To buy or not to buy? GTX 1070 ti vs New Purchase?

[The Print Craftsman]

I just finished building my Alder Lake computer.  Because the i9 12900K has integrated graphics I didn't worry about putting a GPU into it initially.  I have it up and running.  Everything is great.  I put two 32 GB sticks of 3200 RAM in it for 64 GB total as a DUAL channel set-up.  I have two empty slots if I need to add more.  I also put a Gen 4, 2TB, Sabrent Rocket into it.  Super happy with how responsive the computer is!

 

I have recently become interested in the new Unreal Engine 5 release and started looking at the specs needed to run it.  I downloaded and installed a copy of it on my new build.  Well from what I have read it can really benefit from having a GPU in action and I think GTX 1060 was the minimum you should have.  If I read up on everything correctly.  

 

I happen to have an extra GTX 1070 ti laying around and I'm trying to decide if I should use it?  Or would I be better off buying a much more powerful GPU?  Like one of the RTX series?  And I'm even wondering if I should wait for the 4000 series to come out... or should I just buy an RTX 3090 ti and call it a day?  Money while always an issue is fortunately not a deal breaker for me.  I can probably cough up the needed funds if it's going to really make my life easier.  I guess my main question is how much better will Unreal Engine 5 run on an RTX GPU vs the GTX 1070 ti?  I understand it will run better.  But I'm trying to decide if it will run $2,000 better?  Or should I just throw the GTX 1070 ti into the build and use it until the RTX 40xx series comes out?  Since I'm looking at learning Unreal Engine, I'm guessing I won't be taxing the hardware super hard... at least during my initial learning stages.  lol.

 

Thanks in advance for any sage advice you might have for me.

 

The Print Craftsman.

 

 

[SignatureSigner]

throw the 1070ti in if you already have it and see if it works for your workload?

[cat milker]

I mean yeah, the 1070 ti will run, but something  like a 3060 will be a lot better because of the extra 4 gigs of vram. But like the last dude said, throw in the 1070 ti and see if it works for you. If it does, then great!

[Vishera]

My GTX 1660 struggles with Unreal Engine 5 and it's in the same performance class as the GTX 1070.

So you will need a significantly more powerful GPU like the RTX 3060 Ti.

[Zando_]

20 minutes ago, Vishera said:

My GTX 1660 struggles with Unreal Engine 5 and it's in the same performance class as the GTX 1070.

The 1660 Ti/Super is closer to the 1070 AFAIK, not the base 1660. And OP has a 1070 Ti, which is much closer to a 1080, which puts it in 2060 Super territory. Not a huge leap, but a noticeable one. 

[Vishera]

2 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

The 1660 Ti/Super is closer to the 1070 AFAIK, not the base 1660. And OP has a 1070 Ti, which is much closer to a 1080, which puts it in 2060 Super territory. Not a huge leap, but a noticeable one. 

I overclocked my GTX 1660 especially the memory where it's bottlenecked so it should perform similarly to the GTX 1660 Ti/Super:

 

 

My GTX 1660:

 

[Vishera]

15 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

The 1660 Ti/Super is closer to the 1070 AFAIK, not the base 1660. And OP has a 1070 Ti, which is much closer to a 1080, which puts it in 2060 Super territory. Not a huge leap, but a noticeable one. 

Also here is a stock 1070 Ti result with the same benchmark:

[Needfuldoer]

If you already have the card sitting on a shelf anyway, throw it in and see how it runs. It won't cost you anything but time just to kick the tires!

[The Print Craftsman]

Well, I do have it just sitting on the shelf.  So I will pop it in and see how it goes.  Maybe by the time I figure out I want something more powerful... the RTX 40xx series will be out or maybe I'll discover that I don't really need anything better... until I do.

 

I may have to look into what's involved in overclocking it too.  I've never really done much of that.  So if Zando or anyone else has advice on how I might go about it I am all ears.  
But I will do some googling myself.  I am sure I can figure it out.

 

Thanks again for the replies and info.

[The Print Craftsman]

O.K. so I installed the card tonight and rebooted the computer.  The card is NOT being detected???  I downloaded Nvidia's GeForce Experience software and tried to install it. It says it cannot be installed because there are no Nvidia GPUs in the system.  I attached image of message.

 

So I should mention that the GTX 1070 ti is a Gaming MSI card.  It's the black and red one. But that shouldn't matter should it?

I actually have another one installed in my main rig.  I really didn't want to pull it but I might because I know for sure it is working.  Swap it in just to see if it shows up or not?

 

But if anyone has any other bright ideas. I'm all ears.

[The Print Craftsman]

Well installing the other working GTX 1070 ti card out of my main rig worked.  Everything works now!  That's the good news.  I guess the bad news is that my extra card doesn't work.  Might have been why it was sitting on the shelf collecting dust??? So back on the shelf it goes for now with a piece of tape on it with a note about how it doesn't seem to work.

 

Thanks everyone for all your input.

 

I've been researching GPU's and Unreal Engine 5.  There are some REALLY expensive GPU's out there!  I bumped into the A6000 for five grand or the 8000 for seven grand.  Apparently they are work station GPU's (Not Gaming GPUs and they cost a bloody fortune).  I guess I have a lot to learn.  For now I'm going to learn Unreal Engine 5 with this GTX 1070 ti and see how it goes.  By the time I start pushing it's performance maybe by then I'll have more clarity as to what is really important.  And perhaps a bit more cash on hand.   One can always dream anyway.

 

 

[GamerDude]

I agree with with Zando, the GTX 1070 Ti performs a smidgen slower than the GTX 1080, it's a fair bit faster than a GTX 1660 Ti. If the OP finds the performance of the GTX 1070 Ti to be acceptable for now, hold off the urge for a GPU upgrade for now and wait for the RTX 4000 series....or RDNA3 if OP is so inclined. I have an RX 6900 XT, and awaitng the release of the RX7800XT/RX7900XT.