Will GTX 970 work well with Intel Core i5-760 /2.8GHz, 8MB and Antec TruePower 650W

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Kascyr

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Mar 13, 2015
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Hi,

I'm hardware beginner. I'd like to modernize my desktop PC. My current hardware list is:

1x Xigmatek Xigmatek Gaia SD1283

1x Asus P7P55D-E /intel P55/

1x Intel Core i5-760 /2.8GHz, 8MB, LGA1156, BOX/

4x Crucial Ballistix Tactical DDR3-1600 CL8 - 4GB (4 times 4GB RAM - in total16 GB RAM,)

1x MSI MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone OC 1GB DDR5 /256bit/ 2xDVI/mHDMI
(i had two, one of them just broke)

1x Samsung Samsung 500GB 7200rpm 16MB cache SATA-II F3

1x Pioneer LG GH22LS50 SATA SecurDisc LightScribe (black)

1x Cooler Master Antec TruePower New 650W

1x SilentiumPC SilentiumPC Gladius 600 Window Pure Black (bez zasilacza)

1x Creative Labs Creative Labs Inspire A220 (2+1)


After reading "Best Graphics Cards For The Money: March 2015", and considering my budget (between 300-350 $ for graphic card) I'm thinking about buying GTX 970 card.

On review about it there is information that minium power should be 500W, will my Antec TruePower New 650W be able to handle it and rest of hardware? Will I need to buy some additional cords to power this card?

Will my CPU be good enough to handle new games (witcher 3) with this graphic card? Or should I think about new CPU too?

If you would also have some recommendation on how to update my computer with max budget up to 1000$ in total (I definetly plan to get SSD and make is a system partition and get new HDD for files storage), I'm open to recommendations!

Thank you for any help! I'm amazed at amout information on this webpage and how much I still need to learn ;)
 
Solution
LokkenJP
Hi.

From a technical standpoint, the GTX 970 will work in your rig just fine. The mobo supports it, and the power supply is enough given the relative modest consumption of the new nvidia Maxwell architecture.

The problem here is, like the previous poster said, the i5-760 CPU, which is now a bit outdated.
Most games will run just fine, albeit the CPU will be a noticeable bottleneck and you will waste some GPU power. Old or RTS games like Starcraft II and WOW or GPU constrained games like METRO, Tomb Raider or the like will work fine, but CPU intensive games like Civilization V/Beyond Earth or the F1 series may struggle a bit. Not sure about Witcher 3, though.

You can always purchase now just the new GPU, and test by yourself. If you...
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azzazel_99

azzazel_99

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Apr 19, 2008
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no. The gpu will do great but your cpu is old and outdated. Its def time for an upgrade in the cpu area or think about some serious cooling and serious overclocking. I would look into something like an i5-4670k or a i5-4690k and a motherboard to go along with it. DDR3 ram is ok but the newer motherboards support only ddr4 some are still ddr3 which is more then enough for gaming but you are going to want at least 8gb not 4gb.
 
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K

Kascyr

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Mar 13, 2015
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Thank you for help! I have 4 x 4GB ram (16GB in total), I think that should be enough ;]

I think I can afford to buy i5-4690k and GTX 970, all is left then is to choose motherboard. The problem is as you mentioned, that it will need to have support for DDR3 and work with all this hardware (just to make absolutly sure, power supply "Antec TruePower New 650W
" will be enough?). Would you or someone had some recommendation in this matter? Or should I make new question-topic asking about motherboard with mentioned setup?

Again thank you so much in advance! You are the best!
 
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LokkenJP

LokkenJP

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Jun 17, 2014
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Hi.

From a technical standpoint, the GTX 970 will work in your rig just fine. The mobo supports it, and the power supply is enough given the relative modest consumption of the new nvidia Maxwell architecture.

The problem here is, like the previous poster said, the i5-760 CPU, which is now a bit outdated.
Most games will run just fine, albeit the CPU will be a noticeable bottleneck and you will waste some GPU power. Old or RTS games like Starcraft II and WOW or GPU constrained games like METRO, Tomb Raider or the like will work fine, but CPU intensive games like Civilization V/Beyond Earth or the F1 series may struggle a bit. Not sure about Witcher 3, though.

You can always purchase now just the new GPU, and test by yourself. If you can hold on a little more, Intel Broadwell architecture will go mainstream in a few months and can be a good time to upgrade.

If you feel the performance unsatisfactory, proceed with upgrading the CPU. You can always reuse the already purchased GPU.
A new mobo and a newer i5 Haswell will not be too expensive, and will do the job perfectly for the next few years. A modest H97 mobo and i5-4460 (or even better a i5-4570 or i5-4690) will be just around 300 $/€ and will boost your performance more than enough.

A SDD is a good idea too. It will not boost the FPS performance of games, but will make your most used games and the OS load lightning fast. Very convenient. Dont go crazy here, a Crucial MX100 is the price/performace champ here imho.

Hope this helps.

L
 
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esammann

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Mar 18, 2015
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Thank you LokkenJP for your answer. I think I am in a similar situation with an older computer that I would like to update. I am curious though, in this post:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2329179/core-930-8ghz-bottleneck-gtx-970s.html

the poster ask if two 970's would bottlneck an i7-930 and the best solution there is that a single 970 wouldn't but dual probably would. Now the i5 in question on this post has the same # of cores (not the same # of threads though), it is clocked at the same speed, and even has a turbo that is a bit faster than the i7-930. I think this is pretty close to apples to apples comparison. Do you think the number of threads is all the difference? Does the 930 just perform a bit better despite clock speeds?

I certainly agree that Kascyr could go for a new GPU right now, try it out, and when funds are available then upgrade the mobo and CPU (and memory if making DDR4 jump).
 
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LokkenJP

LokkenJP

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Jun 17, 2014
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Hi.

Those two processors are indeed pretty similar, except for the hyperthreading on the i7 (thus double the thread count), but this point is usually not very important for gaming (games doesn't usually take advantage of more than 2-4 cores at most).
More important, they share similar clocks and the same amount of low level CPU cache (8 Mb). For gaming they should be pretty close.

Nevertheless, as I said, it is pretty dependant on the game itself. If it is a graphics intensive game like the original Crysis or FC3 (and you crank up the GFX options and resolution, of course), the CPU will probably have enough muscle, and the GPU will have the hardest time. You will surely lose a few FPS due to the old CPU, but nothing near making the game unplayable.
But on the other hand, some recent games are serious CPU hogs, Battlefield 4, the latest Hitman series, ARMA 3, the latest Civilization games...
Those games will put a heavy load on the CPU, and you will waste quite a bit of the sheer power delivered by the efficient Maxwell 970GTX architecture.

Believe me, the difference can be quite dramatic depending on the game. For some games an outdated CPU could even result on 50% lost performance (given enough GPU power for avoiding a graphics bottleneck).

That is why I think it will be a good idea to purchase the new GTX 970 first (a good purchase no matter what), and test it on the "real world" environment of the original poster, with his favorite games. If that does the trick, then he can extend the life of his good old i5 a bit more, even more now with the new Intel Broadwell around the corner.

L
 
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