Question about whether/how to upgrade

[PCDude603]

My current build is about 4 years old. Specifically:

CPU: i5-4670k @ 4.1 GhZ

RAM: Corsair 2 x 4 GB DDR3

MOBO: Asus z87 PRO

GFX: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2 GB

PSU: Seasonic X650

DISPLAY: Acer H236HL (max 1920x1080p resolution)

I recently stumbled on a ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB for $280 due to a pricing error. I picked it up as it seemed like a steal. I read that my current CPU is likely to bottleneck the new GPU.

So I ask: Is there a cost effective way to upgrade my current setup to be able to utilize the new GPU? If I just upgrade the CPU is that enough?

Money is a bit tight right now, so if it would require essentially building a new system from the ground up, I'd probably just flip the graphics card on Ebay.

Thanks a lot!

[PorkishPig]

3 minutes ago, PCDude603 said:

I recently stumbled on a ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB for $280 due to a pricing error. I picked it up as it seemed like a steal. I read that my current CPU is likely to bottleneck the new GPU.

This is incorrect. Your 4670k will not bottleneck your 1070 in 1080p gaming. If you're looking for an upgrade anyway, your upgrade path would be an i7-4790k.

[LienusLateTips]

Flip the i5 4670K and grab a i7 4770K/4790K. If you do get the 4790K BIOS update your motherboard with the 4670K before you sell it as it won't work without the BIOS update.

 

Not really needed but RAM may be a constraint depending on the games you play.

[Lurick]

If you're doing high refresh gaming or something along those lines then you might run into some bottlenecks but at 1080p 60fps or even 144fps you really won't see the card held back by much, if any at all.

[Christophe Corazza]

Your 1070 is a well-performing card. Paired with your current 4670K you have a nice setup that is able to play some very decent games. I wouldn't necessarily upgrade your "older" components since that would simply be a waste of money.

 

However, if you are really looking for a cost effective way to upgrade your system, then I totally agree with @LienusLateTips.

4790K is clocked 13 % higher, costs about 15 % more. With Devil's Canyon (4690K and 4790K) Intel also slightly tweaked the way the IHS is attached, to lower temperatures a bit. However, this is irrelevant if you delid (not really needed/recommend in your case though). A 4790K will probably OC a little higher due to being made later when Intel's 22 nm process was more mature, but honestly, you probably won't be able to tell a difference between the two without looking at benchmarks. I'd go with the 4790K as well. 500 MHz per core is a decent speed increase over the 4770K.

[brob]

Enjoy your new gpu. Don't worry about a bottleneck until you are ready to do a major upgrade. Other than gpu and storage, any investment in your current platform is just throwing away resources.