Upgrade or new build?

Kiith

So i've had the upgrade itch the last few months, with my machine occasionally struggling to handle games at max settings. The machine also runs quite hot at the moment, with the GPU hitting 90+ Celsius when i push it too high.

I'm just not sure if i could just upgrade the current setup, or starting from scratch and selling the below machine would be the way to go.

Current setup is below, and i play on a 27" monitor (1440p when able).
Intel Core i5-4670K Box, LGA1150
ASRock Z87 Pro3, Sockel 1150, ATX
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance grün, DDR3-1600, CL9-9-9-24
FRACTAL DESIGN Define R4 Black Pearl
iChill GeForce GTX 770 HerculeZ X3 Ultra, 2GB DDR5
Corsair CX Series Modular CX600M, 600W
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD
Arctic Cooling Wärmeleitpaste MX-4 Tube
ASUS DRW-24F1ST (Bulk) Silent

Any suggestions? I was thinking of getting a 1070 and upgrading the RAM and motherboard, but i'd probably need a new PSU as well, and at that stage, i may as well just start a new build. Or i could just go for the RX480, and keep most of what i have.

K.O.Kiki

Only needs a GPU upgrade.

RX480 / GTX1060 (6Gb) if running on 60Hz; GTX1070 / used 980Ti for beyond-60fps performance.

Add a new 2TB+ HDD if needed.
Overclock the CPU.

No other changes needed.

TerrorFirmer

If you have the budget, the 1070 is the way to go along with putting a healthy overclock on the CPU. Your PSU is more than enough. The RX480 8GB is still a very nice upgrade as well though and decent at 1440p, and almost half the price.

Kiith

Ok, a 1070 is definitely doable if i'm not replacing much else. Hadn't even thought to overclock the CPU, but that's something i'll look into as well. Is better cooling something i should look into, or will the 1070 be able to handle it better, and hence not need the fans running as much? They get noisy enough at the moment when running at max.

This seems to be one of the better ones for speed and heat.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ZOTAC-ZT-P10700B-10P-GeForce-Extreme-Graphics/dp/B01GVNN9GQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486638654&sr=8-1&keywords=zotac+1070

Xenoronin

GPUs are generally always noisy while gaming unfortunately. The 1070 is really good and shouldn't have to push that hard in most games (especially if you lock the max framerate). I have the iChill X3 1070 and I can definitely hear it while gaming, but mostly wear headphones so I don't notice it at all. The sound isn't even that bad at max (I honestly don't know if I've hit 100% fan speed tbh, so this is high/ultra settings on DOOM), kinda like a quiet hairdryer so I mostly don't even notice it.

16gb of RAM is a completely optional upgrade. I noticed that games like BF4 were using a hell of a lot of RAM and so upgraded, but it mostly hasn't made one bit of a difference that I've seen.

You could look into getting some soundproofing foam for your case, though I don't know how effective that is.

K.O.Kiki

https://www.computerbase.de/2016-10/geforce-gtx-1070-partnerkarten-vergleich-test/4/

EVGA, Gainward/Palit (triple-slot) are practically silent (I can't hear my Palit Jetstream under load)
Inno3D, MSI & Asus are quiet.

Kiith

Ok, might go for the EVGA in that case. Also going to stick in another 8gb of RAM. DDR is stil grand, right?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01HZQVSDO/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ARWFG41TXG1LU

Although the Palit Jetstream gives me For Honour for free...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Palit-Jetstream-NVIDIA-GeForce-Graphics/dp/B01GVN4LXQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486643075&sr=8-1&keywords=palit+1070

Much of a difference between the two?

Zillah

You'll need to set up a custom cooling solution if you're going to overclock a cpu that's already running 90+C. Also, your card has a built in turbo mode that boosts it to 3.8, and if it's anything like my i7 3770k it will run the boost all of the time anyway. I'm not sure how much you'd gain from overclocking unless you were going to really go all out.

1070 will gobble up most games without breaking a sweat but that won't likely impact your cpu load - the two don't overlap much in modern games. I would make a large wager that if you popped a 1070 in there and changed nothing else you'd have no complaints. Another 8GB of RAM just to be sure but most games don't use anywhere near 16GB in my experience. You've an SSD, a CPU that's hardly holding you back.

When it comes to the different models of 1070: they don't matter a flying flute performance-wise. Under extremely controlled conditions you might detect a two or three frame rate difference between them, nothing else. Noise is pretty much the only issue. I've the stock model because it was the only type available on release and I can't say I've ever noticed it making any noise at all.

K.O.Kiki

Kiith wrote: »

Ok, might go for the EVGA in that case. Also going to stick in another 8gb of RAM. DDR is stil grand, right?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01HZQVSDO/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ARWFG41TXG1LU

Although the Palit Jetstream gives me For Honour for free...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Palit-Jetstream-NVIDIA-GeForce-Graphics/dp/B01GVN4LXQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486643075&sr=8-1&keywords=palit+1070

Much of a difference between the two?

The Palit is physically larger (essentially a 3-slot).
EVGA's customer support is better, but tbh you'd be dealing with Amazon in the first year anyway so I'd go for the Palit.

Zillah wrote: »

You'll need to set up a custom cooling solution if you're going to overclock a cpu that's already running 90+C. Also, your card has a built in turbo mode that boosts it to 3.8, and if it's anything like my i7 3770k it will run the boost all of the time anyway. I'm not sure how much you'd gain from overclocking unless you were going to really go all out.

OP's GPU was running 90C, not the CPU

Zillah

Oooooh. Yeah so the 1070 will probably sit at 65 most of the time. I had a 770 for a few years - nice card for its time but that time is long gone.

Kiith

Cheers folks, gonna put that order in today. Appreciate the help.

One last thing, just noticed that i have the iChill GeForce GTX 770 HerculeZ X3 Ultra listed in my above specs, when i actually have an R9 290 (think that was an earlier selection). I'm still good to go with the Nvidia, and the PSU will still be fine, right?

Xenoronin

Yup, the 290 is also well known to sound like a Hoover. Any 1070 you go for will be way quieter. PSU is fine.