GPU bottleneck - upgrade to?

Luwak0000 · January 22, 2017

Well, I picked up a computer today at a second hand store for £30 ($37).. It was a steal! It's has an i5 750 which I've OC to a stable 4Ghz, but the GPU is a XFX HD 6870 which seems to bottleneck horribly, utilization of the cpu hovers around 30 - 50% playing any game, AAA or indie whereas the GPU is 100% on most all the time.. What upgrade should I get, so far I'm looking at a GTX 770, seems paired with this I can get a decent performance out of it. It also has 8gb of DDR3 RAM at 1600, power supply is 550W also. It seems to have never been used and just sat and collected dust, giving it a thorough clean soon.

crosstiger · January 22, 2017

I'm not sure how good the i5 is. Probably miserable single core performance

I think a GTX 770 would be a good match. Alternative, HD 7970. You might also want to look out for the i7 870, just in case the i5 doesn't cut it.

Energycore · January 23, 2017

That's a cool looking case.

Well honestly i5-750 + HD 6870 is a fine combination for low-ish end games, stuff like CSGO and Rocket League. If you want to sell the computer as a gaming box, anything from 750 Ti up (RX 460, GTX 950, 1050, 960, R7 370, etc) would be a good pairing imo. But you could also tidy it up a bit and sell it with the 6870.

Luwak0000 · January 23, 2017

Okay thanks for the replies! I'm looking to sell it after a few upgrades, I have cleaned it completely, stripped it down and done proper cable management job. Re-done all the thermal paste and there is little to no dust anywhere and now all that's left is the step up in GPU. Think I will be going for something around a GTX 770, just to push it a bit further. Thanks you for the input!