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Need advice: Worth upgrading or Replace

J

jgregg078

n00b
Joined
Sep 3, 2011
Messages
8
Hey all,

I have my semi-old gaming PC fresh out of storage since my living arrangement were chaotic. I wasn't sure if it was worth upgrading or if I should just start from scratch. Below are the primary specs.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD5H LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1150 88W cooled with Corsair Hydro Series H100i
Memory: 32GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance
PSU: Cougar SX (I tihnk 850W but may be 700w)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980

Would you guys recommend starting over from scratch or upgrading (and what would you think is worth the upgrade)? I have been out of the hardware game for a bit and looking for some guidance.

Thanks in advance.
 
Well < a deep subject > it depends.
What do you do with your PC?
Emails and browsing the internet?
Gaming?
Productivity?
Those are all great components for a lot of things.
If you game, what's your monitor's Resolution and max refresh rate?
Maybe most important where do you want to be and what is your budget?
 
Yep, completely forgot to answer the normal questions.

I want to get back into gaming specifically with this PC. I have my laptop for all other functions.

My current monitor is below and I was planning on upgrading this anyhow but I haven't done much research into what is out there now.


ASUS VG248QE 24"
1920 x 1080 Full HD
1ms Response Time
144Hz Refresh Rate

I want to be able to keep up with most recent AAA titles and plan for some upcoming ones.

Depending on the requirements to upgrade, I am sitting at different budgets lines but I can justify about $800 if I am sticking to upgrades. Much more than that and I would probably go in for a new build with a budget of around $2,000 to $3,000.

Thanks
 
In most current games, you're going to be CPU-limited to 100 fps or less. You'll have to run most new games at medium to get anywhere near that framerate on that GTX 980.

You can't upgrade your CPU any higher.

I'd probably suggest going AMD 3800x for CPU, 32GB 3200 DDR4, any x570 motherboard under $300, and 2070 Super for GPU. You can probably piece together a powerful gaming upgrade for under $1500. Or if you want to wait six months, AMD's Zen 3 will be along, as well as NVIDIA's Ampere.
 
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That should be serviceable at 1080p but far from ideal, a new gpu would buy some wiggle room but you'll still be cpu limited in newer games that are demanding.

If I had your setup and wanted more performance I'd replace the gpu and then if I still wasn't satisfied I'd build a new system to put it in. Keep in mind that you could build a nice system minus gpu for under a thousand right now(proof that competition is good).

Edit: Unless you're a high FPS above all type and you do decide to replace everything at once I would recommend replacing the monitor with a larger and higher res one and planning the build for the new resolution, I like 27" 1440p for bang/buck systems and 32" 4k for high end. Monitor technology has greatly improved the last few years.
 
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Thank you all.

I think I am going to go with the recommendation of upgrading my GPU and monitor first and seeing what I want to do from there.
 
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