Advise needed in upgrading my 2nd gen rig (Strictly gaming @ 1080p)

ivananonymous

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Apr 28, 2012
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Hello!

I need your advise on what parts I need to upgrade. I just want better performance for a strictly gaming rig only. I don't do anything else other than game, browse and watch.

My budget is $300-$1000 but I want to minimize it as much as possible. Best bang for the buck with less expense.

Do you guys think I should just upgrade the CPU to I7 2600k or i7 3770k? GPU to 1070 Ti or wait for RX 2070?

Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you.

My case space is limited as well.

Current Rig:
I5 2500k @ 4.5Ghz
P8z68 M Pro
16 GB DDR3 1333
GTX 970
Corsair CX600 (2 6 pins I think)
4 HDDs (I am not sure about the size but guessing 2x3.5 and 2x2.5)
Monitor resolution is 1920x1080 60Hz
 

jay.wooster

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Sep 27, 2018
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The first question i would ask you is can you play most of your games at high settings now on that 1080p 60Hz monitor ?

The RAM at 1333Mhz DDR3 sticks out and im thinking perhaps a new MB, CPU and RAM may give you the best bang for your buck. Are you sure your CPU is running at 4.5Ghz ??? Intel states Max Freq OC is 3.7Ghz on boost....

Since the I5-2500K doesn't support a RAM upgrade you would need to upgrade the three of them....
 
2500k + 970 is still fine for most games, just not for those new ones e.g. BF1

970 is still near to GTX1060. For 1080p, this should still do just fine for most cases. Sometimes you have to reduce the game settings.

2500k is the culprit for having bad or instable FPS on the new proc heavy AAA games. Jumping to 2600k or 3770k, will help regarding cost but not the best upgrade path. The best idea is to move to Ryzen 5 2600 (or better) or I5 9600k, along with new mainboard and RAM-kit.

I would say go for the processor+mobo+ram first and upgrade the GPU later....or upgrade the GPU too.
 

jay.wooster

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Sep 27, 2018
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Take a look at this bundle, would be a great upgrade for you and would suit all of your other components. The GTX 970 is a good card for a standard 1080p monitor, upgrading to a 1070 is not really neccesary unless you have the money to burn.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3706535

If your willing to spend the additional find a bundle with a 8700K or 8086k if your willing to Overclock. If not an 8700 would do fine. Let me know if i can help some more....