Not sure what would be a bigger upgrade.

[sapouni]

So im looking to do some upgrading with my current build, running a Gigabyte 960 4gb graphics card, with an i5 3570k running at 4.2 ghz.

Do you think it would be best to go for a Skylake/Haswell i7, or upgrade to a 980ti? 

[skimmilk5]

Haswell or Skylake by far. The 960 is still a very competitive card in today's performance metrics.

A CPU upgrade would entail a motherboard upgrade, though, because the CHIPSET would not be compatible. A Z97 or Z170 board may be next in line.

[Bigheart]

your cpu will be quite the bottleneck if you upgraded the gpu, yeah? id go with the cpu just because you also get the added benefits of ddr4 and better io. 

[Fungal]

What resolution do you play at?? if you're having trouble running games get a new pascal gpu or if you're running games fine with your 960 get something like a 6600

[comicsansms]

Upgrade the GPU. Either get the best GPU you can afford now, or wait till Pascal or Polaris.

Personally I'd wait.

[skimmilk5]

1 minute ago, Fungal said:

What resolution do you play at?? if you're having trouble running games get a new pascal gpu or if you're running games fine with your 960 get something like a 6600

The thing is, getting new graphics card would be a slight CPU bottleneck, if the 960 isn't already bottlenecked. Keep in mind, that 3570K is a THIRD generation product, and that doesn't take into account the generation refreshes (Haswell-EP, E, etc)

[Fungal]

1 minute ago, kimsejin5 said:

The thing is, getting new graphics card would be a slight CPU bottleneck, if the 960 isn't already bottlenecked. Keep in mind, that 3570K is a THIRD generation product, and that doesn't take into account the generation refreshes (Haswell-EP, E, etc)

Yeah true  but Ik someone with the same processor and it'll become a small bottleneck with a new gpu but most games are more gpu reliant so if he wanted a higher res monitor definitely go for the gpu upgrade but if not get a skylake 

[skimmilk5]

Just now, Fungal said:

Yeah true  but Ik someone with the same processor and it'll become a small bottleneck with a new gpu but most games are more gpu reliant so if he wanted a higher res monitor definitely go for the gpu upgrade but if not get a skylake 

This is turning into a thread war but whatever. The GTX 960 is a current generation product, still actively supported by both Nvidia and the card manufacturers. The 3570K is from eons ago (in computer terms), and it's due for an upgrade IMO...

[sapouni]

Thanks a lot for the fast responses guys.

 

Yeah, I realize I would need to upgrade the motherboard along with the CPU if I went that route, just trying to put solid reasoning behind any upgrade im gonna do.

 

I play at a 1920x1200 resolution, and although I do play some games like The Division and plan to also play DS3 soon, I mostly play every Blizzard game, which I think are most reliant on processor power if im not mistaken. 

 

Now, would you guys justify going the X99 + Haswell combo over the Skylake + 1151 socket, the X99 appears to be slightly more expensive, but offer a little better gaming performance by quickly glancing at google results for a bit. I'd like to keep my budget for everything including motherboard, CPU, RAM (as I'd need DDR4), and power supply to 900 dollars or lower.

 

Edit: Oh, also I would like to have the option of doing things like streaming on Twitch and whatnot, hence why I'd prefer to go the i7 route and not i5.

Edited April 6, 2016 by sapouni
.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

Okay, so your CPU is an absolute beast and will be perfectly fine to handle a 980ti so if you want to wait a few months and test the waters with Pascal or Polaris feel free to do so, however if you have the money now and can afford it grab a 980ti they're amazing GPU's and your CPU will have no problem using it- especially with that overclock.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Jacktastic-Mofo said:

Okay, so your CPU is an absolute beast and will be perfectly fine to handle a 980ti so if you want to wait a few months and test the waters with Pascal or Polaris feel free to do so, however if you have the money now and can afford it grab a 980ti they're amazing GPU's and your CPU will have no problem using it- especially with that overclock.

YES! It's at the point where it's right behind a 4670k and people are just saying it needs an upgrade because it's a few years old.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

Just now, TheCovertCamper said:

YES! It's at the point where it's right behind a 4670k and people are just saying it needs an upgrade because it's a few years old.

Exactly! It's a perfectly fine CPU, even the 2500k is still a beast. PSA to all LTT users, CPU's HAVE NOT ADVANCED MUCH IN THE PAST FEW YEARS, so a slightly older CPU in this case a 3570k which came out just four years ago is still capable of driving today's high end GPU's without any issues.

[sapouni]

Just now, Jacktastic-Mofo said:

Exactly! It's a perfectly fine CPU, even the 2500k is still a beast. PSA to all LTT users, CPU's HAVE NOT ADVANCED MUCH IN THE PAST FEW YEARS, so a slightly older CPU in this case a 3570k which came out just four years ago is still capable of driving today's high end GPU's without any issues.

I hear ya. I'm just a little worried with the longetivity of parts as I just recently had my 780 ti break down on me after a couple of years of using it (that's when I settled for a quick fix and bought the 960), so i'm just a little worried as to how much longer my motherboard and the 3570k can keep on running. 

 

If I was planning to also upgrade again later this year around Black Friday/Holiday season, would you say it'd be wise to go for a new motherboard/cpu now, and give time for the new GPUs to be released?

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

Just now, sapouni said:

I hear ya. I'm just a little worried with the longetivity of parts as I just recently had my 780 ti break down on me after a couple of years of using it (that's when I settled for a quick fix and bought the 960), so i'm just a little worried as to how much longer my motherboard and the 3570k can keep on running. 

 

If I was planning to also upgrade again later this year around Black Friday/Holiday season, would you say it'd be wise to go for a new motherboard/cpu now, and give time for the new GPUs to be released?

If you're buying GPU's from NVIDIA you should get an EVGA one, they've got long warranties and if it gets fucked up and you RMA it they're likely to send you a better one, so you would've gotten a 980 in return for your 780ti.

However if you really find the need to upgrade your CPU and MOBO which you shouldn't have to worry about- I've got a motherboard from 86' that still works  then sure pick up like a 6600k and a Z170 motherboard and then save some pennies and get a new GPU around the holidays when some decent sales are going on.