Should I upgrade my current system or build a new one?

[smileysloth1]

Hi all.

My PC is nearly about 6 years old now and I was wondering if it was worth building a completely new system or just swapping out a few key components to get better performance.

My current build is as follows:

Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z77.
CPU: Intel i7 3770k (not overclocked at all).
CPU Cooling: Stock CPU fan...(I know...I’m sorry).
GPU: Zotac GTX 680 4GB.
RAM: G-Skill 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz RipjawsZ X79.
Power Supply: OCZ ZX Series 850W 80+ GOLD PSU Fully Modular PSU.
Case: Coolermaster HAF X.
OS Drive: Samsung 840 pro 256GB.
OS: Windows 10.
Additional storage drives: Seagate 2TB Barracuda for documents, pictures etc + 2 Kingston SSD's for specific software/games.
Monitor 1: Asus PB278Q 27" 1440p.
Monitor 2: BenQ XL2411T 1080p 144hz. (I'm currently only using the Asus due to relocation and space issues).

It runs most games absolutely fine at 1080p however I have noticed some dropped frames and low FPS at times. This is especially true when I try to play games at 1440p.

I've also started getting into video editing in Premiere Pro and have noticed that my system can be a bit slow at times when running this. It runs it ok, buts it's nowhere near as snappy as I'd like. Rendering even the smallest clip just takes too long, almost as long as my brand new 27" 5K Retina iMac at work (£1500 on a machine thats slower than my 6 year old PC).

With regards to budget I don't really have one, but I don't want to spend unnecessarily if I don't have to. I could spend £1500 on a new system, but if I don't have to do that then I'd prefer not to.

This is what I would like my PC to be able to do:

• - Play games on ultra at a minimum res of 1440p with a decent fps.
  - Be capable of playing games at much higher resolutions to cater for future Monitor upgrades (I'd quite like a 4K G Sync screen at some point).
  - Video editing
  - Photo editing
  - VR

What would you lovely people advise?

All help is very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Smiley sloth.

 

[velocityg4]

Most likely upgrading your GPU will clear up many if not all of the issues you face. Since you use Adobe get an nVidia GPU. Premiere has good CUDA support.

As the GPU will need to be replaced regardless. I’d replace it then see if that does it.

You should open Resource Monitor to monitor RAM and CPU usage in detail. While editing in Premiere. Make sure GPU acceleration is enabled. You can try it now. But you won’t get a clear picture. As a GTX 1000 series supports many more types of hardware acceleration than your old 600 series.

As you do video editing you may need more RAM. You can find that out by viewing Resource Monitor while editing.

On the Mac are you using Adobe or Final Cut?

 

[logainofhades]

Wait for graphics card prices to go back to normal, and get a new GPU. Grab a cooler like a Cryorig H5 and overclock that CPU. 4.0ghz should be doable with just a multiplier bump to 40.

 

[smileysloth1]

Most likely upgrading your GPU will clear up many if not all of the issues you face. Since you use Adobe get an nVidia GPU. Premiere has good CUDA support.

As the GPU will need to be replaced regardless. I’d replace it then see if that does it.

You should open Resource Monitor to monitor RAM and CPU usage in detail. While editing in Premiere. Make sure GPU acceleration is enabled. You can try it now. But you won’t get a clear picture. As a GTX 1000 series supports many more types of hardware acceleration than your old 600 series.

As you do video editing you may need more RAM. You can find that out by viewing Resource Monitor while editing.

On the Mac are you using Adobe or Final Cut?

Thanks for the reply. I'm not at home right now so I'll check Resource monitor later.

On the Mac I'm using Adobe too.

With regards to the GPU, what would you recommend? I'm in 2 minds about getting either the 1080 ti or 1070 ti. There's about £240 between them at the moment. Would there be enough of a benefit in getting the 1080 ti over the 1070 ti?

 

[smileysloth1]

Wait for graphics card prices to go back to normal, and get a new GPU. Grab a cooler like a Cryorig H5 and overclock that CPU. 4.0ghz should be doable with just a multiplier bump to 40.

I'm not too optomistic about GPU prices going back to normal to be honest. I could wait for the next gen cards to be released to get the current cards cheaper but I'm pretty sure we're going to get bent over by both red and green once again.

 

[logainofhades]

The problem is the cryptocurrency miners. They are snagging all the GPU's up, so the supply is stupidly low right now.

 

[jaslion]

Most likely upgrading your GPU will clear up many if not all of the issues you face. Since you use Adobe get an nVidia GPU. Premiere has good CUDA support.

As the GPU will need to be replaced regardless. I’d replace it then see if that does it.

You should open Resource Monitor to monitor RAM and CPU usage in detail. While editing in Premiere. Make sure GPU acceleration is enabled. You can try it now. But you won’t get a clear picture. As a GTX 1000 series supports many more types of hardware acceleration than your old 600 series.

As you do video editing you may need more RAM. You can find that out by viewing Resource Monitor while editing.

On the Mac are you using Adobe or Final Cut?

Thanks for the reply. I'm not at home right now so I'll check Resource monitor later.

On the Mac I'm using Adobe too.

With regards to the GPU, what would you recommend? I'm in 2 minds about getting either the 1080 ti or 1070 ti. There's about £240 between them at the moment. Would there be enough of a benefit in getting the 1080 ti over the 1070 ti?

The problem is the random pricing of gpu's atm due to miners. I mean the amd vega 64 spiked up to 2000$ this week just because of the insane demand and retailers pushing the price up for a normally 500$ priced card.

A 1080ti is only supposed to go for 699$ (of course certain coolers and editions will be a bit more) but it's insane for how much they tend to go now. What I did was just get a last gen used card (970) for 150$ and roll with that since these consume to much more for the miners (not a lot more but they try to get as much money for as little as possible) and therefor are not popular.

 

[smileysloth1]

Most likely upgrading your GPU will clear up many if not all of the issues you face. Since you use Adobe get an nVidia GPU. Premiere has good CUDA support.

As the GPU will need to be replaced regardless. I’d replace it then see if that does it.

You should open Resource Monitor to monitor RAM and CPU usage in detail. While editing in Premiere. Make sure GPU acceleration is enabled. You can try it now. But you won’t get a clear picture. As a GTX 1000 series supports many more types of hardware acceleration than your old 600 series.

As you do video editing you may need more RAM. You can find that out by viewing Resource Monitor while editing.

On the Mac are you using Adobe or Final Cut?

Thanks for the reply. I'm not at home right now so I'll check Resource monitor later.

On the Mac I'm using Adobe too.

With regards to the GPU, what would you recommend? I'm in 2 minds about getting either the 1080 ti or 1070 ti. There's about £240 between them at the moment. Would there be enough of a benefit in getting the 1080 ti over the 1070 ti?

The problem is the random pricing of gpu's atm due to miners. I mean the amd vega 64 spiked up to 2000$ this week just because of the insane demand and retailers pushing the price up for a normally 500$ priced card.

A 1080ti is only supposed to go for 699$ (of course certain coolers and editions will be a bit more) but it's insane for how much they tend to go now. What I did was just get a last gen used card (970) for 150$ and roll with that since these consume to much more for the miners (not a lot more but they try to get as much money for as little as possible) and therefor are not popular.

Very true. Also very annoying.

The issue I have is that I don't want to get into an endless loop of upgrading my hardware every few years. My 680 has lasted 6 years so far and is still capable of acomplishing most tasks I throw at it, it's just not quite as agile as it used to be.

 

[velocityg4]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not at home right now so I'll check Resource monitor later.

On the Mac I'm using Adobe too.

With regards to the GPU, what would you recommend? I'm in 2 minds about getting either the 1080 ti or 1070 ti. There's about £240 between them at the moment. Would there be enough of a benefit in getting the 1080 ti over the 1070 ti?

There's not a huge difference. This detailed benchmark you can see the differences between a GTX 1070, 1080 and 1080 Ti in Adobe Premiere. The 1070 Ti would be pretty close to a 1080. If you OC it the same. If a 10% to 20% boost in certain tasks will make you more money or give you more free time. I'd say the extra money is worth it.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Premiere-Pro-CC-2017-GeForce-GTX-1080-Ti-11GB-Performance-912/

If the GPU alone isn't enough. Then you can start looking at a 10+ Core Intel Skylake X or 12+ Core AMD Threadripper. 32GB+ RAM and a larger SSD.
As for the Mac. It uses an AMD GPU. AMD GPU are substantially inferior to nVidia in Adobe Premiere. Premiere isn't very well optimized for OpenCL or Metal as it is for CUDA. Sometimes even software (CPU) rendering outperforms OpenCL in Premiere. Perhaps there will be improvements when they rework their software for Metal 2 in High Sierra. Last I checked there is a lot of problems with crashing and freezing with Adobe when trying to use Metal right now in High Sierra. Due to the vast changes made in Metal for Metal 2.

Although I haven't found many benchmarks. As I understand it. Final Cut Pro X is much faster on Macs than Adobe Premiere. As it is well optimized to make use of Metal.

Edit: Gaming: Threadripper is cheaper than the Intel for Adobe Premiere performance. Gaming is decent but the Intel is better at gaming. At 4K it really shouldn't matter as the GPU will be a limiting factor. Since you plan to move to 4K gaming. the 1080 Ti is definitely a better option than the 1070 Ti. Although I think if you OC your 3770K to 4.2Ghz you'll be fine for gaming in the near future. Especially at 4K. It'll only help Premiere in CPU only tasks which heavily utilize the CPU.

 

[smileysloth1]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not at home right now so I'll check Resource monitor later.

On the Mac I'm using Adobe too.

With regards to the GPU, what would you recommend? I'm in 2 minds about getting either the 1080 ti or 1070 ti. There's about £240 between them at the moment. Would there be enough of a benefit in getting the 1080 ti over the 1070 ti?

There's not a huge difference. This detailed benchmark you can see the differences between a GTX 1070, 1080 and 1080 Ti in Adobe Premiere. The 1070 Ti would be pretty close to a 1080. If you OC it the same. If a 10% to 20% boost in certain tasks will make you more money or give you more free time. I'd say the extra money is worth it.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Premiere-Pro-CC-2017-GeForce-GTX-1080-Ti-11GB-Performance-912/

If the GPU alone isn't enough. Then you can start looking at a 10+ Core Intel Skylake X or 12+ Core AMD Threadripper. 32GB+ RAM and a larger SSD.
As for the Mac. It uses an AMD GPU. AMD GPU are substantially inferior to nVidia in Adobe Premiere. Premiere isn't very well optimized for OpenCL or Metal as it is for CUDA. Sometimes even software (CPU) rendering outperforms OpenCL in Premiere. Perhaps there will be improvements when they rework their software for Metal 2 in High Sierra. Last I checked there is a lot of problems with crashing and freezing with Adobe when trying to use Metal right now in High Sierra. Due to the vast changes made in Metal for Metal 2.

Although I haven't found many benchmarks. As I understand it. Final Cut Pro X is much faster on Macs than Adobe Premiere. As it is well optimized to make use of Metal.

Edit: Gaming: Threadripper is cheaper than the Intel for Adobe Premiere performance. Gaming is decent but the Intel is better at gaming. At 4K it really shouldn't matter as the GPU will be a limiting factor. Since you plan to move to 4K gaming. the 1080 Ti is definitely a better option than the 1070 Ti. Although I think if you OC your 3770K to 4.2Ghz you'll be fine for gaming in the near future. Especially at 4K. It'll only help Premiere in CPU only tasks which heavily utilize the CPU.

Thanks again for the detailed reply.

I think that's what I'll do. The GPU will help me with my gaming limitations and hopefully fix my other issues. If not, I can swap out the rest of the system.

Great advise!

 

[smileysloth1]

The problem is the cryptocurrency miners. They are snagging all the GPU's up, so the supply is stupidly low right now.

Very true. Team red and green need to make a card that is optomised specifically for mining so they can leave the rest of the cards alone.

 

[velocityg4]

Thanks again for the detailed reply.

I think that's what I'll do. The GPU will help me with my gaming limitations and hopefully fix my other issues. If not, I can swap out the rest of the system.

Great advise!

You're welcome!

 

[jaslion]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not at home right now so I'll check Resource monitor later.

On the Mac I'm using Adobe too.

With regards to the GPU, what would you recommend? I'm in 2 minds about getting either the 1080 ti or 1070 ti. There's about £240 between them at the moment. Would there be enough of a benefit in getting the 1080 ti over the 1070 ti?

There's not a huge difference. This detailed benchmark you can see the differences between a GTX 1070, 1080 and 1080 Ti in Adobe Premiere. The 1070 Ti would be pretty close to a 1080. If you OC it the same. If a 10% to 20% boost in certain tasks will make you more money or give you more free time. I'd say the extra money is worth it.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Premiere-Pro-CC-2017-GeForce-GTX-1080-Ti-11GB-Performance-912/

If the GPU alone isn't enough. Then you can start looking at a 10+ Core Intel Skylake X or 12+ Core AMD Threadripper. 32GB+ RAM and a larger SSD.
As for the Mac. It uses an AMD GPU. AMD GPU are substantially inferior to nVidia in Adobe Premiere. Premiere isn't very well optimized for OpenCL or Metal as it is for CUDA. Sometimes even software (CPU) rendering outperforms OpenCL in Premiere. Perhaps there will be improvements when they rework their software for Metal 2 in High Sierra. Last I checked there is a lot of problems with crashing and freezing with Adobe when trying to use Metal right now in High Sierra. Due to the vast changes made in Metal for Metal 2.

Although I haven't found many benchmarks. As I understand it. Final Cut Pro X is much faster on Macs than Adobe Premiere. As it is well optimized to make use of Metal.

Edit: Gaming: Threadripper is cheaper than the Intel for Adobe Premiere performance. Gaming is decent but the Intel is better at gaming. At 4K it really shouldn't matter as the GPU will be a limiting factor. Since you plan to move to 4K gaming. the 1080 Ti is definitely a better option than the 1070 Ti. Although I think if you OC your 3770K to 4.2Ghz you'll be fine for gaming in the near future. Especially at 4K. It'll only help Premiere in CPU only tasks which heavily utilize the CPU.

Thanks again for the detailed reply.

I think that's what I'll do. The GPU will help me with my gaming limitations and hopefully fix my other issues. If not, I can swap out the rest of the system.

Great advise!

Just wait a bit and snipe one once it's close to the msrp again. The coins are being very inconsistent atm and many predict there will be a dive again for a bit. During that cards get cheaper but once it rises again they go into super expensive mode again .

 

[smileysloth1]

Just wait a bit and snipe one once it's close to the msrp again. The coins are being very inconsistent atm and many predict there will be a dive again for a bit. During that cards get cheaper but once it rises again they go into super expensive mode again .

I think I'm going to wait until the next gen comes out in the hope that the Asus 1080 ti strix goes down a bit. At the moment in the UK the cheapest I've found it for is £780-ish which was around £799 at release.