smooth high refresh gaming. I prefer higher fps vs quality. I only play first person shooters so a high refresh might give me an edge with tracking and spotting enemies. But then, who knows if my 1060 would push it high enough to be advetageous. Maybe I'll just get a 1070 and a cheap 120-144hz monitor. This is all subject to change though, 2 months until I'm buying. I just like to have my research done and know exactly what I'm looking for.
 
I do have an h100i on my cpu and it runs really cool. I bet I could get a really good OC out of this CPU. I wonder if it's going to fit a am4 ryzen cpu.
 
Doodlehed said:
Maybe I'll just get a 1070 and a cheap 120-144hz monitor. This is all subject to change though, 2 months until I'm buying. I just like to have my research done and know exactly what I'm looking for.
Click to expand...

You answered your own question. Get a new GPU and a 120-144 monitor. Go with the monitor first and experience shooters like never before.
 
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