GPU dead, Replace or New Computer?

[Ryzek]

Hello,

So my GPU:AMD Radeon R9 270x 2GB died on me and I'm debating if I should get a new one or just get a new computer.

Specs
CPU: OEM AMD FX-8320 3.5GHZ EIGHT CORE
MB: GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P AM3+ CROSSFIRE USB3.0 SATA 3
Ram: ADATA XPG V2 8GB DDR3 1866MHZ
PSU: THERMALTAKE SMART SERIES SP-750PCBUS 750W 80PLUS Bronze
HD: 2TB SATA III 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB CACHE 3.5" HD
CPU Cooler: COOLERMASTER SEIDON 120M WATER COOLER


Basically what I'm asking is If I just replace my GPU how much more can I get out of this computer or is it worth is just start fresh.

I can muster up to about $1500 if needed but I was not really expecting to upgrade just yet since the computer is only about 3 years old and I like to try and squeeze out about 5 years if I can.

I mainly play stuff like Wow, FFXIV, Swtor and Vermintide, and soon For Honor.

[Fascinate]

If you can swing it, definitely a new PC for those games. There are new intel CPU's coming out (as well as AMD, but id pass on those until we hear details of mainstream models) but honestly from what i am reading, they are not a huge performance boost from current ones. You can feel pretty safe in building now, there are not great leaps and bounds in CPU performance in the last few years but just going from AMD to intel would be a major boost for the games you play. 1500 isnt necessary at all, you can build a beast rig for under a grand:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($328.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170 Extreme3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($104.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Avexir Core Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.60 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB GT OC Video Card ($201.97 @ Jet)
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case ($60.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($62.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $973.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-12-24 17:48 EST-0500

You could save another~100 bucks going with an i5, but i think at the end of 2016 its worth it for future proofing as more and more games are taking advantage of more than 4 cores, this should continue to trend that way as dx12 progresses.

[Deleted]

Why not just buy a new GPU now and when the new AMD cpus come out, buy the rest of the system then? This way you can decide if they are any good and also prices might get lower, we are quite close to that tipping point so its worth holding out considering the rest of the system is not bad, Intel is defo better right now to your current CPU but its not bad and can play those games at reasonable framerates.

[Fascinate]

Why not just buy a new GPU now and when the new AMD cpus come out, buy the rest of the system then? This way you can decide if they are any good and also prices might get lower, we are quite close to that tipping point so its worth holding out considering the rest of the system is not bad, Intel is defo better right now to your current CPU but its not bad and can play those games at reasonable framerates.

We know nothing about mainstream AMD cpu's, i can almost guarantee they will not clock as high as 6700k/7700k and will be inferior for the games the OP plays. If he has the money now i say he builds, early leaks show kaby lake may be able to overclock slightly higher than skylake, but skylake has far better temps.

[Gorgodeus]

We know nothing about mainstream AMD cpu's, i can almost guarantee they will not clock as high as 6700k/7700k and will be inferior for the games the OP plays. If he has the money now i say he builds, early leaks show kaby lake may be able to overclock slightly higher than skylake, but skylake has far better temps.

Still spouting off 100% unsubstantiated conjecture as fact, I see.

[Fascinate]

Still spouting off 100% unsubstantiated conjecture as fact, I see.

Didn't claim anything as fact, not sure how you got that from my post. Its just very unlikely AMD is going to have a true competitor to intels unlocked i7's for CPU intensive games like WoW/SWTOR etc. AMD still seems focused on core counts, have you seen rumors of 4c 8t parts that can clock to the moon like 6700k/7700k?

[Deleted]

We know nothing about mainstream AMD cpu's, i can almost guarantee they will not clock as high as 6700k/7700k and will be inferior for the games the OP plays. If he has the money now i say he builds, early leaks show kaby lake may be able to overclock slightly higher than skylake, but skylake has far better temps.

Only one of the game he plays will benefit from high frequency from a strong IPC and thats WoW, assumes the OP raids otherwise it won't make a difference, if the IPC is equivalent to each other then being at stock clocks won't hurt.

FF14 is more tied to GPU then CPU considering most of its content relies on smaller group content, example of this, its main raiding content is 8 man, not 20 man but its not cpu intensive anyways.

We have seen leaks and rumours of AMD zen, we have seen more from the 8 core SKU however AMD has said all of its CPUs have a base of 3.4, so it already has a good clock speed out of the box, its IPC structure will be the same, the cache might be different but theres little evidence on the mainstream CPUs benefiting from this in games, think the only CPU that showed a difference was the mainstream Broadwell with its level 4 cache which you can't find on another CPU.

I will say wait really, with the release so close, it be damning to the OP to buy now when he could save money, but buy a GPU non the less now.

Also only the minority will push a high overclock on their CPUs, even if kabylake could do 5 Ghz in the hands of a reviewer, most will likely dial it down in comparison or use auto overclock which tends to be conservative, mean my 5820K auto overclock on the MSI board was 3.3 to 3.8 Ghz, while my own overclock is to 4.3 with 1.15 volts, most don't even touch voltage.

[Fascinate]

Only one of the game he plays will benefit from high frequency from a strong IPC and thats WoW, assumes the OP raids otherwise it won't make a difference, if the IPC is equivalent to each other then being at stock clocks won't hurt.

FF14 is more tied to GPU then CPU considering most of its content relies on smaller group content, example of this, its main raiding content is 8 man, not 20 man but its not cpu intensive anyways.

We have seen leaks and rumours of AMD zen, we have seen more from the 8 core SKU however AMD has said all of its CPUs have a base of 3.4, so it already has a good clock speed out of the box, its IPC structure will be the same, the cache might be different but theres little evidence on the mainstream CPUs benefiting from this in games, think the only CPU that showed a difference was the mainstream Broadwell with its level 4 cache which you can't find on another CPU.

I will say wait really, with the release so close, it be damning to the OP to buy now when he could save money, but buy a GPU non the less now.

6700k has a 4.0ghz base clock and boosts to 4.2 out of the box, and we already know most can hit 4.7ghz or higher when overclocked. Again he is ready to build now, if he waits on anything it would be kaby lake but like i said above early reports show that yes they do clock slightly higher, there seems to be some thermal issues with high overclocks.

If he has the money and wants a new PC, 6700k is a great choice. Not sure what you guys are expecting out of mainstream AMD chips but they will NOT be 7700k competitors, best situation would be 4c 8t parts priced closer to i5 levels but again we will not see the crazy clock rates intel gets out of there k series sku's. Did you guys not see the benchmark linked in the zen thread where it was twenty some odd percent behind a 6700k in that game? Go check it out, its on page 24.

Also SWTOR loves clockrates just as much as WoW does, and a 5820k is not relevant to this discussion as intel mainstream i7's are 4.0ghz base clock, 4.5ghz is considered a mild overclock.

[Deleted]

6700k has a 4.0ghz base clock and boosts to 4.2 out of the box, and we already know most can hit 4.7ghz or higher when overclocked. Again he is ready to build now, if he waits on anything it would be kaby lake but like i said above early reports show that yes they do clock slightly higher, there seems to be some thermal issues with high overclocks.

If he has the money and wants a new PC, 6700k is a great choice. Not sure what you guys are expecting out of mainstream AMD chips but they will NOT be 7700k competitors, best situation would be 4c 8t parts priced closer to i5 levels but again we will not see the crazy clock rates intel gets out of there k series sku's. Did you guys not see the benchmark linked in the zen thread where it was twenty some odd percent behind a 6700k in that game? Go check it out, its on page 24.

I did see that, people are stating its a downclocked Zen chip, not 3.4 with boost enabled, the I7 indeed has that clockspeed but the more mainstream I5 does not, granted the OP budget can accommodate it, I rather tell the OP to wait upto 2 months and see if he can save money, he already has a working system that is half decent and can easily buy the GPU now.

Also I never consider how far a CPU can overclock to be a valid way for someone to buy said chip, the I7 7700K may well be the leading chip at its highest overclock, but you also forget most people do not overclock, and those that do, most do not push a high overclock anyways, your argument of the I7 7700K being the go to chip is null in this sense.

But also, your statement is sounding a lot like 'facts', we have an expectation from the Zen chips, we have seen leaks and like for like benchmarks in real world application which can show IPC strength over the cores, people with 6900K have validated AMDs blender benches, the Zen chip is not looking weak, the performance difference if theres any is not big, if its priced properly then it will save the OP money.

[Fascinate]

Wait what? We know these zen chips are 3.4ghz base, 7700k is 4.2ghz base your argument about people not overclocking suits my point of view more than it does yours.

[Ryzek]

If you can swing it, definitely a new PC for those games. There are new intel CPU's coming out (as well as AMD, but id pass on those until we hear details of mainstream models) but honestly from what i am reading, they are not a huge performance boost from current ones. You can feel pretty safe in building now, there are not great leaps and bounds in CPU performance in the last few years but just going from AMD to intel would be a major boost for the games you play. 1500 isnt necessary at all, you can build a beast rig for under a grand:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($328.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170 Extreme3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($104.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Avexir Core Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.60 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB GT OC Video Card ($201.97 @ Jet)
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case ($60.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($62.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $973.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-12-24 17:48 EST-0500

You could save another~100 bucks going with an i5, but i think at the end of 2016 its worth it for future proofing as more and more games are taking advantage of more than 4 cores, this should continue to trend that way as dx12 progresses.

Thanks for this info. Just to know if I just wanted to upgrade the GPU and keep what I have, what would be recommended? I just want to see what my options are.

[alzoron]

Your motherboard only supports up to pci express v2 so it won't be able to take full advantage of anything released in the past 4-5 years. In fact your current dead GPU was capable of v3 and was also being held back by your motherboard.

[Fascinate]

While true PCI -E revisions make almost no difference in performance, its really negligible. If you did want to just do a GPU upgrade i would suggest the card linked in the build, a 1060 3gb is the best value 1080p card on the market.

[Bryntrollian]

Your motherboard only supports up to pci express v2 so it won't be able to take full advantage of anything released in the past 4-5 years. In fact your current dead GPU was capable of v3 and was also being held back by your motherboard.

The differences in PCIE 3.0 and 2.0 show minimal differences in real world applications though.

[Denpepe]

The differences in PCIE 3.0 and 2.0 show minimal differences in real world applications though.

This is true of you stick to one GPU, 1080p and have an x16 slot available.

As for the OP it depends on what you want to achieve. If you play on 1080 and plan to stick to that for the forseeable future a GTX 1060 should do well enough, I would however recommend a 6GB version, a GTX 1070 can also be considered if you plan to go up to 1440p or make the card last a bit longer.

[Ryzek]

Ok, thanks everyone for the input. I'll figure out to do from here I just needed a jumping off point.

[TyloBedo]

Have you double checked your gpu isn't under warranty still? I haven't seen a gpu with less than a 3 year warranty in awhile.

[HumbleDuck]

I'd say go for a 1070 ( 1060 is ok for 1080p as well, but I worry the ram on that thing is just going to be less than optimal in near future. Rx480 8g, in the other hand seems to be a great option instead of 1060, specially with current updates they made to drivers) and wait for a couple of month for the new chips to drop. If you felt the need, then upgrade to a high i5 or an i7 ( 8320 probably will bottleneck 1070)

PS. What ever you do, don't forget to get an SSD. It makes you feel 10 years younger.