New GPU - what should I get/am I bottlenecked?

[martian_aphid]

Hey guys,

Looking to upgrade my GTX670. My current monitor is 1920x1200 @60Hz but might look to upgrade later this year - potentially 4K. I'm also running a Z77 motherboard with i5-3570k, will this be a bottleneck on any GPU upgrade?

I'm willing to spend up to £500 on an upgrade but obviously I also want the best bang for my buck, so if I'm paying twice as much for only 10% more performance I don't consider it value for money.

Thanks for any advice.

[MrJim]

Hey guys,

Looking to upgrade my GTX670. My current monitor is 1920x1200 @60Hz but might look to upgrade later this year - potentially 4K. I'm also running a Z77 motherboard with i5-3570k, will this be a bottleneck on any GPU upgrade?

I'm willing to spend up to £500 on an upgrade but obviously I also want the best bang for my buck, so if I'm paying twice as much for only 10% more performance I don't consider it value for money.

Thanks for any advice.

Is your CPU overclocked? Even if not, I doubt very much that you'll be bottlenecked by it in most games.

[martian_aphid]

Yeah but only mildly as I didn't feel the need to go wild. It's in an mATX case as I never go multi GPU and figured I'd save some space, though I've got a decent HSF and airflow is decent with the 180mm front fan. I see that 980Ti is pretty much top at the £500 mark but then I started reading about the drastic drop off from async in DX12 and got a bit unsure about the future of a Maxwell-based card.

[EndlessWaves]

The trouble with the 980Ti right now is that it only supports G-sync which is looking like a technology without a future. Unless nVidia are generous and provide Adaptive Sync support on the 900 series by the time you're looking at a 3840x2160 screen, you'll be locked into nVidia cards until you change your monitor again.

The 390X at sub-£300 is a very good deal right now.

[martian_aphid]

Yeah, agree with those sentiments EndlessWaves, not a fan of Gsync, particularly the principal of it. If I spend my hard-earned cash on a new monitor (which I class as a long-term investment) I don't want it to tie me in to a proprietary technology and a certain graphics card vendor - I want the freedom to pick which ever is the best card for me at the time. As you say, the 390X at the right price looks like a decent prospect as things stand.

On Nvidia and adaptive sync I was reading the other day that if Intel pull their finger out and enable it then the prediction is Nvidia will magically find a way to enable it on their cards - at the minute they have a free pass to milk it for all it's worth :S

[Sean473]

Yeah, agree with those sentiments EndlessWaves, not a fan of Gsync, particularly the principal of it. If I spend my hard-earned cash on a new monitor (which I class as a long-term investment) I don't want it to tie me in to a proprietary technology and a certain graphics card vendor - I want the freedom to pick which ever is the best card for me at the time. As you say, the 390X at the right price looks like a decent prospect as things stand.

On Nvidia and adaptive sync I was reading the other day that if Intel pull their finger out and enable it then the prediction is Nvidia will magically find a way to enable it on their cards - at the minute they have a free pass to milk it for all it's worth :S

Get a R9 390X and use the saved money to get you the Acer H257HU 2560x1440 monitor which is going for 207 now.. Perfect upgrade for £500 now

[Heimanyip]

I would probably wait for what nvidia and AMD have to offer for HBM next year, and wait a bit to see where the freesync v gsync battle goes.

[herooftime796]

with an overclock no you shouldn't be bottlenecked.
however i'd recommend a 144hz/gsync/1440p/ips/all of the above monitor before going 4k because unless you're planning on getting a 980 Ti/Titan/AMD equivalent (which is a serious jump from the 670) its going to be pretty hard to keep up with the high of a resolution.