GTX 1070 - but should I upgrade other components first?

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laughingorc

Commendable
Jun 20, 2016
2
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I'm looking to upgrade my PC, but I'm not sure where to spend the money to give me the best results at the minute.

My base machine is a bit long in the tooth - its an Alienware Aurora R1, running a 1st gen intel i7 920 (oc'd to 3.8ghz), 14GB GDDR3 Ram (mix of modules, runs at 1600mhz), Alienware X58 motherboard, I *think* an 875watt PSU and currently running a GTX 660ti.

I'm thinking of upgrading to the GTX 1070, but I'm a bit concerned that my CPU or Motherboard might throttle the performance and cause a pretty hefty bottleneck given their respective ages.

Anyone able to offer their thoughts / advice on which direction I should take? I have a budget of ~£400.
 
Solution
geofelt
A perennial question.
Here is my stock approach:
------------------------------------------------------------
To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a...
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n0ns3ns3

n0ns3ns3

Illustrious
May 25, 2016
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You will be good in starting with GPU upgrade.
You might not squeeze all that 1070 can give, but you will be playing at much higher settings with much higher FPS than with 660.
If I were you, I'd also consider the RX 480 for the GPU upgrade. It's twice cheaper than 1070 and with it, your system will be better balanced.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,262
4,125
174,240
A perennial question.
Here is my stock approach:
------------------------------------------------------------
To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You should also experiment with removing one core. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option. You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
-------------------------------------------------------------

IN general, if your games are sims, strategy or mmo then upgrading the cpu to one with stronger single thread capability would be indicated.

OTOH, if you primarily play fast action shooters or are looking to go from 1080P to a higher resolution, then a graphics upgrade is indicated.
 
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Solution
L

laughingorc

Commendable
Jun 20, 2016
2
0
1,510
Thanks guys. Based on what you've said, Geo, my CPU isn't a limiting factor; I frequently have to drop modern games down to lower resolutions or disable certain effects to get playable framerates, so I suspect the 1070 upgrade would be well worth it.

Thanks both!
 
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