I recently built a new PC, and I'm wondering whether I should have gone with a more powerful graphics card. The EVGA GTX 960 SSC Edition seemed like a good choice at the time. These were my reasons:
1. Budget was a factor, and I really wanted an i7-4790k. I use this machine for work, occasional amateur 3D design and video editing, and I multitask constantly. Also a GPU is much easier to swap out than a CPU, which is the one component I'm not entirely comfortable messing with once it's installed.
2. Related to #1, the only game I play regularly is The Sims 3, albeit with eighteen expansions and a ton of custom content installed, so it does require some horsepower! It's a notoriously CPU-bound game, so the processor (and specifically single-core, single-thread performance) was at least as big a concern as the GPU.
3. My monitor's maximum resolution is 1680 x 1050, and I don't plan to replace it anytime soon.
I also use an fps limiter due to sloppy TS3 design that requires it, so frame rate is not really a consideration. However, at the moment, my game's settings are at anywhere from medium to ultra; pushing some of the more demanding ones up to max does noticeably slow things down. So if trading up to a GTX 970 or 980 would allow me to set them all to maximum (or at least higher than they are now,) that would definitely be worth something.
There's also always the chance that I may eventually move up to The Sims 4 or get into some other game or hobby that will be more resource-intensive.
If it's relevant, I've got a Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming 3 motherboard, 16GB of DDR3 1866 RAM, a Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SSD, a Corsair RM650X PSU, and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
1. Budget was a factor, and I really wanted an i7-4790k. I use this machine for work, occasional amateur 3D design and video editing, and I multitask constantly. Also a GPU is much easier to swap out than a CPU, which is the one component I'm not entirely comfortable messing with once it's installed.
2. Related to #1, the only game I play regularly is The Sims 3, albeit with eighteen expansions and a ton of custom content installed, so it does require some horsepower! It's a notoriously CPU-bound game, so the processor (and specifically single-core, single-thread performance) was at least as big a concern as the GPU.
3. My monitor's maximum resolution is 1680 x 1050, and I don't plan to replace it anytime soon.
I also use an fps limiter due to sloppy TS3 design that requires it, so frame rate is not really a consideration. However, at the moment, my game's settings are at anywhere from medium to ultra; pushing some of the more demanding ones up to max does noticeably slow things down. So if trading up to a GTX 970 or 980 would allow me to set them all to maximum (or at least higher than they are now,) that would definitely be worth something.
There's also always the chance that I may eventually move up to The Sims 4 or get into some other game or hobby that will be more resource-intensive.
If it's relevant, I've got a Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming 3 motherboard, 16GB of DDR3 1866 RAM, a Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SSD, a Corsair RM650X PSU, and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1.
Thanks in advance for any advice!