Upgrade or Overhaul?

[jaydubdub]

I've been out of the hardware game for a while. So much so that I forgot to update the old hotmail email tied to my original [H] account and had to create a new one. After a couple years of being under a mountain of new home owner adventures, I'm ready to treat myself to an upgrade. I had been saving up for a new build and honestly I was assuming I'd need to jump from my 2500k up to the latest and greatest the world had to offer. Saved up about $1500 (don't need a case -- TJ09 FTW, PSU, or HD's), but yesterday things changed. I spent the afternoon at a friend's house and he let me experience the world of ultrawide gaming on his X34 Predator. Needless to say, I am absolutely hooked.

So that brings me to my question: Can I even swing QHD gaming at 21:9 with a 2500k at 4.4Ghz? I have a 390 in my current machine that the friend with the X34 gifted to me when he upgraded last summer. I play almost exclusively GTAV, BF1, and BF4, but that can always change. I currently game on 1440p (not ultrawide, obviously) and my minimum FPS tends to suffer, but I hover around 55 FPS in BF1 right now.

The way I look at it, I'll probably have to choose between a high refresh rate QHD 21:9 monitor and GPU upgrade, and a migration to an entirely new system. Whatever option I pass on will likely have to wait until next year.

FWIW, here's what I have in my rig now: (original build thread)
- 2500k @ 4.4ghz
- MSI P67A-GD45
- MSI R9 390 8GB
- 16GB GSkill 1333mhz
- 120GB Gskill SSD
- 500GB Crucial BX100 SSD
- 1TB S3 Samsung
- Corsair HX750W

 

[Bandalo]

If it were me I'd get a used 1080 or 980Ti in the next few weeks. The 1080Ti is about to drop and the used market should have some good deals shortly thereafter.

Then pick up a 34" ultrawide, which should eat up the rest of your cash.

That should hold you for another year or two, then work on the CPU/MB upgrade.

 

[bennieboy2290]

Here's how to get your old account back: https://hardforum.com/threads/lost-account-access-and-passwords-changed.1887279/

Also theres a HardOCP article comparing Sandy Bridge to Kaby Lake http://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/01/13/kaby_lake_7700k_vs_sandy_bridge_2600k_ipc_review/1 which shows that an overclocked Sandy Bridge is still pretty strong

 

[jaydubdub]

If it were me I'd get a used 1080 or 980Ti in the next few weeks. The 1080Ti is about to drop and the used market should have some good deals shortly thereafter.

Then pick up a 34" ultrawide, which should eat up the rest of your cash.

That should hold you for another year or two, then work on the CPU/MB upgrade.

That's kind of what I was hoping for. Most of the stuff I had read led me to believe it'd be possible, but I trust the folks here and I appreciate the sanity check.

Ended up finding a deal on a X34, so I went ahead and snagged it. Won't be here for 10 days so that'll give me time to hunt for a 1080.

Here's how to get your old account back: https://hardforum.com/threads/lost-account-access-and-passwords-changed.1887279/

Also theres a HardOCP article comparing Sandy Bridge to Kaby Lake http://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/01/13/kaby_lake_7700k_vs_sandy_bridge_2600k_ipc_review/1 which shows that an overclocked Sandy Bridge is still pretty strong

Cheers. Thanks for both of those links.