Time for annual upgrade

Dog Man Star

Hi all

I've got about 200-400 euro to spend on my annual upgrade.

Here are my specs:

- Intel Core i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHZ
- 12.0GB RAM
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960

I'm thinking the GPU could go to a GTX 980?

Any comments would be appreciated. I mainly play racing sims like Assetto Corsa.

Thanks!

Inquitus

You can get @ €125 2nd hand for your GTX 960 and get a GTX 1080 Founders Edition off the Nvidia Store (UK) for €525 that's a net €400 spend and would see you right for the foreseeable future, you could also for a lesser card off of that range for the prices below.

TerrorFirmer

What have you been doing with this annual upgrade up until now?! Your CPU is from 2010 and your GPU is from early 2015

Really though, CPU is still decent and especially for the sort of games you mentioned which aren't very CPU heavy so I would probably pick up a GTX1060 6GB.

I wouldn't get anything more as your whole machine is quite old, but it's still a major upgrade on a GTX960.

I would say €125 is very ambitious for a GTX960 2nd hand, 80-90 probably more realistic.

A GTX1050 is about €130 new, performs around the same and uses less power.

OCUK have good prices on cards. Inno 3D GTX1070 X2 is £329 at the moment with a free copy of Destiny 2 - and they have GTX1060 6GB Jetstream w/free Destiny 2 for at £229.

wotzgoingon

Upgrade your CPU to a hexa core Xeon and overclock to 4.2GHz(can be clocked higher but 4.2 is a good middle ground and very easy to achieve on these Xeons). A Xeon X5660 can be got on ebay for really small money.

Your current CPU is 4 core 8 thread and 45nm while the Xeon is 6 core 12 threads and 32nm.

Furasta

Rumor mill is running at about full speed with recent leaks and it looks like there is a new generation of cards coming from Nvidia around the end of August. I would wait as even if you don't go with the new gen you might get a better deal on any current cards.

Industry sources saying that Nvidia will roll out the GTX 1180 at the end of August, with the GTX 1170 following at the end of September, and the GTX 1160 subsequently being released in October.

https://www.techradar.com/news/geforce-gtx-1180-could-launch-in-august-but-new-rumor-reckons-itll-be-pricey

wotzgoingon wrote: »

Upgrade your CPU to a hexa core Xeon and overclock to 4.2GHz(can be clocked higher but 4.2 is a good middle ground and very easy to achieve on these Xeons). A Xeon X5660 can be got on ebay for really small money.

Your current CPU is 4 core 8 thread and 45nm while the Xeon is 6 core 12 threads and 32nm.

I don't think investing further into a retired chipset is a very good return on money, might as well save for a while and upgrade CPU, RAM and motherboard at the same time.

wotzgoingon

Furasta wrote: »

I don't think investing further into a retired chipset is a very good return on money, might as well save for a while and upgrade CPU, RAM and motherboard at the same time.

The Xeon X5660 only costs €30 shipped and is a big upgrade.

Furasta

wotzgoingon wrote: »

The Xeon X5660 only costs €30 shipped and is a big upgrade.

Ok didn't know they were that cheap. Only problem could be if he has a low-level board is compatibility but if it's on the supported list that wouldn't be bad.