Should i upgrade to Skylake/DDR4 from Ivybridge?

[kYza]

Hi,

So i was considering upgrading my build which is from january 2013.

Specs:

CPU: Intel i5 3570K @ 4.2GHz OC
MOB: Asus P8Z77-V
GPU: MSI HD 7870 2GB OC 1050Mhz
RAM: G-Skill 8GB 1600Mhz RipJaws X
PSU: Corsair HX-650W Pro Modular
SSD: OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 Max IOPs
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 6GB/S
Cooler: Corsair H100I GTX push/pull w/ x2 Corsair AF120 Quiet
CASE: Fractal Arc Midi

The pc itself is fine and runs anything i throw at it or play currently on 1080p medium/high settings decent/high enough stable frame rates.

I just fancy an upgrade for future proofing it will mainly be used for gaming.

Games played currently:

Battlefield 4
League of Legends
GTA V
Ark Survival

I don't know if it's worth me upgrading to skylake with the i5-6600k as the perforamce increase seems negligible, also having to upgrade the mobo for the new Z170 chipset and DDR4 as the timings/frequencies and performance per £ isn't any better than a decent ddr3-1600/2400 kit in comparison, which i know will soon be a different case as time goes on.

So i don't know if to just upgrade my GPU to an MSI GTX 970 Gaming Twin Frozr/Asus GTX 970 Strix now... or wait until january 2017 and upgrade to Skylake/Z170/DDR4 or just upgrade to that now and take the plunge and eventually buy a better 16gb ddr4 2133 kit when the timings come down?

Any advice is much appreciated.

ps: I will be Overclocking the CPU for benchies and such so any decent i5-3570k replacement skylake equivalent which is a good OC'er recommendation i would be greatful .


Thanks (Y)

kYza

[satrow]

Get a 970 and consider a better 240GB+ SSD.

[Spreadie]

Upgrading to Skylake isn't worth it IMO.

As above - new GPU and a bigger/faster SSD is what I would go for, if I were in your position.

[EndlessWaves]

Not much point in future proofing if you're the sort of person who upgrades before they need to.

Personally I'd say your biggest upgrade right now would be an variable refresh rate monitor. Although of the 7000 series I think it's only the 7790 that supported them so you'd either be looking at swapping your 7870 for a 370 4GB or upgrading to a 390 or similar.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If it is ARK in its current state,you are going to be mostly GPU limited from my own experience and despite it using a more Nvidia friendly engine,from my own testing it runs better on AMD cards.

For instance I tried running it on my GTX960 which has a Xeon E3 1230 V2/Core i7 3770 and my mate with a R9 280(which is meant to be slower overall) with a Xeon E3 1230 V3/Core i7 4770 was running it far better in regards to framerates and image quality settings. My mate with a GTX650TI Boost 2GB had issues running it on an overclocked FX6350 and we tried my GTX960 and the R9 280 and the latter was better!! Plus the framerate difference between the Xeon E3 1230 V3 and the overclocked FX6350 was not massive too,and probably around the same performance IIRC.

I don't know if there is some Nvidia Gameworks effects running on it,which is cratering performance,but my mate bought an R9 390 and it runs much better.

[The Hand]

@kYza

I would be tempted to hang on to your current setup for a couple/few months more for AMD's and NVidia's 2016 GPUs to emerge, but again that is the PC upgrade conundrum.. you end up waiting for couple/few more months for something better perpetually.

If you're desperate to upgrade, make it the graphics card to maybe a 970 or R9 390 as the others have suggested. SSDs are apparently falling in price at the moment, so I would be tempted to wait a bit on that front too.

[Bonebreaker777]

Echoing the previous posts. A bigger SSD if you find the need for it (speed wise I doubt it, I have a 120GB and its plenty).
But a better GPU would surely open a lot of doors for you. AMD's 390 is a fine choice (available even in ITX friendly size, 8GB of VRAM, asynchronous shaders). If too much, 380 4GB can be yours for £150 (or so).

[kYza]

@kYza

I would be tempted to hang on to your current setup for a couple/few months more for AMD's and NVidia's 2016 GPUs to emerge, but again that is the PC upgrade conundrum.. you end up waiting for couple/few more months for something better perpetually.

If you're desperate to upgrade, make it the graphics card to maybe a 970 or R9 390 as the others have suggested. SSDs are apparently falling in price at the moment, so I would be tempted to wait a bit on that front too.

I was thinking about doing this after few others have suggested the same thing on other forums.

I was going to go for a 970 as i won't be gaming over 1080p and nvidia drivers are optimized better for the games i play and are constantly updating and also have physx, plus from the benchmarks i've seen the 970/r9 390 are virtually the same at 1080p with the games i play fps wise. The r9 390 is a good option for the dx12 and 8gb vram for future proofing over the older dx 11.1 gtx 970.

I think i'll just wait until june/july time see what they both have to offer with their new £180-£280 prize range of dx12 GPU's and go from there.

Thanks for the suggestion bud (Y).


kYza

[kYza]

delete.

[kYza]

Echoing the previous posts. A bigger SSD if you find the need for it (speed wise I doubt it, I have a 120GB and its plenty).
But a better GPU would surely open a lot of doors for you. AMD's 390 is a fine choice (available even in ITX friendly size, 8GB of VRAM, asynchronous shaders). If too much, 380 4GB can be yours for £150 (or so).

I doubt a 240gb SSD over my 120gb will be any improvement in performance maybe but it will be minute and not noticeable as i have 50gb free space on it and i defrag/clean it often enough.

I think upgrading my ram to a higher frequency low latency 16gb kit would be an improvement on performance especially for ram hungry games like BF4, maybe 16gb is overkill but it's nice to know that it's there if you need it

[kYza]

delete.

[kYza]

If it is ARK in its current state,you are going to be mostly GPU limited from my own experience and despite it using a more Nvidia friendly engine,from my own testing it runs better on AMD cards.

For instance I tried running it on my GTX960 which has a Xeon E3 1230 V2/Core i7 3770 and my mate with a R9 280(which is meant to be slower overall) with a Xeon E3 1230 V3/Core i7 4770 was running it far better in regards to framerates and image quality settings. My mate with a GTX650TI Boost 2GB had issues running it on an overclocked FX6350 and we tried my GTX960 and the R9 280 and the latter was better!! Plus the framerate difference between the Xeon E3 1230 V3 and the overclocked FX6350 was not massive too,and probably around the same performance IIRC.

I don't know if there is some Nvidia Gameworks effects running on it,which is cratering performance,but my mate bought an R9 390 and it runs much better.

The game is still in Alpha and not optimized for most GPU/CPU setups yet it's better to wait for the full release which they plan for june this year. I'm not really too fussed about the game anyway tbh i hardly play it kinda got bored of it... maybe i will go back to it once it's fully released.

[DanceswithUnix]

Personally, I went for a 1440p Freesync 27" monitor: http://www.amazon.co.uk/BenQ-XL2730Z...dp/B00SL4J1M0/

Your current card can't do Freesync, but turn the refresh rate up to 144Hz and you won't get much lag anyway even with vsync turned on.

When the next generation of video cards come out in the summer, then I think it will be the best time to upgrade. In the meantime, hopefully that is my main monitor sorted for the next 5 to 10 years.

I think CPU should be last on your upgrade list, video card looks more of an issue but still OK.

[shaithis]

I doubt a 240gb SSD over my 120gb will be any improvement in performance maybe but it will be minute and not noticeable as i have 50gb free space on it and i defrag/clean it often enough.

I think upgrading my ram to a higher frequency low latency 16gb kit would be an improvement on performance especially for ram hungry games like BF4, maybe 16gb is overkill but it's nice to know that it's there if you need it

Your not going to notice faster RAM. There are scenarios now though where 12-16GB can make a difference over 8GB. There still aren't many games where you will see the difference but at least there are some now

[waypoint]

+1 for leaving the RAM. Sit on it for a while until we know what NVIDIA and AMD are going to do this year.

[jiffy]

I'm looking to upgrade my setup and been disappointed by lack of progress. Plus 1 for sitting on your setup just now and seeing what comes along. If you really did want to upgrade now then I do like the look of those Asus 970 Strix cards as they've come down in price a lot.