Help me upgrade my rig to 2560 x 1440

[Howard Moon]

Hi guys,

I want to upgrade my current PC to be able to game at 2560 x 1440 with a good framerate (min 60?).

Specifically, I want to get this monitor. I currently use a 24'' Dell HD monitor which I'd like to keep for browsing etc (no dual-screen gaming desired).

Budget is not really an issue (keep it reasonable), but of course I'd like to re-use as much of my current hardware as possible. Not listed in the parts list is an SSD where I have my OS.

Most demanding games I'd like to play on this rig are: DOOM, Overwatch, Alien Isolation, D3... for now.

If I can't keep my current Win7 license (due to having to upgrade my MoBo or whatever), I'll probably upgrade to Win10.

Appreciate any sugestions from the experts!

Thanks!

[Denpepe]

Grab a GTX 1080 and call it a day. You may even get away with a GTX 1070, the rest of you machine seems still good enough, might want to think also to change the PSU as yours is getting old and/or add another 8GB of ram.

[Karon]

Grab a GTX 1080 and call it a day. You may even get away with a GTX 1070, the rest of you machine seems still good enough, might want to think also to change the PSU as yours is getting old and/or add another 8GB of ram.

Bullshit.

A GTX 1080 won't handle 2560x1440 @ 60FPS in modern games.

Go SLI or Titan XP, anything else won't handleyour resolution at 60 FPS without having to set everything to medium or worse.

[Notdev]

Bullshit.

A GTX 1080 won't handle 2560x1440 @ 60FPS in modern games.

Go SLI or Titan XP, anything else won't handleyour resolution at 60 FPS without having to set everything to medium or worse.

Quick research shows that a 1070 will slay all the games that he mentioned at 1440p, max settings, not even close to dipping to 60 fps.
CPU might be a slight bottleneck unless you got a great overclock going (4.5 ghz or more)

[Howard Moon]

CPU might be a slight bottleneck unless you got a great overclock going (4.5 ghz or more)

Could I upgrade my CPU while keeping my MoBo? My CPU is also old and if I was to OC it more I might have to replace it soon anyway... right?

[Notdev]

Could I upgrade my CPU while keeping my MoBo? My CPU is also old and if I was to OC it more I might have to replace it soon anyway... right?

Yeah, but people trying to push OCs farther is a pretty common way to try and get a longer life out of your CPU.
You could upgrade your CPU, but not big enough to where I'd say it was worth it. AFAIK the furthest you can go with that socket would be an i7-3770k, which are pretty bad price/performance right now since they are pretty old.

At that point you're looking at a mostly new build.

[Deleted]

OP, non of those games are hugely demanding even at high resolutions, even the RX480 and Nvidia 1060 cards will run those games at high settings at 1440p, the RX480 has a decent lead on Doom.

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

At this moment in time, the 1070 will do everything well, so depends on your budget, but overwatch can be run really well even on low systems.

[Holian]

Looked through your current PC, and i would reccomend upgrading to a 1070, that would be the largest single upgrade you could do really, the rest is ok but if you have the budget i would upgrade the motherboard and cpu as they are getting quite old aswell, add some RAM so you get up to 16gb (some people say this is overkill but personally i really like it, every now and then i got bottlenecked with 8gb so it's nice just to have that leeway) and if the last upgrade i would reccomend is an SSD, the improved load times is very noticable.

So the upgrades i would reccomend getting are as follows.

GPU: GTX 1070
CPU: 6600k for just gaming, 6700k if you are doing any sort of editing/streaming, i wouldn't go up to the 6800k or the 6850k unless you do ALOT of editing/streaming, would be overkill.
Motherboard: ASUS Z170-A, there are a few different models, motherboard isn't that important honestly aslong as it has the right socket support (s-1151) but this one i reccomend, not too expensive and has all that you need really.
RAM: I'm guessing you are running DDR3 in your old system, if you are making the cpu/motherboard upgrade, you have to upgrade to DDR4 aswell, good time to get 16gb (again alot of people think 16gb is overkill, personally i like it)
SSD: Not needed at all, but it's a really nice quality of life upgrade, i would go with a 500gb ssd, so it has room for your operating system and most if not all of your games, i reccomend the samsung 850 EVO 500gb ssd.

The rest of your setup is fine really, hope this was useful.

[Kezotar]

Bullshit.

A GTX 1080 won't handle 2560x1440 @ 60FPS in modern games.

Go SLI or Titan XP, anything else won't handleyour resolution at 60 FPS without having to set everything to medium or worse.

1080 SLI or Titan for 1440p?
XDDDDDDD

[Azurenys]

Im with a 1080 and at 1440p for example in WoW i dip under 60, in GTA V with Ultra settings I go between 30 to 60 fps.
I have my CPU OC'd to 4.5GHz btw.

PS. Due to my monitor I have Gsync enabled so maybe that dips a bit more.

[Zelorra]

Bullshit.

A GTX 1080 won't handle 2560x1440 @ 60FPS in modern games.

Go SLI or Titan XP, anything else won't handleyour resolution at 60 FPS without having to set everything to medium or worse.

I have 1070 and play everything on max at 1440. You are retarded and should stay off the internet.

[Jtbrig7390]

As others have said a 1070 or 1080 will be enough to run most games at 60fps/1440p. (For a couple really high demanding games u will have to tweak a couple settings)

Wow is more CPU heavy then GPU so u will see a gain but not much of one. Trying to get WoW 60fps+ (at all times) 1440p Ultra is impossible at this time.

Edit: To add I do not recommend SLI at all. Not all games support it or support it well. If you can get the performance you want out of one card over SLIing then get the one card.

Example of 1080 and 1070.
1080.

1070.

[Howard Moon]

You could upgrade your CPU, but not big enough to where I'd say it was worth it. AFAIK the furthest you can go with that socket would be an i7-3770k, which are pretty bad price/performance right now since they are pretty old.

At that point you're looking at a mostly new build.

Yeah, that's what I feared. That's good to know though!

last upgrade i would reccomend is an SSD, the improved load times is very noticable.

I did get an SSD some years ago, it was an awesome upgrade

RAM: I'm guessing you are running DDR3 in your old system, if you are making the cpu/motherboard upgrade, you have to upgrade to DDR4 aswell, good time to get 16gb (again alot of people think 16gb is overkill, personally i like it)

Oohh, interesting! So you mean whenever I decide to get a new CPU+MoBo, I also have to replace my RAM because my DDR3 won't be compatible?

In that case, if I only upgrade my GPU right now (like most of you are suggesting), I will hold off buying any more DDR3 RAM and stay with my 8Gb.

Wow is more CPU heavy then GPU so u will see a gain but not much of one. Trying to get WoW 60fps+ (at all times) 1440p Ultra is impossible at this time.

No longer play WoW so no worries there. I was mostly concerned about DOOM, since I thought it would probably be quite demanding. Apparently not so much?

Thank you everyone for the info so far!

[Notdev]

Oohh, interesting! So you mean whenever I decide to get a new CPU+MoBo, I also have to replace my RAM because my DDR3 won't be compatible?

Well, not every time. The current gen Intel CPU and the next several Intel/AMD gens will be using DDR4, however.

Its also possible to get a DDR3 Skylake (current Intel CPU gen) motherboard, but those are rare and kind of pointless.

See if you can pick up your CPU overclock and buy a 1070 to extend the life of your PC for a bit. Then maybe a year down the line, when you're ready to upgrade, replace everything but reuse your 1070.

[Zalavaaris]

Wow some people really hate their money lol. Anyway, OP I'm using an r9 390 still on an acer x34. I'm upgrading to a 1080 ti when it comes out to take advantage of gsync but if you're just using an ordinary 1440p monitor with no gsync or higher refresh rate something like an r9 390 (cheap when used off ebay) or an rx 480 would be fine.

[Howard Moon]

See if you can pick up your CPU overclock and buy a 1070 to extend the life of your PC for a bit. Then maybe a year down the line, when you're ready to upgrade, replace everything but reuse your 1070.

That sounds like a good plan.

Wow some people really hate their money lol.

What's your point? That the GTXs are overpriced? They do seem quite a bit more expensive (RX 480 8Gb @ 293Eur vs. GTX 1070 8Gb @ 408Eur). The benchmark video that someone posted above was comparing the RX 480 to the GTX 1060 and the GTX performed better on most games (except Doom... doh!). So I assume with GTX 1070 the comparison would be even more one-sided?

[Zalavaaris]

What's your point?

My point is that someone suggested a damn gtx 1080 for a 60hz 1440p monitor... that's throwing money away (unless you plan to upgrade your monitor relatively soon). You can get an r9 390 that'll do VERY well used on ebay for 150 bucks. However, splurging isn't a bad thing, if you can afford a 1070 that'll be a damn good card for the monitor you are looking at. I'm certainly not against buying powerful expensive toys as i'm waiting here with bells on for the 1080 tI (msi gaming z if they would be kind enough to make it )

[Wildpantz]

I have a 4790k at 4.8ghz i have a gtx 1080 32gb vengence pro ddr3 kit. I use a pg78q monitor rog swift its a 1440p 144hz. I used to have sli 970 and they struggled with new tomraider i rhen got my 1080 doom ow bf1 cod i run 1440p max settings and its 100+fps. If you have a 60hz monitor 1070 will be enough i strongly recommed 144hz and gsync.

[Jtbrig7390]

No longer play WoW so no worries there. I was mostly concerned about DOOM, since I thought it would probably be quite demanding. Apparently not so much?

Thank you everyone for the info so far!

Ether of those cards should be able to run DOOM at 1440p on ether High or Ultra. This does depend on the rest of ur rig tho.

Np at all.

- - - Updated - - -

What's your point? That the GTXs are overpriced? They do seem quite a bit more expensive (RX 480 8Gb @ 293Eur vs. GTX 1070 8Gb @ 408Eur). The benchmark video that someone posted above was comparing the RX 480 to the GTX 1060 and the GTX performed better on most games (except Doom... doh!). So I assume with GTX 1070 the comparison would be even more one-sided?

Sadly Nivida cards right now win hands down in Price+Performance.

I wish AMD had better then at this moment they don't.

[Deleted]

I ran doom on 1440p above ultra settings with a ASUS 980Ti STRIX and got about 80-130FPS depending on where i was and how much was going on. The guy that said you need SLI 1080 for this is a joke.

PC i ran it on is in my sig.