Looking for advice on which components I should upgrade for 4K gaming

[anunknownuser]

Hello everyone. I have been lurking looking for answers but have simply too many questions based around my PC I wish to upgrade and would appreciate some advice.

Currently I am using an i7 4770k 3.5 GHz (w/ MSI Z87-G45 motherboard) with a Geforce 980 Ti (6 GB) and 8 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 1600MHz and wish to upgrade for 4K gaming seeing that finally with the release of the 1080 Ti it will be possible for solid 60+ FPS. My O/S is Windows 10 home 64 bit as well if it makes any difference. I realize that my PC is not that old being from 2013/2014 so I can probably save some money just replacing components instead of the whole thing.

My first question is due to the fact I am using an older cpu and motherboard and DDR3 RAM would it benefit me much to upgrade those components or can I get away with only upgrading the following few items:

- Geforce GTX 1080 Ti
- 16 GB RAM
- some sort of 4k display

Would upgrading to those 3 items be enough with my current system or would I need more RAM? I've been told that simply keeping DDR3 RAM and upgrading to a higher clock speed may be beneficial, but also told that as long as I upgrade to 16 GB with my current RAM clock speed it should be all I need.

I've spoke with some people (not necessarily gaming PC experts) asking if the upgrade to DDR4 would make a difference since when I look at CPU bench marks it would cost me a significant amount to update the motherboard and CPU and then get some DDR4 RAM on top of that. I've heard conflicting stories but most people have suggested I stick with my current configuration and just update the graphics card, and RAM. I am using a Coolermaster case with a after market liquid cooling system and am very happy with not having to remove that and the motherboard if necessary.

Money is pretty limited as I am on disability but I have saved up enough over these last few years to make it work where I know I will be realistically spending quite a bundle just on those 3 items. According to CPU benchmarks it would cost me over a thousand more dollars to find a significant gain but I don't know if that would be needed due to the fact my i7 is a few generations behind.

Thank you very much for your time and I look forward to any advice this excellent community can provide.

 

[sadams04]

You are on the right track... DDR3 vs DDR4 for gaming purposes is a wash, and your i7 has plenty of processing power left in it. The only thing I would do there is add 8GB more memory (16GB total), then upgrade the GPU to the GTX 1080 Ti when it is released. Your GTX 980 Ti is still pretty solid so you could consider looking toward the used market and add a second in SLI for a good upgrade (if your PSU is up to the task). No need to touch anything else outside of maybe adding an SSD...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Mushkin Stealth 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Founders Edition Video Card ($709.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: AOC U2879VF 28.0" 3840x2160 60Hz Monitor ($299.98 @ Jet)
Total: $1059.95

 

[anunknownuser]

You are on the right track... DDR3 vs DDR4 for gaming purposes is a wash, and your i7 has plenty of processing power left in it. The only thing I would do there is add 8GB more memory (16GB total), then upgrade the GPU to the GTX 1080 Ti when it is released. Your GTX 980 Ti is still pretty solid so you could consider looking toward the used market and add a second in SLI for a good upgrade (if your PSU is up to the task). No need to touch anything else outside of maybe adding an SSD...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Mushkin Stealth 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Founders Edition Video Card ($709.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: AOC U2879VF 28.0" 3840x2160 60Hz Monitor ($299.98 @ Jet)
Total: $1059.95

Thank you for the response! I had an unexpected issue and ended up at emergency room the day after I made this post. I just wanted to thank you as I am essentially taking your advice and had another question for anyone out there as well.

I decided to just buy another 8 GB of the same RAM that I already have. It seems almost identical except for the CAS latency which goes from 11 to 9. The only reason I bought different RAM is it seems that mine doesn't exist anymore to buy, it is very strange when I google Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C11B it acts like it doesn't exist (per Speccy that is the model type) and the one I ordered is the Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B. I considered buying another 16 GB of the same type but figured this is basically identical.

You mentioned to add a SSD but that won't be necessary as I already have a 120 GB O/S SSD and another 480 GB SSD for games as well as just purchased a 1 TB Samsung 850 EVO yesterday (yay!). My problem though right now is that I already have 6 SATA hard drives taking up my motherboards 6 ports - would it be wise to purchase a PCI-E SATA III 4-port card if I wanted to add more hard drives? What would be a good brand for those as I see the prices seem to vary a lot. I am slowly going to replace some of my other hard drives with some 3-6 TB WD blacks but besides installing the new Samsung 850 EVO I am in no rush. I just don't want to toss any hard drives in the garbage so would rather find a way to add one than replace one.

The 1080 Ti are completely sold out everywhere so I think it will be another month or so before I can get my hands on one unfortunately. In terms of monitor though a lot of suggestions i see online are to go the 1440P g-sync route instead but I see you had suggested a 60 HZ refresh rate and am wondering how truly life changing is g-sync or 144hz? I've ALWAYS gamed on a 60-75 MHZ monitor and have just disabled v-sync if I cared to get over 100 frames a second but there hasn't really been any game that I cared enough. Sure I can play Quake 3 at 100+ FPS but it doesn't really seem to make that much of a difference but so many people online are going crazy over g-sync and higher refresh rates. I know the odds of a gsync 4k monitor are pretty low that is using LED but does it seem just as feasible to stick with the 4k one you had suggested as that is a really good price!

Thanks and sorry to bring this post back up but I feel I am on the right track now with the last few upgrades. Although I am starting to wonder if it is time to replace the case I am using since this is the 3rd or 4th time I've replaced components using the same thing since 2009! Great cooler master HAF case going to be a sad day when I do replace it.

 

[Dotica]

Hello.

I'm going to talk about saving some money here. You want to 4K game at 60 fps or above. Instead of going with the GTX 1080 ti, try purchasing a 980ti and have SLI. Sure it might not be as power efficient, but I promise you'll have a blast running 4K with those specs. 980ti's are pretty cheap right now, especially on Craigslist/eBay. They aren't good for mining, where as the 1080 ti is used a lot more for mining. (Drives the prices way high). Also, having two processors pushing graphics is better than one. (Only applicable when the card is the same model but one generation behind). Now I know this might not be a popular opinion, but I know from experience that it will be a good idea for you. I've ran into a similar issue on a friends rig I built a few months ago. He was going to upgrade to an RX 480 for 1440p gaming when he already had a 390. I convinced him to buy another 390 and now he runs 1440p maxed out with butter smooth frames.

Best of luck.

Dotica