980 Ti Upgrade?

[Nova_SVN]

Hi Guys,

 

So I know this question has been asked in various ways but none of the answers I've seen really puts me at ease. I have an ASUS Strix GTX 980 Ti OC (the one with the upgraded head pipe system). I've had this card for near 4 years now and I've noticed a decline in performance in newer games. I have a 1080p 144Hz monitor, i5 7600k @4.8GHz on an Asus STRIX Z270E Gaming motherboard, Super Flower SF-750F14EG(WH) Leadex II 750W 80 Plus Gold PSU, and 16Gigs G.Skill F4-3200C16D-16GVKB Ripjaws V Series @3200MHz paired up with it.

 

I feel like an upgrade is due for my graphics card, but I'm not sure if a 2070 super is a worth while upgrade for 1080p 144Hz gaming, or if some other part of my system is going to bottleneck me. Please help and Thanks.

[alatron978]

2070 super is a significant upgrade, but your cpu might hold that card back and i doubt you will hit 144fps with it.

[Votivee]

I don't think it is your GPU, although I could be wrong. The 980ti is basically the same as the 1070 which is more than capable of 1080p 144hz. What settings are you trying to play on? You shouldn't be having any issues with medium/high settings.

[SenKa]

The issue lies elsewhere... The 980Ti is a very capable card. I think it's your CPU, 4 cores is really not a lot anymore, and without hyper threading it's even worse. 

[dizmo]

You've missed the most important thing; you haven't told us what kind of performance you're getting.

[Nova_SVN]

3 hours ago, Votivee said:

I don't think it is your GPU, although I could be wrong. The 980ti is basically the same as the 1070 which is more than capable of 1080p 144hz. What settings are you trying to play on? You shouldn't be having any issues with medium/high settings.

I generally try to play with everything maxed unless it's a setting that I know is going to tank my FPS. Recently played Kingdom Come Deliverance, which isn't the best game for pc, but even with medium to high settings I couldn't get a stable 60. Ideally I'd like for this to hit a stable 60 in AAA titles and higher FPS in other titles, I doubt 144Hz is going to happen with any card for a maxed out AAA title. If I were to upgrade, I'd want to play the newer titles maxed out, +- the FPS killing settings, at 60+ fps.

[Nova_SVN]

2 hours ago, dizmo said:

You've missed the most important thing; you haven't told us what kind of performance you're getting.

Depends on the game, but if its a AAA title, like the newer AC games, I cannot get a stable 60 FPS at high settings which would need to be a bare minimum. I can live with toning down the settings that kill fps and offer little visual improvement, but if I'm playing a AAA game, the visuals are part of what I want. Recently I'm finding myself having to mull over living with a bad framerate well below 60 in most parts of the game or having the visuals look noticeably bad (to me).

[Boinbo]

Upgrade your CPU and Motherboard, GPU is fine.

[Nova_SVN]

Hi Guys,

 

Thanks for all the replies to my dilemma.

 

Boinbo's reply is one I've seen in other peoples threads as well, that my CPU might be the issue. What would even be bare minimum for the type of gaming I'm trying to do? Is my card good enough or am I looking at a complete system overhaul?

 

Also, do I need to reapply thermal paste on my 980TI? I've seen this suggested on other threads  but I've never repasted a Graphics card (never had one high end enough to last this long before) and the STRIX card looks a bit intimidating to strip.

 

[JoostinOnline]

Get a used i7 6700k or 7700k if you want an upgrade. At 1080p, your gpu isn't the bottleneck. I've got the same card for a 1440p 144hz monitor. The Strix isn't too hard to take apart, but since it uses thermal pads there probably won't be much benefit to replacing the paste.