Recommended desktop for GTX 970

[tippytipper]

Hi, I'm upgrading my GTX970 to a 5600 XT, it pushes my current desktop to the bottleneck limit.

 

I want to keep the 970 and buy a cheap desktop that would push it to the bottleneck limit. I'd be connecting it to a TV.

 

I have an old desktop with an i5 650, but the 970 is way too fast. So I was wondering if anyone could please suggest a cheap prebuit desktop or something else that I could go for?

 

There's a bottleneck calculator here that helps https://pc-builds.com/calculator/ but it often suggests processors that aren't sold anymore.

 

 

[Slottr]

Location? Budget?

 

Those calculators aren't worth a damn, take them with a grain of salt

[GOTSpectrum]

What is your budget? Without that people can't really answer all too well.

 

also, does it really need to be a prebuilt or are you open to building your own?

[Tristerin]

Comb newegg for i5 4th gen mid/micro towers can be found for $140-200 depending on the sale going on.  

[Kilrah]

7 minutes ago, tippytipper said:

but it often suggests processors that aren't sold anymore.

If you want to match a 970 on the cheap then old used hardware is precisely what you want to go for. That's a 6 year old GPU, almost anything current would be too much for it.

[Drama Lama]

Get a used prebuilt 

[tippytipper]

@Slottr@GOTSpectrum Hi, thanks, I'm in Ireland but often get most stuff from the UK.

 

The original GTX 970 came with my custom prebuilt desktop, it has a i7 6700K, 16GB RAM on a Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI.

So budget-wise Ideally I don't want to spend much more than £200 as I'm just reusing the old card.

 

Ideally I'd like a new prebuilt to save hassle so I just plop it in, but I don't mind getting a used one, and I think I'd be open to building my own.

 

I think I'm stuggling to know which processor to look for or where to start.

 

 

[tippytipper]

A Ryzen 3200G seems like it might be a good fit?

[tippytipper]

I'm now considering building my own, I've never built my own system before, just wondering if anyone knows if my GTX 970 will work with a PCI-Express x4 slot?

[Void Master]

On 6/28/2020 at 9:05 PM, tippytipper said:

A Ryzen 3200G seems like it might be a good fit?

It is a good option.

5 minutes ago, tippytipper said:

I'm now considering building my own, I've never built my own system before, just wondering if anyone knows if my GTX 970 will work with a PCI-Express x4 slot?

It will work. but it really limits it's performance, most modern motherboards have an x16 slot for a GPU anyways. 

[Kilrah]

As far as I know Nvidia cards will refuse to work at less than x8.

[rodrigoxm49]

On 6/28/2020 at 1:17 PM, tippytipper said:

Hi, I'm upgrading my GTX970 to a 5600 XT, it pushes my current desktop to the bottleneck limit.

 

I want to keep the 970 and buy a cheap desktop that would push it to the bottleneck limit. I'd be connecting it to a TV.

 

I have an old desktop with an i5 650, but the 970 is way too fast. So I was wondering if anyone could please suggest a cheap prebuit desktop or something else that I could go for?

 

There's a bottleneck calculator here that helps https://pc-builds.com/calculator/ but it often suggests processors that aren't sold anymore.

 

 

You can upgrade it to a i7 870 if you dont want to buy a motherboard and it's enough to keep GTX970 at 100% GPU usage most of the time even on modern games. If you're not sure about it, a Core i7 2600 or Core i7 3770 would do the same.

 

If you want a new system, Ryzen 3100 or 2400G would do the job, same for Core i3 9100F.

Forget about these bottleneck calculatores. It just doesnt work. It's a generic recommendation that most of the time it's just wrong. 

[tippytipper]

@rodrigoxm49 Thanks, my old tower is an Acer Aspire M3910. I previously upgraded the power supply to fit an AMD Radeon HD 7770.

Given that it's a prebuilt motherboard do you think I could still swap out the CPU?

 

Edit: after a bit of looking around I think the fastest CPU the socket would take (assuming I could switch it out) would be an i7 880?

 

The original processor, i5 650 https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/43546/intel-core-i5-650-processor-4m-cache-3-20-ghz.html

appears to have a FCLGA1156 socket, and I had a look here for a list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1156#Supported_processors

which is where I drew my conclusion, but I don't really know what I'm doing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Twi5tedw3lsh]

Someone correct me if im wrong, I'm certainly not an expert. Just using personal experience as im using the card. I have a 3200g with a 970 the card runs at 70-90% most the time and not run into any issues. However if your buying the cpu then a 3300x would get every last drop out of it for only a little extra. You would also have more scope if you decide to add a better gpu later on. 

[dfsgsfa]

On 7/1/2020 at 4:49 AM, tippytipper said:

I'm now considering building my own, I've never built my own system before, just wondering if anyone knows if my GTX 970 will work with a PCI-Express x4 slot?

i been pairing a gtx970 gamingx with i5 2500 non k , and upgraded to r7 1700, now i got a rx570 nitro, ( on par with 970) to pair with 2500 + 8gb ram on 4K tv.

 

not bad overall. may lag only in heavily demanding aaa titles, but thats rarely happening for a secondary pc. 

 

but consider used intel price vs new ryzen , ryzen 3100x /3300x is the deal

 

[rodrigoxm49]

On 7/4/2020 at 11:36 AM, tippytipper said:

@rodrigoxm49 Thanks, my old tower is an Acer Aspire M3910. I previously upgraded the power supply to fit an AMD Radeon HD 7770.

Given that it's a prebuilt motherboard do you think I could still swap out the CPU?

 

Edit: after a bit of looking around I think the fastest CPU the socket would take (assuming I could switch it out) would be an i7 880?

 

The original processor, i5 650 https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/43546/intel-core-i5-650-processor-4m-cache-3-20-ghz.html

appears to have a FCLGA1156 socket, and I had a look here for a list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1156#Supported_processors

which is where I drew my conclusion, but I don't really know what I'm doing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

CPU will not change much things on power supply demand. Don't worry about it. Afterall it's basically the same CPU that you already have, but 8 threads instead 4 threads. Which is enough to massively improve frames and GPU usage on every modern game.

 

About CPU, i7 880 is the best you can have on this motherboard indeed. But any i7 Lynfield would help a lot. Don't worry to much to buy the best, the difference is only few Mhz on the base clock. i7 760 have only 0.2Ghz less. It doenst make any real difference.

 

[tippytipper]

@rodrigoxm49  Thanks again

 I've seen a Xeon X3470 that should do the job, the existing CPU cooler should be fine according to the TDP rating, but someone told me it might not work with the chipset? Just wondering if you know if that makes sense?

[Kilrah]

The chipset doesn't officially support any Xeon but people reported that one worked on their system:

https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel_(chipsets)/H57_Express.html

 

Might or might not be the same on yours.

[tippytipper]

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice, in the end I found a reasonable pre-built on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01FXZI9PE