Upgrade suggestion from 4790k and 1070.

xellos2099alpha

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 16, 2008
Messages
1,733
I am considering upgrading from a build I have made back in 2016. I am currently using 4790k and 1070 with 1440p monitor. I monstly play FFXIV but I play some newer game on pc once a while as well. I am wondering should I upgrade my gpu or do a complete cpu/mobo upgrade and wait for gpu upgrade in the future. I mainly want just 1440p 60 fps performance.
 
I am considering upgrading from a build I have made back in 2016. I am currently using 4790k and 1070 with 1440p monitor. I monstly play FFXIV but I play some newer game on pc once a while as well. I am wondering should I upgrade my gpu or do a complete cpu/mobo upgrade and wait for gpu upgrade in the future. I mainly want just 1440p 60 fps performance.
My advice has always been upgrade GPU first. Unless you target 100+ fps.
 
It probably depends on what games you are having trouble hitting 60fps in. Games like BF apparently need more cores to run well (per every person on this forum who tells me my 6600k shouldn't be playing games just fine lol.)

None of the games I play seem to care, so as much as I want to upgrade, I'm just waiting patiently for an actual need to.
 
I mean would i get better milage of my 1070 if i upgrade cpu/mobo since it is an aging cpu and using ddr3. It seems unless i am willing to spend big buck I do not get much of an upgrade.
 
I came from a overclocked 2500k 4.7ghz 8gb ddr3 and a GTX 1080 FE. I mainly play overwatch and I can tell you from just upgrading my cpu/ram 3800x and 16GB DDR4 I gained a stupid amount of FPS using the same settings. I’m talking about an increase of 50-70+ FPS. I have a 1440p 144hz GSYNC monitor.
 
I mean would i get better milage of my 1070 if i upgrade cpu/mobo since it is an aging cpu and using ddr3. It seems unless i am willing to spend big buck I do not get much of an upgrade.

It's really going to depend on the game. Upgrading to something like a 3600 or 9600k could net you pretty significant gains in some titles. However if you aren't playing those games then it might make more sense to keep waiting.
 
what cpu/gpu usage % you getting while in game ??
which one maxing out ..

how many cpu cores hitting 100% if any ?
 
I can't imagine too many games that would be CPU limited by a 4790k. I'd probably suggest at least a 1080ti/2080 if you want to notice a difference.
 
I came from a overclocked 2500k 4.7ghz 8gb ddr3 and a GTX 1080 FE. I mainly play overwatch and I can tell you from just upgrading my cpu/ram 3800x and 16GB DDR4 I gained a stupid amount of FPS using the same settings. I’m talking about an increase of 50-70+ FPS. I have a 1440p 144hz GSYNC monitor.


It's a lot bigger jump in modern games going from 4c/4th to a 3800x than you will going from 4c/8th. The 4790k overclocked has similar performance to a i5 8500...so it just depends on how multi threaded your game engine is, PLUS how in search of insane framerates you are.

Upgrading 4790k to 3800x would be about 15% performance improvement in most games if you're running overclocked, or closer to 30% improvement if you're running stock. But you will have o analyze your specific games.

It seems the requested game performs exactly the same with 4c/8th as it does with 6c/12th, meaning you'll need a faster-clocked/IPC cpu tp bump performance! That means you either pay for a 9700k right now, or wait for AMD's Zen 3 to level the playing field.

https://linustechtips.com/main/topi...ith-cpu-using-ffxiv-shadowbringers-benchmark/
 
  • Like
Reactions: Banya
like this
The best solution would be to upscale 1080p on your monitor if it's doing it well. You are just bellow what is needed for 1440P is you to spend much more also if eventually you need to be upgradable to 4K and raytrace.
So just wait for Ampere and Zen 3. You may then buy Big Navi + top level Zen 2 (Ryen 3900X or 3950X) at better price or go with Ampere and Ryzen 4000 12 or 16 cores. The GPUs sold today are going to be ridiculous compared to those to come in the next months.
What you can do now, is to upgrade your CPU first. Ryzen 3700X or better, on X570 chipset, with plenty of RAM like 32GB since it's still cheap (look for stable and compatible not super highly overclockable at 3600Ghz - there is quite no benefit against 3000 for instance). And wait for Nvidia Ampere and AMD RDNA2.
 
If you can sell the 1070 and replace it with a 1080 to that should run you like $150 and I think last you through the next year until all the new stuff is out from both intel and amd. You are barely struggling where you are in terms of performance so it's a hard call and if that's the case waiting is the best option. I am I. The process of going from a 2500k 4.6ghz 16gig 1866 ram to a 3900x but if I could have gotten a steal on a 2600k I may have ended up waiting out the year. But new job money and not building a comp for my self for 8 years kinda pushed me into it but I like benchmarking, building, overclocking as a hobby so if that's not your thing be rational and wait it out (probably)
 
Spending 150 USD to go from a 1070 to a 1080 is, IMO, completely not worth it. If your games are so on the edge of playability that going to a 1080 is a requirement I guess go for it but I think you're better off waiting for new cards to come out.
 
If you are looking to upgrade a GPU the 30% minimum gain is a good rule of thumb. Its not worth the cash to go less than that in general. From a 1070 you are looking at a 2060s or 5700xt at minimum to 'feel' the upgrade. Right now 6c12t Cpus are a nice sweet spot for gaming but at 1440p/60 you can get there still on you Haswell i7 and a better GPU. Maybe flip the 1070 and get into a better GPU to carry into your platform change if you really feel like making a move in the near future.
 
My good rule of thumb used to be : no less than x2 performance before upgrade. This kind of works now again, since Intel stopped managing the whole PC market alone. Some people may have gotten bad habits since some systems may have burned before needing real upgrade and they thought this was the way.
You could go from i7 6700 to Ryzen 1800X and now to 3950X. I believe you can jump to the Ryzen 5000 (Zen 4 Desktop) high end for the next move, maybe 24 cores, 96 threads, much better IPC more than 5Ghz, 5nm, AM5, PCIe 5, DDR5 . For GPU this is the same. You have a Pascal GPU : upgrade only for the same level on Ampere.
 
Back
Top