Classic, should I upgrade and if so, what part/s

[charlie93]

Budget (including currency): depends on deals really.

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: AC Mirage, Cities 2, Anno 1800, RDR2, RTS's

Other details Existing parts as follows

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 6-Core Processor 3.50 GHz (recently upgraded this, thanks to this forum) 

ASUS ROG STRIX B350-F Gaming - DDR4 ATX Motherboard

WD Black WDS500G2X0C 500 GB High-Performance NVMe Internal SSD (This is what Windows is installed on)

Kingston Technology SA400S37/120G SSD A400 120 GB Solid State Drive (2.5 Inch SATA 3)

2TB internal hard drive

Corsair TX550M 550W Semi Modular Gold Certified PSU Quiet Power Supply - CP-9020133-UK

Palit GTX 1070 GameRock 8GB GDDR5 Graphics Card

Cooler Master Cm 590 Iii Midi-tower Black

Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 240, All-In-One Hydro CPU Cooler, 2x120mm PWM Fans 240mm Radiator

Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz C15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit

 

Want to start off by saying there's nothing wrong with the system at all. I am also not a tech expert at all. I built this by watching YouTube videos which is also how I discovered LTT. I am mostly curious and if I don't upgrade or the advice is upgrading from what I have creates a bottleneck which in turn, leads to more parts needing updating etc, then I am happy to leave it for now, but Christmas is on the horizon so thinking of an early self present  

 

Every part listed above would have been bought in August 2018 except the CPU which is about a year old. So I'm quite happy that everything has worked without issue (so far) for 5 years. I don't play exclusive AAA games although the newer games on the horizon are starting to look a little spec heavy. According to Can I Run It, I meet the minimum and recommended specs for AC Mirage which feels surprising but in a good way. Cities 2 says I reach the minimum but not the recommended. It suggests the CPU should be at least a 5600x and GPU should be a 2080 Ti. 

 

My extremely uneducated opinion points to upgrading the GPU? I am happily surprised at how well this 1070 has held up, including running RDR2, AC Odysessy and Valhalla with relative comfort. I am not someone craving for the best - hundreds of FPS at 4K, just a well-running 1080p experience with consistent frames and a high (if not extreme) level of detail.

 

The one thing I have zero knowledge about at all is the power supply, specifically if what I have now is only just enough for the power to handle and therefore any upgrade to the GPU would necessitate an upgrade in power supply.

 

Apologies for the long post, I am just looking for a little advice from people far more knowledgeable. Appreciate there's not any detail on budget but it's kinda open, so if someone says, there's an incredible deal on this GPU and you can buy it, plug it in and go then I can look at that. 

 

Thanks!

[Poinkachu]

1 hour ago, charlie93 said:

Budget (including currency): depends on deals really.

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: AC Mirage, Cities 2, Anno 1800, RDR2, RTS's

Other details Existing parts as follows

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 6-Core Processor 3.50 GHz (recently upgraded this, thanks to this forum) 

ASUS ROG STRIX B350-F Gaming - DDR4 ATX Motherboard

WD Black WDS500G2X0C 500 GB High-Performance NVMe Internal SSD (This is what Windows is installed on)

Kingston Technology SA400S37/120G SSD A400 120 GB Solid State Drive (2.5 Inch SATA 3)

2TB internal hard drive

Corsair TX550M 550W Semi Modular Gold Certified PSU Quiet Power Supply - CP-9020133-UK

Palit GTX 1070 GameRock 8GB GDDR5 Graphics Card

Cooler Master Cm 590 Iii Midi-tower Black

Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 240, All-In-One Hydro CPU Cooler, 2x120mm PWM Fans 240mm Radiator

Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz C15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit

 

Want to start off by saying there's nothing wrong with the system at all. I am also not a tech expert at all. I built this by watching YouTube videos which is also how I discovered LTT. I am mostly curious and if I don't upgrade or the advice is upgrading from what I have creates a bottleneck which in turn, leads to more parts needing updating etc, then I am happy to leave it for now, but Christmas is on the horizon so thinking of an early self present  

 

Every part listed above would have been bought in August 2018 except the CPU which is about a year old. So I'm quite happy that everything has worked without issue (so far) for 5 years. I don't play exclusive AAA games although the newer games on the horizon are starting to look a little spec heavy. According to Can I Run It, I meet the minimum and recommended specs for AC Mirage which feels surprising but in a good way. Cities 2 says I reach the minimum but not the recommended. It suggests the CPU should be at least a 5600x and GPU should be a 2080 Ti. 

 

My extremely uneducated opinion points to upgrading the GPU? I am happily surprised at how well this 1070 has held up, including running RDR2, AC Odysessy and Valhalla with relative comfort. I am not someone craving for the best - hundreds of FPS at 4K, just a well-running 1080p experience with consistent frames and a high (if not extreme) level of detail.

 

The one thing I have zero knowledge about at all is the power supply, specifically if what I have now is only just enough for the power to handle and therefore any upgrade to the GPU would necessitate an upgrade in power supply.

 

Apologies for the long post, I am just looking for a little advice from people far more knowledgeable. Appreciate there's not any detail on budget but it's kinda open, so if someone says, there's an incredible deal on this GPU and you can buy it, plug it in and go then I can look at that. 

 

Thanks!

I'd upgrade the HDD to an SSD of any type.
Even cheap DRAMless SATA SSD will do wonder on loading times and general use compared to HDD.

 

As for the rest of the PC, if you are still content with it's performance, I don't see why you should upgrade.

[AndrewZScorpion]

5600 vs 5600X is essentially zero difference, so I wouldn’t be worried about that.

 

As for the GPU, I would wait and see whether or not you’re happy with the performance. If you are, leave it as is, no need to waste money. If not, to avoid needing a PSU upgrade you’ll want to get a GPU that uses ~300W (this is pushing it, especially if the GPU has big power draw spikes) or less, which, for ~2080 Ti performance or better, leaves you looking at a 6700 XT-6800 XT, a 7700 XT/7800 XT, a 3070/3070 Ti, or a 4070/4070 Ti. AMD has tended to be the better deal as of late, but it ultimately depends on your preferences and deals in your area. I also would advise against buying a 3070 (Ti) due to them only having 8 GB of vram, which has already proven to be an issue in multiple games.

 

Also, be sure to either run DDU or do a fresh OS install if you upgrade your GPU, especially if you switch brands. If you don't it can lead to a lot of issues with GPU drivers fighting each other.

[charlie93]

44 minutes ago, AndrewZScorpion said:

5600 vs 5600X is essentially zero difference, so I wouldn’t be worried about that.

 

As for the GPU, I would wait and see whether or not you’re happy with the performance. If you are, leave it as is, no need to waste money. If not, to avoid needing a PSU upgrade you’ll want to get a GPU that uses ~300W (this is pushing it, especially if the GPU has big power draw spikes) or less, which, for ~2080 Ti performance or better, leaves you looking at a 6700 XT-6800 XT, a 7700 XT/7800 XT, a 3070/3070 Ti, or a 4070/4070 Ti. AMD has tended to be the better deal as of late, but it ultimately depends on your preferences and deals in your area. I also would advise against buying a 3070 (Ti) due to them only having 8 GB of vram, which has already proven to be an issue in multiple games.

 

Also, be sure to either run DDU or do a fresh OS install if you upgrade your GPU, especially if you switch brands. If you don't it can lead to a lot of issues with GPU drivers fighting each other.

I assumed there wasn't much difference between the 5600 and 5600x but nice to know. 

 

Just to show my noobish levels of tech knowledge, I assume the part about "GPU that uses ~300W" means if I do get a new GPU, it should use less than 300W at most? And the GPU's you listed after that all fall within that "less than 300W GPU's", so technically, I could go out now and but a 4070Ti and plug it in and it would work?

 

Also, sorry, but what is DDU? 

 

Finally, is there a way to know what components are compatible with the motherboard? I seem to recall that changing the motherboard is tantamount to needing to rebuild the system as everything runs through it? Or maybe I'm wrong

[AndrewZScorpion]

31 minutes ago, charlie93 said:

I assume the part about "GPU that uses ~300W" means if I do get a new GPU, it should use less than 300W at most?

Pretty much. Certain cards use way more power than they’re rated for for brief periods of time (IIRC, the 3090 would use 1.5 or 2x its rated power draw for something like 50 or 100 ms at a time) which can cause shutdowns if your PSU isn’t over-specced and has good protections. A 300W GPU would put you maxing out at ~500W power draw, which is close enough to 550W that this is something you should be thinking about. I think this was resolved with 40 series looking at a couple graphs, but be careful.

 

54 minutes ago, charlie93 said:

I could go out now and but a 4070Ti and plug it in and it would work?

Yes, as long as you run DDU/ do a fresh OS install and then install the correct drivers.

 

33 minutes ago, charlie93 said:

Also, sorry, but what is DDU? 

Display Driver Uninstaller. It wipes your computer of whatever GPU drivers you tell it to. I think there’s an auto mode but I haven't used it in a while so I could be wrong.

 

36 minutes ago, charlie93 said:

Finally, is there a way to know what components are compatible with the motherboard?

Only things you really need to worry about are CPU and memory (which can be found on the Asus website). Otherwise, since it's a relatively modern board I wouldn't be worried about it as long as you have the correct port/slot unless it’s ECC ram or something like that (don’t worry about PCIe 3.0 vs 4.0, they’re compatible).

 

You might need to update your BIOS to enable ReBAR, which can boost GPU performance a substantial amount. It’s pretty simple, just make sure you get the right model and don’t unplug or shut down your computer in the middle of it. There are guides that explain it better than I could.

[charlie93]

30 minutes ago, AndrewZScorpion said:

Pretty much. Certain cards use way more power than they’re rated for for brief periods of time (IIRC, the 3090 would use 1.5 or 2x its rated power draw for something like 50 or 100 ms at a time) which can cause shutdowns if your PSU isn’t over-specced and has good protections. A 300W GPU would put you maxing out at ~500W power draw, which is close enough to 550W that this is something you should be thinking about. I think this was resolved with 40 series looking at a couple graphs, but be careful.

 

Yes, as long as you run DDU/ do a fresh OS install and then install the correct drivers.

 

Display Driver Uninstaller. It wipes your computer of whatever GPU drivers you tell it to. I think there’s an auto mode but I haven't used it in a while so I could be wrong.

 

Only things you really need to worry about are CPU and memory (which can be found on the Asus website). Otherwise, since it's a relatively modern board I wouldn't be worried about it as long as you have the correct port/slot unless it’s ECC ram or something like that (don’t worry about PCIe 3.0 vs 4.0, they’re compatible).

 

You might need to update your BIOS to enable ReBAR, which can boost GPU performance a substantial amount. It’s pretty simple, just make sure you get the right model and don’t unplug or shut down your computer in the middle of it. There are guides that explain it better than I could.

Super advice. Thanks.

 

I know (from watching LTT) that you should definitely look to "overbuy" power so definitely something to look into along with a new GPU. 

 

From the other comment above, I might look to upgrade the M2 500gb main storage I have to something a little bigger as at the moment, I swap games I am playing from the 2TB bulk storage HDD to the M2. 

 

I'll have a shop around for GPU deals I guess. I assume the cards you listed above are good cards? I wouldn't know what to look out for in a new GPU these days. 

[AndrewZScorpion]

49 minutes ago, charlie93 said:

I assume the cards you listed above are good cards? I wouldn't know what to look out for in a new GPU these days.

They're all good performers, check out some 7700 XT or 7800 XT reviews to get an idea of how they stack up against each other, and keep in mind the prices in your area. Hardware Unboxed and Gamers Nexus usually make high-quality reviews, and if someone reliable comes out with some AC Mirage or Cities 2 benchmarks when those games release, I would look at those, and I would also look for benchmarks of games you already play frequently, as performance in individual games can be quite different from the overall average.

[SorryBella]

11 hours ago, charlie93 said:

From the other comment above, I might look to upgrade the M2 500gb main storage I have to something a little bigger as at the moment, I swap games I am playing from the 2TB bulk storage HDD to the M2. 

Then yeah that would be it. 32GB upgrade would be nice too if you can find that 3000C15 kit again, but i havent seen them in normal prices for a while.

 

For GPU the 6700XT should hold in your system, same with the aforementioned 7700XT. But either GPU performs similarly and is the same in longevity thanks to 12GB of VRAM so.... Pick the cheapest to me.

[charlie93]

10 hours ago, SorryBella said:

Then yeah that would be it. 32GB upgrade would be nice too if you can find that 3000C15 kit again, but i havent seen them in normal prices for a while.

 

For GPU the 6700XT should hold in your system, same with the aforementioned 7700XT. But either GPU performs similarly and is the same in longevity thanks to 12GB of VRAM so.... Pick the cheapest to me.

Interesting. Is RAM compatibility really so important that the system wouldn't benefit from an additional 16GB of additional RAM of some other kind even if it had the same specs? Feels like with upgrading RAM, it would be easier to get rid of what I have and just buy a new 32GB kit? Or am I off the mark?