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Should I sidegrade my system and buy 3070?

This is my current system

I7-4790k running at 4 ghz
16 gig of ddr 3 ram
MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s
Samsung SSD 850 pro 256gb
Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case
Consair 600 psu


I was considering doing a full upgrade but i am think my 4790k can still do 1440p 60 fps if i upgrade to 3070. Thus I am considering doing some kind of sidegrade to made my system more stable. Whenever I turn on my pc , it sometime refuse to boot to window unless i push reset. i was thinking of upgrading ssd to m2 but can my mobo take advantage since it is an older board even through it got m2 slot. I used to overlock the cpu and it got unstable so i revert it back to stock. Also I have concern if my current case can fit a 3070.

I am wondering if a small upgrade/tune up of more ram, better ssd, better cpu cooler and oc will last me a a year or 2 more.
 

longdi

Banned
What is your current gpu?

changing to 3070 would be fine, you need to overclock cpu to 4.4-4.6ghz, should be easily doable.
It will run current games at 40-60fps at 1440p, my guess.
But 4790K is rather old, even Zen2 can win it in games.

You can upgrade the other parts next year, new motherboard cpu ram, maybe new psu.

That said CPU upgrade vs GPU upgrade.
CPU performance gains tends to be more close
GPU tends to depreciate more, every 12-18 months.
 

longdi

Banned
i am on 1070

3070 should give you a quick uplift, running higher res and settings.
Your system is pretty old and will struggle with next gen games. Try running FS2020.

Any of your games that are struggling today? Just plan for a whole overall.

You can insert a x4 nvme ssd in your motherboard, but it will run half the potential.
There are cheaper x2 nvme, but the price differential is not enough to skip the x4 imo.

When you mean you need to push reset to boot, any idea when this started? Could be a weakening PSU?
 

888

Member
I’m about to retire my 4670k that my daughter uses. Starting to get a bit old. I recently built a Ryzen system and it was well worth it.

But a gpu upgrade will help for sure but in certain situations the quad core gets hammered.
 
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teezzy

Banned
We have similar rigs dude.

I'm also rockin' a Krait SLI, except I have a Xeon 1231v3 in mine and a 2070.

The only thing I'd be worried about is bottlenecking.

Hell yeah though, Krait edition.

Fwiw, I'm likely going to go with a 3080 eventually, but I'll be upgrading everything else along with it.

Maybe get the 3070 now, deal with the potential bottleneck, and upgrade everything else down the line?
 
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Reactions: 888
3070 should give you a quick uplift, running higher res and settings.
Your system is pretty old and will struggle with next gen games. Try running FS2020.

Any of your games that are struggling today? Just plan for a whole overall.

You can insert a x4 nvme ssd in your motherboard, but it will run half the potential.
There are cheaper x2 nvme, but the price differential is not enough to skip the x4 imo.

When you mean you need to push reset to boot, any idea when this started? Could be a weakening PSU?
Yes, i know the system is old. Hell, the processor was old itselfg when I built the system 4 years ago. If i improve the cooling and oc the processor to 4.5 ghz and upgrade the ram, would that last me another year or 2?
It is hard to tell if i am cpu bound or gpu bound these days. I know 1070 is a bit weak to do 1440p 60 fps these day, specially games like assassin's creed odyssey.

When i boot up the system, sometime the system hang at loading window 10 screen.
 

longdi

Banned
you are using ddr3 ram, i dont think it is worth upgrading. maybe you can try overclock the ram frequency by a tick.

Imo running 4.5ghz will last you another year optimally, I think from late 2021, with games like BF6 and hellblade 2 using 8 cores, 4790k will feel the strain.

But if we have been playing consoles games at (sub)30fps, you can play your pc games find at lowered fps. 🤷‍♀️

Dont forget to join Gamepass ultimate or at least give the Gamepass(PC) beta a try.

Hanging at W10 screen, are you overclocking anything? check your drive cables for loose connections? Do you have extra startup programs that may conflict? A quick trial and error fix is to reinstall W10.
 
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Bolivar687

Banned
I've just been running my 4790k at 4.6 and might try to see if 4.8 is stable and just keep using it until I start noticing real bottle necks.

I want to wait to see how prices stabilize after big navi, but I'm not really in a rush to move off of the GTX 1080 for 1440p. I don't really play console games on my PC, so I don't see what's on the horizon to justify the upgrade. Its not like CK3 was demanding or anything.
 

Akuji

Member
4 core CPUs will soon have severe problems I would guess when games are designed for next gen. OC from 4.2 to 4.5 are „only“ 300mhz. 42/3 = 12, 12/100= 8.3
Meaning a 50fps scene will now be 54.15fps. More? Sure but oc is about optimizing not getting stuff to run that didn’t run before.

And that only when scaling is 100% perfect. But to be fair, it most likely is a 95% scaling or better.

Get a Ryzen 4000 when they come out or a used 3000 when people upgrade to 4000.
It’s your money and you can do whatever u want, but I would think both next gen consoles at launch will not differ to much.
 
I think you should wait for next gen games to drop. Industry will adapt to fast ssds as standard, including pcs within 2 years.

Make full system then, once there is no more variables. You might get next gen of cards by then, and cheaper gaming grade SSD and control system. I feel first few years your current rig would be playable at 1080p.
 

MastAndo

Member
Unless you're expecting to run at 1080p and very high framerates, the 3070 shouldn't be severely bottlenecked by your CPU. At least not to the point where it ruins your experience. Plus, higher resolutions are more GPU-reliant, so 1440p and 4K will take some of the burden of the aging CPU.

I'm speaking from experience, as I have a 2080 Super paired with an old i7-3770K. I won't lie and say it's flawless, as it'll struggle when running a game that demands the CPU power (like Flight Simulator), but I'm at 1440p or 4K with 60 fps (after some settings tinkering) in basically any game I've been playing. So yeah, if your hope is 1440p/60fps, other than the aforementioned MSFS 2020, I'm hard-pressed to think of a game that I can't run on at least 1440p/60fps with close to max settings on my current setup.

Also, you could also just get the card when it comes out, reap the benefits, then throw it into a fully upgraded system later when you decide to put one together. Oh, and also also, I'm fairly certain your issue with your system hanging at boot won't be resolved by a GPU upgrade.
 
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There is no way you will run any next gen game that really uses next gen CPUs with ultra settings, 60fps with a 4 core CPU the moment 3rd parties drops last gen console support. i mean your CPU has half the XBOX one x 8 core performance. How do you want to run with a much weaker CPU 2x the framerate and also higher settings than next gen consoles? Even with a 8 core 3700x you will only run with SeX settings and framerate. Its not like last gen where you can run in higher framerate that easily. That was only possible because the cpus where that underpowered in those consoles.
 
im here sitting with my 8 year old i5-3570, 1070 and 8gb ram hitting 1440p60 on most current games and emulation. Your system is fine. Just get a ps5 and gamepass, and you are golden.
 
I love coming into PC setup threads. I helps me figure out WTH is going on in the PC gaming setup world.

The 3070 seems like a sweet spot of a GPU, price and performance. So, is it OP's CPU that would be holding him back from getting the most out of his PC? What CPU would he need to pair with his 3070 to get to 4k60, high/ultra settings, if that's even possible? Or will he need to go to 3080?
 
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3070 should give you a quick uplift, running higher res and settings.
Your system is pretty old and will struggle with next gen games. Try running FS2020.

Any of your games that are struggling today? Just plan for a whole overall.

You can insert a x4 nvme ssd in your motherboard, but it will run half the potential.
There are cheaper x2 nvme, but the price differential is not enough to skip the x4 imo.

When you mean you need to push reset to boot, any idea when this started? Could be a weakening PSU?
I don't think the issue is with psu. I RMA that a few years back and cossair send me a new one
 

SCB3

Member
Normally i wou;d agree but 3070 ain;t cheap weither and with ps5 and xbox serie x coming, gil can be a bit tight


PS5 will get a better bundle in about a year and those games will be cheaper, theres nothing groundbreaking just yet

Xbox series X will not be needed unless you have friends on there as all xbox games will also be on PC


Possibly the only reason I may forgo both and go PC for awhile
 

PaNaMa

Banned
OP you will need to upgrade your Power supply; 3070 requires a 650 (card alone is 220 under load) plus the overclocking you have on your cpu is easy another 250...then you have to think about your RAM and all your drives ...and you never want to be running at more than 80% of your capacity..
 

Redefine07

Member
I want to upgrade also dunno if I should get 3070 or wait for 3060 / big navi
Ryzen 5 3600
16GB
Mobo ASRock B450M Steel Legend
Power Supply Seasonic M12II-620 Bronze 620W (got it since 2010 :D)
and my current GPU RX470 4GB QQ got it for 100$ and kicks ass in 1080p high/medium.
 

longdi

Banned
I want to upgrade also dunno if I should get 3070 or wait for 3060 / big navi
Ryzen 5 3600
16GB
Mobo ASRock B450M Steel Legend
Power Supply Seasonic M12II-620 Bronze 620W (got it since 2010 :D)
and my current GPU RX470 4GB QQ got it for 100$ and kicks ass in 1080p high/medium.

3070 ftw

10 years old psu, im sure it will still work, but no harm updating to a new one. the m12ii was rated for 5 years warranty iirc
 
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Kerlurk

Banned
 
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notseqi

Member
Please wait for the Zen3 and AMD-GPUs and DDR5 should your PC work fine right now, even if you have a wonky system.

In the future you will need:
PCI-E 4x
m2-SSD capability
32gig RAM
8cores+
(((12gig+ VRAM))) (we don't know, shit is happening with GDDR6x)

First question for every system would be: What screen are you rocking? 4.20k 420hz?
If you intend to stick to your 1080p, you prolly gonna be fine anyways.

Power at 600W should be fine. If not, its usually 2 days to get a new one by mail, quicker when getting one in a store.

edit: cpu=gpu
 
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nkarafo

Member
Yes, get the 3070.

Your current CPU with probably bottleneck it in some scenarios but it should be OK until DDR5 memory is out. Then make a new build and use the same 3070 card.
 
Please wait for the Zen3 and AMD-GPUs and DDR5 should your PC work fine right now, even if you have a wonky system.

In the future you will need:
PCI-E 4x
m2-SSD capability
32gig RAM
8cores+
(((12gig+ VRAM))) (we don't know, shit is happening with GDDR6x)

First question for every system would be: What screen are you rocking? 4.20k 420hz?
If you intend to stick to your 1080p, you prolly gonna be fine anyways.

Power at 600W should be fine. If not, its usually 2 days to get a new one by mail, quicker when getting one in a store.

edit: cpu=gpu
i am on 1440p monitor. Issue, it is one of those DVI only Shimian monitor
 

Schmick

Member
Yes, i know the system is old. Hell, the processor was old itselfg when I built the system 4 years ago. If i improve the cooling and oc the processor to 4.5 ghz and upgrade the ram, would that last me another year or 2?
It is hard to tell if i am cpu bound or gpu bound these days. I know 1070 is a bit weak to do 1440p 60 fps these day, specially games like assassin's creed odyssey.

When i boot up the system, sometime the system hang at loading window 10 screen.
You could probably sell the CPU for £100/£150 atm.
 
I have a 4790k and 16gb RAM too, it’s generally fine, am going to get a new GPU for cyberpunk, not expecting to go over 1440p 60fps, just want all the new nvidia bells and whistles so I can enjoy the game without compromise. I am pretty sure I’m not really going to be too CPU bound with that game.

Might get a 3080 so I can just keep it for the next gen and upgrade the rest of my setup later if I need to.
 
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