What should my next upgrade be?

Stinger86 · Jan 1, 2017

Specs:
CPU: i5 2500k @ 4.4ghz (overclocked)
GPU: GTX 970
RAM: 8GB DDR3
Storage: 128GB SSD & 2 HDD's
Mobo: P67A-C45
Monitor: ASUS VH226H Black 21.5" 2ms

I'm noticing that in Rainbow Six Siege, my mouse is a little laggy/floaty unless I set the game's process priority to "High" in the task manager. The CPU then prioritizes the game EXE instead of the Ubisoft in-game overlay (which makes the overlay slower, which is okay).

But ideally I want super-fast input response without doing this kind of workaround.

In-game I get between 50 & 65 FPS with TAA, which for me is unacceptable since I want to always be above 60, so I have set AA to Temporal Filtering and dropped my rez from native 1920x1080 to 1600x1200.

Lowering AA, lowering the resolution, and setting high process priority together give me the kind of response I want, but as you can probably tell this isn't ideal.

I've had my processor for years now... at least 4. I'm thinking I should upgrade it, but I wanted to consult the awesome, knowledgeable people on this forum first.

If I do get a new CPU, would I need to upgrade my mobo as well to match socket or should I be ok?

The 8GB DDR3 I suspect might be a little low. I do have Chrome crash on me sometimes because I open a ton of tabs. Maybe this won't affect in-game performance much but I'd like more headroom for general computing. You guys think I should upgrade to 16 or 32?

What about my GPU? A friend of mine told me that the 1080 Ti is coming out soon, which might cause a price drop for the standard 1080. Should I hold out until that happens and then dump my GTX 970? I really like the 970 for the value per dollar, but it really bothers me that I have to lower some settings at 1080P to maintain a stable 60FPS.

My monitor is fine but if I get a GPU that can push well over 100hz then I may consider upgrading it as well.

My main games, in order of priority:
Rainbow Six Siege
Company of Heroes 2
Battlefield 1

My budget is around $300-$350 give or take, but I'm willing to hear all suggestions under the $600 mark in case I want to space the upgrades out over time and do it gradually.

Thanks!

Lutfij · Jan 1, 2017

If I do get a new CPU, would I need to upgrade my mobo as well to match socket

Yeah a new platform would be called for at this day and age since Intel has gone through 4 generations of CPU launches. This year brings us upon Kabylake which will be the 7th Gen processors from Intel while AMD have announced their Ryzen series aka AM4 platform.

If you decide to change the processor, you're going to need to dish out for a motherboard and ram since we're also into DDR4. So a Z270+16GB of ram+i5= +/-600USD. I'm suggesting 16Gb since I'm assuming you're going to be doing content creation(like video editing and such) otherwise you're good with 8GB of ram but that will be little as software revisions come into play.

Today's GPU's will offer the highest possible detail at 1080p, 4K however, will be left to be desired.

You also forgot to mention your OS, PSU and chassis.

If you go for a GPU now, you're going to suffer from your processor's bottleneck. If you go for something right now, you'll be missing out on Kabylake/AM4.

My 2 cents.

Stinger86 · Jan 2, 2017

Lutfij :

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B2, 80+ BRONZE 750W
Case: Antec Nine Hundred

And I would like to make a motherboard correction. I actually have an MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard. Looked up an old thread I made to verify. I assume I'll need a new mobo anyway for the new CPU generation so it's a moot point probably, but I wanted to be accurate.

Thanks for letting me know about Kaby Lake. I tend to only keep a very casual eye on tech developments unless I'm in the market for new hardware like I am right now, so I appreciate that. I googled the release date, and most believe the Kaby Lake processors will be out by January 5, 2017 which is only a few days now.

I see also that the Z270's haven't been released yet, so I assume they will launch in tandem to support each other?

I think you are right that a GPU upgrade right now would be bottlenecked by my CPU. I'm thinking CPU + RAM upgrade are the most pressing concerns for me at this point. The fact that I can push 110+FPS with certain amenities turned down in R6 Siege and still feel floaty mouse lag to me signals that the processor is hitching somewhere. My temps are good and the overclock is stable, so I can only assume outdated architecture is to blame (if you have any other ideas, feel free to enlighten me).

Should DDR4 be okay with my current mobo? I may go ahead and do that right away since it's a fairly cheap upgrade.

Lutfij · Jan 2, 2017

I assume they will launch in tandem to support each other?

It's a known trend where the boards are announced a while before the processor comes out while they are officially available a few days before the processor is launched.

DDR4 will not physically drop into your current board unless you want to damage the DIMM slots. In fact the IMC(integrated memory controller) won't recognize the ram even if you soldered on new DIMM slots. In short, no it won't work. If you want to go for DDR3 then the prices of DDR4 are near similar to any form of kit you can find in DDR3 flavors albeit DDR4 would be available at higher frequencies and latencies.

It'd be best if you read through this thread and in a few weeks time post a followup thread.

Stinger86 · Jan 2, 2017

Lutfij :

I assume they will launch in tandem to support each other?

It's a known trend where the boards are announced a while before the processor comes out while they are officially available a few days before the processor is launched.

DDR4 will not physically drop into your current board unless you want to damage the DIMM slots. In fact the IMC(integrated memory controller) won't recognize the ram even if you soldered on new DIMM slots. In short, no it won't work. If you want to go for DDR3 then the prices of DDR4 are near similar to any form of kit you can find in DDR3 flavors albeit DDR4 would be available at higher frequencies and latencies.

It'd be best if you read through this thread and in a few weeks time post a follow thread.

OK, thanks. I'll follow the developments of the Kaby Lake & corresponding mobos.

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