What GPU should I upgrade to?

idado3250 · Oct 20, 2016

Hi,
My current specs are:
Motherboard: P8H61-MLX Rev 3.0 (it has a PCIEx 2.0 x16 slot)
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 3.30GHz
GPU: ASUS GTX 760 DirectCU II OC
RAM: 8GB
PSU: don't know which model\brand it is, but It has 620W and it gives me no problems.

I want to upgrade my specs, the thing is I don't know what should I go for:
Should I upgrade my GPU to a gtx 1070 and call it a day, or should I upgrade to gtx 1060, upgrade my cpu to a modern i5 and upgrade the motherboard to one with PCIEx 3.0...

The latter option is a bit more pricey, but if the performance will be marginally different I guess it will be worth it.
I plan to do most of my gaming on a 1680x1050 monitor, and I know that the 1070 is overkill for 1080p, but I want to be set for the future, as I might get myself a better monitor in a few years.

I'd love to hear your opinions and suggestions!
Thanks in advanced!

khashayar2000 · Oct 20, 2016

Upgrade ur motherboard first
Go for lga 1151 skylake sockets in 6th generation processors
It will give u more performance and romm for future.upgrade.my bro
And support pci express Lv3 which perform the best speed and quality in game and other graphical job and task
Second we got difference between 1060 and 1070 but with a i5 processor im in doubt which we can see a lot of difference. U must have i7 processor to feel the difference and I suggest u your top.priorty after upgrading motherboard be your cpu. If u cab afford a i7 cpu go for it . Believe me cpu is very effective on works and the ideal cpu is i7 6700k which works perfect. I know haswell 5960X is better but it requires more money and another socket. And after that if u cab afford go for a gtx 1070 or 1060 both of em are the best and gives u 45fps at least in high system requirements in games in 4k resolution if u play these sort of games like the Doom And Acu . ACS . MKX . TITANFALLII AND so on. Best regards mohammad motamed . (Khd)

timeconsumer · Oct 20, 2016

A 1680x1050 is not a 1080p monitor, it has about 85% of the pixels of a full HD 1080p screen. So if you plan on gaming on that monitor for a few years I really wouldn't bother going beyond something like a GTX 960/1050/RX 460/RX 470 etc. Even if you plan on going to 1080p or 1440p in say, 2 years time, it's better to purchase a cheaper GPU now and upgrade when you have the new monitor if it is necessary based upon the games you are playing. By the way, don't worry about the PCI-E slot gen, 2.0 is just fine @ 16x for any GPU you want to throw at it.

If I were in your shoes I would keep your current CPU and motherboard, buy a new display and pair it with an appropriate GPU like a GTX 1060 for 1080p. Then slap in an SSD and 8gb more memory and you'll have a pretty nice machine.

idado3250 · Oct 20, 2016

timeconsumer :

I could do that, the thing is that I currently have 4GBx2 RAM, which means that I'll have to buy 16GB of RAM, and not an extra 8...
Are you sure my current CPU won't hinder the 1060's performance?
Anyways, are there any good 1080p displays you can recommend to a dude on a budget?

Thanks for your answer!

timeconsumer · Oct 20, 2016

Yeah an i5-2500 is still fine for 1080p performance when paired with a card like a GTX 1060 6gb. If you were going for 1440p and a GTX 1070 I would recommend moving to a modern i5-6500.

You don't have to go to 16gb, 8gb is still fine for 1080p gaming as long as you don't have a bunch of other programs or browser tabs open in the background or anything like that. I still use 8gb of memory with my i5 and R9 280 rig and it performs fine. But if you plan on keeping this setup for another 2 or 3 more years having 16gb will be beneficial and it will become harder to find DDR3 memory at a cheap price.

As far as your display choices go, it all depends on budget and your intended uses. So let's start out with how much money do you want to spend for the total package upgrade on this machine? A recommended budget and a maximum budget would be helpful as sometimes an extra $50 can bump everything up to the next level. What games do you plan on playing on this machine? Do you use it for anything else like photo editing or do you stream a lot of movies and such and watch it in your computer?

idado3250 · Oct 20, 2016

timeconsumer :

My budget is about 500$-700$ which is roughly about 1900₪-2700₪(Israeli Shekel).
Keep in mind that everything here is expensive, for example, most 1070 models cost around 650$ after tax and most 1060 models cost 390$ after tax...

I plan on playing just about everything, demanding games like GTA V and The Witcher 3 to online games like Guild Wars 2, Overwatch, League of Legends and also a bunch of older\not demanding games like Borderlands 2, Portal 2, indie games, etc...

I don't really care about things like movies and such, I do watch some movies on it but it's not my main concern.
My main concern actually is that this upgrade would serve me for a long period, something like 3-4 years minimum.
The last time I upgraded was also about 3-4 years ago, when I bought my current GPU, PSU and extra 4 GB of RAM.

I currently run games like The Witcher 3 on medium settings just fine and I'm ok with that, TBH the main reason I'm upgrading is because when I upgrade my setup, my older brother is gonna get my old 760 and we will be able to finally do some gaming together (He has a beast pc he uses for music recording, the only thing he is lacking is a GPU, as he is currently using intel integrated graphics...).
Even though, if I'm already upgrading, I don't want to have to upgrade again for a long time...

Thank's again for the help!

Asusprime · Oct 20, 2016

I have an i5 2500 too and I can assure you it will not bottleneck a GTX 1060. The old i5 outperforms anything AMD currently has.

idado3250 · Oct 20, 2016

Asusprime :

Good to hear, thanks for the info!

timeconsumer · Oct 20, 2016

Okay, what you end up actually purchasing will widely depend on what is available in your region. Here is a rough idea coming in at the low end of your budget. I chose a 1080p 60Hz IPS screen. If you need to save a little money you can get a TN panel instead. But this should be a good gaming experience for several years.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Team Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($61.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($69.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GAMING Video Card ($244.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: Acer R240HY bidx 23.8" 60Hz Monitor ($144.29 @ Amazon)
Total: $521.11
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-20 11:17 EDT-0400

Asusprime · Oct 20, 2016

Get the 1060 and the ram and by the way pci express 2.0 doesnt bottleneck current video cards as far as I know.

if you want to upgrade your CPU you could always pick up a second hand XEON or i7 from ebay that will outperform even current i5s

CPUs below are supported by your motherboard and are newer Ivy Bridge 22nm chips that use less power.
used i7 3770 in ebay cost $180
used Xeon E3-1230 v2 cost $150

Also like the user "timeconsumer" parts listed, looking into an SSD is an excellent idea.

idado3250 · Oct 20, 2016

timeconsumer :

First of all, thanks for the dedication!

The problem is that here, even if I go with the cheapest equivilents of everything without the SSD I still end up with paying 730$ (As I said, everything here is expensive AF...)
How much of a difference does the SSD provide? Note that I don't mind waiting for loading times, if that is the main advantage.
If I had to give up on one of the 3 items surrounding the GPU, which would you recommend giving up on?

timeconsumer · Oct 20, 2016

Hmmm, that's a tough call. The 16gb of memory isn't needed right now, but in 3 or 4 years time you'll wish you had it, and by then DDR3 will be harder to find and likely more expensive. Look for a DDR3 1333 kit, you may find it a little cheaper, and I just found out that's the max speed your motherboard will support anyway.

The SSD is nice for boot up times, loading times, general productivity, I love having one. Although now that I look more closely at your motherboard I see you only have Sata II, which will bottleneck an SSD somewhat. Even in that case I would still consider a small 120gb SSD for OS and maybe 1 game if you can find a cheap one.

Asusprime · Oct 20, 2016

you can always get a single 8GB stick same brand/speed to get 12GB ( i have done it, doesnt kill anything or earns you a noblel prize)

timeconsumer · Oct 20, 2016

^ not a bad option. There's always a chance the sticks won't play nice together, but that's fairly uncommon these days.

idado3250 · Oct 20, 2016

timeconsumer :

Asusprime :

Thank you both!
I think that what I'll do in the end is get everything but the monitor.
My brother has this monitor: http://www.samsung.com/levant/consumer/it/monitor/led-monitor/LS24D300HS/ZN
and he doesn't mind swapping his with my 1680x1050 monitor, as I'm giving him my old gtx 760 anyways.

P.S can I mark every reply I got as the solution? They were all very helpful!

Asusprime · Oct 20, 2016

thats an excellent choice idado3250!! glad to be of help. Give solution to timeconsumer he got here first than me and with excellent advice.

timeconsumer · Oct 20, 2016

Yeah, nice trade. That should work great.

I'm just glad you didn't listen to khashayar2000. That was some of the worst advice I've seen in awhile.

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