Thinking of upgrading my PC, could use some advice.
So with Fallout 4 coming out soon, I've been thinking it might be time to upgrade my PC. Right now, I have an i5 3570k CPU and a GTX 570 graphics card. I think the CPU is okay, but the graphics card probably isn't. I'm looking to be able to play current games at 1920x1080 and stay at or near 60 FPS on medium-to-high settings (for reference, I think vanilla Skyrim looks good enough even without Bethesda's high-res DLC, so I don't need top-notch graphics). I'd prefer not to go too far over $300 for the upgrade, if possible.
So I'd appreciate some information of whether or not this is possible, and hopefully some recommendations on what graphics card to get.
0
Posts
The Nvidia GTX 970 is widely regarded as giving optimal bang for the buck among current GPU's, and almost all models are priced between $300 and $350. The Asus STRIX, MSI, and Gigabyte models are all well thought of. EVGA also makes a number of different versions of the 970, I think you want the ones with the ACX 2.0 cooler design (not regular ACX), someon can chime in here and correct me/elaborate on that.
If cash is tight, a step down to the GTX 960 will also probably be sufficient to handle most current games and ones coming out in the near future at medium to high settings at 1920x1980, although I recommend getting one with 4GB of VRAM. These go in the $225-$275 range.
New graphics cards are arriving from AMD just now. Over the next days the reviews will be all over on the tech sites and it will be known what they really offer, but it looks like they will either A. set the new standard for performance per $ or B. at the very least offer something that is on par with the offerings from Nvidia which should then cause prices to go down a bit.
AMD is also just about to put out some very fast new stuff, so fast it should certainly take the new performance crown away from Nvidia. However this will more costly than the budget you suggest and it is likely also only coming over the summer, but it may perhaps push some people to upgrade and then sell their current monster cards from affordable sums.
PS. Before buying new graphics power remember to make sure the PSU in your PC is sufficiently powerful.
The R9 390x is just a 2-year old card with more VRAM taped on and that is the second-most powerful card in AMD's lineup now. We will see what Fury can do but I don't see any reason to expect AMD to take the performance title away from Nvidia. Best AMD can hope for is to be competitive at certain price points for people with constrained budgets.
I've heard that my CPU is pretty amenable to overclocking, but I don't know how to do it or how safe it would be. Is there anything you can tell me about that?
Unless I'm misreading things, the 960 and 970 both have lower power requirements than my current card. I'm not sure how that's possible, but it's what I'm seeing. If that's right, I'm good for those cards at least.
How big would you say the difference is between the 970 and the 960? I'd assume it's substantial given the price disparity, but I don't know much about these things.
tomshardware.com/charts/2015-vga-charts/compare,3679.html?prod[7477]=on&prod[7266]=on&prod[7372]=on&prod[7378]=on
EDIT: Quick skimming says the 970 is around a 50% increase over the 960? If that's accurate, then it seems like there's no question which one to get.
The new 900 series cards are using a new chip that is VASTLY more power efficient than previous iterations. Yes, you should always check your power requirements, but I promise that in this case (if all you're changing is that 570 to a 970) your current PSU will be just fine. If you can swing around that $300 mark, there is usually SOME version of the 970 that is on sale in that budget range.
Gaslight is exactly right on the brands that are well regarded, and you'd be well served with that upgrade.
that being said it's not really worth messing with unless you find that your processor is bottlenecking you post-GPU upgrade, which it almost certainly won't be in single player games
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
i5's that don't have "K" at the end of their model number basically cannot be overclocked at all.
I don't think really any consumer manufacturers use the locked chips at this point though, do they?
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
The reason for that is you live in the future.
Congrats and enjoy.
Um...
Virtually no consumer manufacturers use the unlocked chips aside from the boutique places that will build a gaming PC for you. Check out the specs on any garden-variety pre-built Dell, HP, etc. and if they have an i5 or an i7 it'll be a locked, non-K model.
Now the OP does have a 3570k so he should be in good shape to OC if he wants to try it, but he's going to need an aftermarket cooler.
I'd hold off until the Fury X and 390x hit retail and get more thorough benchmarking before we start making predictions. It's looking like the Fury X will at least slightly edge the 980ti. The r9 390x should offer bang to buck ratio compared to a 980. In any event, the new AMD cards will be competitive enough on price and performance that the Nvidia cards will become cheaper or you can get equivalently-performing AMD card for significantly less than a 980 or 980ti.