I7-3930k enough for 1080ti or sli 1080?

[Andrew279cz]

Hey guys!
 I recently upgraded my old i5-2400 to an i7-3930k for which I got a very nice deal (350$ for the whole CPU + Asus Rampage 4 Formula + Kingstone Genesis 1600Mhz CL9 4x4GB combo).
 (The reason why I chose this instead of the "fancy" current gen is the price. An i7-8700k cost here in the Czech republic around 500$ (and it's similar for Ryzen 1700X which costs 400$). And don't even get me started on the RAM. )

 

 So, to get to the point. Currently I have a MSI R9 290X Gaming X "Heater Edition", and I plan to upgrade it in a few months to either a GTX 1080 (with possible SLI later) OR GTX 1080ti OR (if the next gen nvidia's are worth it) the RTX 2070. (The price thing with GPUs is similar to CPUs (1200$ for an Asus Strix 1080ti OC) so I would have to buy a used one or one from the German Amazon).

 

 I use the PC mostly for Gaming (144hz FHD with max settings) and some work. So, should I stick with my current Heater, and buy a whole new PC in a few years,or upgrade the GPU and if so, to which one?
Plus how long do you expect the components to last? They were used in a CAD workstation for almost 6 years.

 

Thanks in advance!  
    Andrew279cz
  

[Fasauceome]

Have you overclocked? you should be good with a 1080 ti, since the 4790k is good for any GPU, the 3930k should also because it's the refined version of the sandy bridge architecture.

Also, for longevity, the only thing you should worry about is the motherboard. The CPU will last a long time, as will the ram.

[Andrew279cz]

Thanks for the fast reply!

 

Well, I haven't overclocked it.... yet. I plan to (the temps at stock stay near 55C with a Cryorig R1 Ultimate), so I'm interested in the expected longevity decrease of overclocking (nothing crazy, "just" 4,2Ghz, thats my target). Also, as I've stated before, the MB is 6 years old, and I doubt I will find a replacement MB any time soon.

[Fasauceome]

3 minutes ago, Andrew279cz said:

Thanks for the fast reply!

 

Well, I haven't overclocked it.... yet. I plan to (the temps at stock stay near 55C with a Cryorig R1 Ultimate), so I'm interested in the expected longevity decrease of overclocking (nothing crazy, "just" 4,2Ghz, thats my target). Also, as I've stated before, the MB is 6 years old, and I doubt I will find a replacement MB any time soon.

x79 motherboards are all over the place on eBay, so you should be good in case something happens. You could do just a mild overclock to something like 4.0, that ought to do it. I made a build with a 4790s with a 1070 founders edition, yielded a pretty balanced build with good CPU performance. The 4790s turbos to about 3.7GHz, so I imagine going to about 4 would provide better performance. I believe on some x79 boards you can also adjust what frequency the cores operate at with a given load, so a 4 core load could be 4.0, but a 6 core load could be 3.8.

[Andrew279cz]

Alright, that sounds like a plan! Also, I know that there are X79 boards available at ebay and such, but they are either from some scatchy chinese manufacturer or a used "normal" ones, but which go for like 225$ and up.

 And about that adjustable frequency, I noticed that Intel Extreme TU shows the frequency of cores depending on the amount of active ones. (3,8Ghz for 1 core, and decreasing by 100Mhz to 3,2Ghz at 6 active cores).

 So should I get the frequency to something like 4,2Ghz for 1 core and 3,6Ghz for 6? (new to OCing, as you can clearly see :))

[Fasauceome]

Just now, Andrew279cz said:

Alright, that sounds like a plan! Also, I know that there are X79 boards available at ebay and such, but they are either from some scatchy chinese manufacturer or a used "normal" ones, but which go for like 225$ and up.

 And about that adjustable frequency, I noticed that Intel Extreme TU shows the frequency of cores depending on the amount of active ones. (3,8Ghz for 1 core, and decreasing by 100Mhz to 3,2Ghz at 6 active cores).

 So should I get the frequency to something like 4,2Ghz for 1 core and 3,6Ghz for 6? (new to OCing, as you can clearly see :))

If those overclocks are allowed in the BIOS, then yes, that is a good way to set up the frequencies.

[Andrew279cz]

Okey!

 I think that's all. Good to know that the cpu won't bottleneck the 1080ti... if I get it for a reasonable price.

 

 So, thank you very much for the fast replies and help! I will now set this post as solved and give you some karma (if I can + figure out how )

[Mick Naughty]

Think it would have issues in a few games. My 

cpu’s can barely keep up in some and have issues in others. And that’s with a single 1080. Can’t even use the second card. 

[Andrew279cz]

51 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

Think it would have issues in a few games. My 

cpu’s can barely keep up in some and have issues in others. And that’s with a single 1080. Can’t even use the second card. 

Hmm, I'm interested in which games, excluding things like Space Engineers, Ark.... I mainly play Battlefield(s), City builders and survival games. The only types of games which the CPU might bottleneck are the survival building games. But even there, its just "better CPU = bigger base".

[Fasauceome]

1 hour ago, Mick Naughty said:

Think it would have issues in a few games. My 

cpu’s can barely keep up in some and have issues in others. And that’s with a single 1080. Can’t even use the second card. 

you wouldn't be able to use both cards all the time because SLI isn't universally compatible.

[Andrew279cz]

21 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

you wouldn't be able to use both cards all the time because SLI isn't universally compatible.

Yes indeed. Although, many if not most current AAA and even some AA games support SLI, but the scaling isn't always the greatest. The reply I sent to Mick Naughty is if I choose 1x 1080/1080ti. I decided that I won't SLI any of the cards, because then the CPU WOULD bottleneck the GPUs + I would need a better PSU than a 750W Evga B2.

But still, I'm leaning more towards the 1080ti side of things. The 30%-35% increase in FPS isn't something to just gloss over, although there is that rather large price increase.

[Mick Naughty]

2 hours ago, fasauceome said:

you wouldn't be able to use both cards all the time because SLI isn't universally compatible.

It is compatible it most games. Only 1 I have ever played didn’t and I’m sure there’s a way around it. Two is better than one even if it only uses 10-25% of the second card. Like pubg in its default state.