What should I upgrade on my PC?

[NovaTronG]

I built my first PC for gaming several years ago, however, i've been gradually upgrading it to now suit both my gaming, architectural modelling and CAD needs. My current specs are:
- AMD Ryzen 7 2700X not OC'd (Planning to yet don't know how).
-Asus ROG Strix X470-F
-Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16GB DDR4-3000
-MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G
-Corsair H100i Pro
-NZXT S340 Black

-Corsair LX128 128GB SSD (For backups/CAD cache).
-ADATA XPG Spectrix S40G 512GB M.2 (OS, Software, etc).
-Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM HDD (Games)

Now my question is, what should I upgrade now that it's christmas? I know my GPU needs an upgrade ASAP since it's bottlenecking my CPU, but since i'm currently living in Mexico City and will move to Toronto in around 6 months, I'll get a RTX 2070 Super OR a 3000 series if they release, it's way cheaper in Toronto than here in Mexico (around 30% cheaper). 
Also, I got my R7 2700X in January 2019, is it worth it to upgrade to a 3700X or not at all?
Should I get additional 16GB of matching ram for my needs? (1080-1440p 144Hz gaming and 3D rendering).
And is it worth overclocking my CPU?

Those are my main doubts regarding my PC, would really appreciate if I could get them answered, and if there are any further concerns/recommendations, please tell me! Thanks in anticipation and Happy christmas!

[Streetguru]

2 minutes ago, NovaTronG said:

I built my first PC for gaming several years ago, however, i've been gradually upgrading it to now suit both my gaming, architectural modelling and CAD needs. My

Your CPU is fine, wait for the Ryzen 4000 series if anything and grab a 12 core.

 

just get an RX 5700/XT it's a better value than the 2070 super, it has like 80-90% the same performance.

 

32GBs is harder to run at higher speeds, and you may want to replace your RAM whenever you upgrade to Ryzen 4000 anyways, because it has a better memory controller, Ryzen 3000 can already do 3600mhz reliably. So probably hold off on that unless you really need 32GBs.

 

also not much point in overclocking your 2700X.

[kelvinhall05]

First, OC that CPU. It's really easy on modern platforms and there's probably millions of guides on how to do it. I've never used hardware this new so I'm not the person to ask, but finding a guide is super easy, trust me.

 

Do you need an upgrade right now? I would first upgrade your GPU to the best you can afford, then your CPU to Ryzen 3000 (again, ideally the best you can afford), and then whatever you see fit (RAM, storage, etc).

[LIGISTX]

GPU is all you need.

 

If you see you are using upwards of 13 GB of RAM while in your architecture programs, yes, more RAM would help. If you are not really using that much, then 16 GB is fine. 16 is plenty for gaming.

 

Definitely try and overclock some, but take your time and learn how to do it safely and smartly. Don't just start tweaking settings for fun, take your time, and read guides and watch some videos on it.

 

New GPU, and overclock the CPU some, and you should be good to go!

[NovaTronG]

1 hour ago, Streetguru said:

Your CPU is fine, wait for the Ryzen 4000 series if anything and grab a 12 core.

 

just get an RX 5700/XT it's a better value than the 2070 super, it has like 80-90% the same performance.

 

32GBs is harder to run at higher speeds, and you may want to replace your RAM whenever you upgrade to Ryzen 4000 anyways, because it has a better memory controller, Ryzen 3000 can already do 3600mhz reliably. So probably hold off on that unless you really need 32GBs.

 

also not much point in overclocking your 2700X.

True, upgrading every year is not worth it, will grab some good R 4000 in a future. Also, If I'm getting my GPU around october-november 2020, should I wait to see if the new RX (if there are any) compares to the RTX 3000 if they launch? 

[NovaTronG]

1 hour ago, kelvinhall05 said:

First, OC that CPU. It's really easy on modern platforms and there's probably millions of guides on how to do it. I've never used hardware this new so I'm not the person to ask, but finding a guide is super easy, trust me.

 

Do you need an upgrade right now? I would first upgrade your GPU to the best you can afford, then your CPU to Ryzen 3000 (again, ideally the best you can afford), and then whatever you see fit (RAM, storage, etc).

Got it, will OC that CPU, just got my water cooler so that shouldn't be a problem. 

I'm not in full need of an upgrade right now, but for uni next year will for sure be, that's why i'm taking the time to calmly plan this. Which GPU would you recommend me? I know Quadros are the best for CADD and rendering, but newer RTX cards are great as far as I know, as well as cheaper and better for gaming, which still matters to me.

[NovaTronG]

1 hour ago, LIGISTX said:

GPU is all you need.

 

If you see you are using upwards of 13 GB of RAM while in your architecture programs, yes, more RAM would help. If you are not really using that much, then 16 GB is fine. 16 is plenty for gaming.

 

Definitely try and overclock some, but take your time and learn how to do it safely and smartly. Don't just start tweaking settings for fun, take your time, and read guides and watch some videos on it.

 

New GPU, and overclock the CPU some, and you should be good to go!

Which GPU would you recommend me? Waiting for RTX 3000? RTX 2070 Super, or 2080? Not really sure of RX cards since they lack that Ray Tracing which is crucial for 3D rendering and modelling. Also, I believe my RAM is enough so far, yet may have to upgrade in future situations when running several software at a time.

Also, are there any OC'ing guides you would recommend me for my CPU? Will be a slight overclock, kinda afraid to go crazy on that.

[kelvinhall05]

5 minutes ago, NovaTronG said:

Got it, will OC that CPU, just got my water cooler so that shouldn't be a problem. 

I'm not in full need of an upgrade right now, but for uni next year will for sure be, that's why i'm taking the time to calmly plan this. Which GPU would you recommend me? I know Quadros are the best for CADD and rendering, but newer RTX cards are great as far as I know, as well as cheaper and better for gaming, which still matters to me.

If you don't need an upgrade now, no point in planning one as we have no clue what's gonna come out by the time you need to upgrade.

[LIGISTX]

22 minutes ago, NovaTronG said:

Which GPU would you recommend me? Waiting for RTX 3000? RTX 2070 Super, or 2080? Not really sure of RX cards since they lack that Ray Tracing which is crucial for 3D rendering and modelling. Also, I believe my RAM is enough so far, yet may have to upgrade in future situations when running several software at a time.

Also, are there any OC'ing guides you would recommend me for my CPU? Will be a slight overclock, kinda afraid to go crazy on that.

I mean.... I am a nvidia GPU person, for now. They just offer a better product. I used to run AMD when they were better (this was pre my 8800 GTS 640 MB), but ever since, ATI/AMD has just not had compelling performance offerings.

 

As far as overclocking, just google it, google it some more, and then once you did that, google is more. There is no one video to watch or guide to read. Do a lot of research, get familiar with all the settings, voltages, and adjust your expectations. Then google for specific motherboard settings for your motherboard, and then you should have a very solid foundation of knowledge to try and step through the process. Overclocking is not "hard", it just takes time. I have been overclocking for over 10 years, my first CPU I overclocked was a Core 2 Duo 6750, the second was my brothers C2D 6400, but his mobo had no way od adjusting for vdroop (you will come across this term in your searching, its when you apply a load to the CPU, the voltage drops), so I found a guide to pencil mod it to compensate it, basically the graphite over one of the mobo's transistors tricked the mobo into a false voltage reading, anyways, that is advanced, what you will be doing is not. It just takes time to sort out the info, get comfortable with it, and be ready to tackle it.

 

Take your time, don't be afraid to get a piece of paper and pencil out to write down the progress. For instance, write down your GHz and voltage and how long it was stable for, then change just one thing at a time, and see if that helps stability. Rinse and repeat until you hit your goal at the lowest possible voltage. Good luck

[NovaTronG]

1 hour ago, kelvinhall05 said:

If you don't need an upgrade now, no point in planning one as we have no clue what's gonna come out by the time you need to upgrade.

True, but by planning it I mean more of a budget plan, start allocating money for future upgrades. At this moment, I use my pc for some normal gaming and basic rendering (which the GTX 970 has handled extremely well not sure how), but next year when I will start rendering every single day, and potentially 1440p gaming, I'll need the update.

[NovaTronG]

41 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

I mean.... I am a nvidia GPU person, for now. They just offer a better product. I used to run AMD when they were better (this was pre my 8800 GTS 640 MB), but ever since, ATI/AMD has just not had compelling performance offerings.

 

As far as overclocking, just google it, google it some more, and then once you did that, google is more. There is no one video to watch or guide to read. Do a lot of research, get familiar with all the settings, voltages, and adjust your expectations. Then google for specific motherboard settings for your motherboard, and then you should have a very solid foundation of knowledge to try and step through the process. Overclocking is not "hard", it just takes time. I have been overclocking for over 10 years, my first CPU I overclocked was a Core 2 Duo 6750, the second was my brothers C2D 6400, but his mobo had no way od adjusting for vdroop (you will come across this term in your searching, its when you apply a load to the CPU, the voltage drops), so I found a guide to pencil mod it to compensate it, basically the graphite over one of the mobo's transistors tricked the mobo into a false voltage reading, anyways, that is advanced, what you will be doing is not. It just takes time to sort out the info, get comfortable with it, and be ready to tackle it.

 

Take your time, don't be afraid to get a piece of paper and pencil out to write down the progress. For instance, write down your GHz and voltage and how long it was stable for, then change just one thing at a time, and see if that helps stability. Rinse and repeat until you hit your goal at the lowest possible voltage. Good luck

I'm honestly on the nvidia side too, had had 3 nvidia GPUS so far, so I may just stick to them. Also, for sure will do that overclocking research, I've always thought that OC'ing is something extremely interesting and pontentially fun to do, and I've always wanted to learn the basics and a bit more of it, instead of just researching the CPUs common OC configs, I'd prefer finding them myself.

[Streetguru]

9 hours ago, NovaTronG said:

True, upgrading every year is not worth it, will grab some good R 4000 in a future. Also, If I'm getting my GPU around october-november 2020, should I wait to see if the new RX (if there are any) compares to the RTX 3000 if they launch? 

If you aren't buying a GPU until then, then there's no point in planning anything out now.

 

for 3D modeling and stuff the best value is going to be a 1080ti for it's 11GBs of VRAM.

Really don't need the Ray tracing cores unless you're doing RTX stuff all of the time, and there's always generic ray tracing options aren't there?