Thinking of upgrading graphics card, want to make sure I'm not bottle necked.

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nightshift23

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May 11, 2012
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I currently have a PNY gtx 770, and have been considering upgrading to a 1060 6gb or 3gb in the next month or so. (mostly considering the 3gb because I'm thinking in about a year I may go for VR and or 1440p and will likely want something beyond even the 1060 6gb).

After a bit of research I'm pretty sure that its (somewhat surprisingly) not really time to upgrade my CPU/mobo/memory. I would love an SSD but my budget is limited this year and I can continue to wait through loading screens for a while.

So I just wanted to run my specs past those who know more than I and make sure I'm not squandering the money on the video card better placed else where.

Specs:
CPU: I5 - 3570k (Ive never bothered to OC, maybe I should?)
MOBO: ASRock Z77 Extreme 4
memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
GPU: PNY 770 4GB

Thanks in advance, and I hope I covered all relevant info without being to long winded.

-J.N.
 
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WildCard999

WildCard999

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Jul 18, 2014
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I would definitely go for the GTX 1060 6gb, then I would grab a decent aftermarket cooler such as the CM EVO 212 or Cryorig H7 and overclock that CPU to around 4.2ghz or better if possible. Now do you have to overclock? No, however I would try to get as much extra performance as possible since you have the CPU & MB to do it.

As far as a SSD a good price/performance one is the Crucial MX300 275gb SSD. You wil want to reinstall or transfer the OS to the SSD for the best performance.

Here's a awesome guide by Computronix which will give you a good idea on how to overclock as well as thermal limits and software to use.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html
 
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nightshift23

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May 11, 2012
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I know its silly to have never overclocked with it, but I already have a Hyper 212 EVO. Need to read up on the over clocking. Also, I really am leaning toward the 6gb, its just a little hard to justify paying 25% more with a typical performance gain in the 6-9% range (I know there are some rare examples of double performance gain, and also some in between, but most current AAA titles show less than 10% gain).

On the SSD the price per gig actually seems to drop as you go up oddly enough, but Im going to have to wait on that.
 
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sizzling

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Oct 18, 2006
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Agree 6gb is the way forward, its not fps that are the issue. There are already a handful of games that can use 3gb VRAM at 1080p with very high settings. Running out of VRAM causes serious stuttering but not necessarily a fps drop. Running 1440p or VR requires more VRAM than 1080p so while a 3gb card is probably fine especially if your ok to drop game settings it many become a more of a limiting factor in the future.

I also agree you may need to overclock to limit any bottleneck but this will greatly depend on each game.
 
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dontlistentome

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Sep 5, 2016
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If you are planning to upgrade at some point in the next couple of years, then why spend more than you need now? I'd get the 1060 3gb, it'll be a big enough jump from the 770 to be worthwhile and your CPU can use it. The SSD issue is a bit different. On my computer, boot up times were getting long since I like to have a few things boot up with Windows. Game loading times and program loading times were starting to annoy me. So the SSD upgrade turned out to be the single greatest upgrade I've ever made since the first time I bought a videocard for gaming. If someone, like you, is okay with their loading times then it won't be such a game changing upgrade.
 
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