Need help with picking a new GPU

[Shinnshompa]

Hi!

 

I am looking to upgrade some parts of my pc. Mainly the GPU and RAM.

I currently have the following:

 

BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 1080p monitor

- NVIDIA Geforce GTX 970
- i5 6600 @ 3.30ghz

- Samsung 850 EVO 250gb SSD
- 2TB Seagate barracude 7200 HDD
- Asus z170 pro gaming motherboard
- Cooler master v550
- 2x4gb Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 240

( http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/10534855 )

 

I am looking to upgrade to a 1070 or maybe even a 1080. Will either of those cause my current CPU to be a bottleneck?
Is it worth removing my current 2x4gb sticks and buying 2x8gb corsair vengeance DDR4-3000, or would I be better of buying 2 more of the 2x4gb sticks?

 

Thanks for helping!

[r2724r16]

3 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

I currently have the following:

 

BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 1080p monitor

- NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1080
- i5 6600 @ 3.30ghz

- Samsung 850 EVO 250gb SSD
- 2TB Seagate barracude 7200 HDD
- Asus z170 pro gaming motherboard
- Cooler master v550
- 2x4gb Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 240

( http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/10534855 )

 

I am looking to upgrade to a 1070 or maybe even a 1080. Will either of those cause my current CPU to be a bottleneck?
Is it worth removing my current 2x4gb sticks and buying 2x8gb corsair vengeance DDR4-3000, or would I be better of buying 2 more of the 2x4gb sticks?

How is going from a GTX 1080 to a GTX 1070 an upgrade?

[Shinnshompa]

@r2724r16 Excuse me! I got all the number mixed up haha, I currently have a NVIDIA Geforce GTX 970.

[Wh0_Am_1]

Welcome to the LTT forums! The 1080 will not bottleneck your system, I would recommend taking a look at the 1070 ti, it would be a better value than the 1080.

[Mr.Mago]

8 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

Hi!

 

I am looking to upgrade some parts of my pc. Mainly the GPU and RAM.

I currently have the following:

 

BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 1080p monitor

- NVIDIA Geforce GTX 970
- i5 6600 @ 3.30ghz

- Samsung 850 EVO 250gb SSD
- 2TB Seagate barracude 7200 HDD
- Asus z170 pro gaming motherboard
- Cooler master v550
- 2x4gb Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 240

( http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/10534855 )

 

I am looking to upgrade to a 1070 or maybe even a 1080. Will either of those cause my current CPU to be a bottleneck?
Is it worth removing my current 2x4gb sticks and buying 2x8gb corsair vengeance DDR4-3000, or would I be better of buying 2 more of the 2x4gb sticks?

 

Thanks for helping!

A gtx 1060 is an ok upgrade over the 970 and you get 6gb of vram, but I'll consider buying at least a 1070, that GPU will cause very little to no bottleneck without spending too much on a gtx 1080 which causes a bit more. I'll recommend you the 1070.

[Shinnshompa]

@Wh0_Am_1 Thanks! What is the main difference between a 1070ti and a 1080 other than the price?

@Mr.Mago I forgot to mention that I kinda want to make it future proof, so I think I'd rather get a 1070 over the 1060.

[Mr.Mago]

14 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

Hi!

 

I am looking to upgrade some parts of my pc. Mainly the GPU and RAM.

I currently have the following:

 

BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 1080p monitor

- NVIDIA Geforce GTX 970
- i5 6600 @ 3.30ghz

- Samsung 850 EVO 250gb SSD
- 2TB Seagate barracude 7200 HDD
- Asus z170 pro gaming motherboard
- Cooler master v550
- 2x4gb Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 240

( http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/10534855 )

 

I am looking to upgrade to a 1070 or maybe even a 1080. Will either of those cause my current CPU to be a bottleneck?
Is it worth removing my current 2x4gb sticks and buying 2x8gb corsair vengeance DDR4-3000, or would I be better of buying 2 more of the 2x4gb sticks?

 

Thanks for helping!

As for the ram.. check your ram speed and try to buy two more, no point in buying a new full set. with 16 GB for now you are good to go.

[Wh0_Am_1]

4 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

@Wh0_Am_1 Thanks! What is the main difference between a 1070ti and a 1080 other than the price?

@Mr.Mago I forgot to mention that I kinda want to make it future proof, so I think I'd rather get a 1070 over the 1060.

GDDR5 instead of GDDR5X and 128 fewer CUDA cores (2432 for the 1070 ti, and 2560 for the 1080) they have the same GPU at their hear, it's just that their were some errors in the manufacturing of the 1070 ti's CUDA cores, (as there always is on these silicon platters, at best only 80% are usable at worst 40%), for this reason 128 of the cores either don't work, or were disabled to allow for the card to perform equally with similarly market cards.

[Mr.Mago]

4 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

@Wh0_Am_1 Thanks! What is the main difference between a 1070ti and a 1080 other than the price?

@Mr.Mago I forgot to mention that I kinda want to make it future proof, so I think I'd rather get a 1070 over the 1060.

1080 offers quite higher bandwith thanks to its GDDR5X memory, that allows you to play at higher resolutions better than a 1070ti, but they are very close in terms of performance, if you are gaming at 1080p or 1440p pick the 1070ti, you will save some money, if you want to play some games at 4K, 1080 should perform better

[Shinnshompa]

Wait so are there errors in every 1070ti manufactured? Going off of that wouldn't I be better off getting a 1080? Sorry If I'm asking dumb questions, I just don't really know anything about hardware.

[Mr.Mago]

30 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

Wait so are there errors in every 1070ti manufactured? Going off of that wouldn't I be better off getting a 1080? Sorry If I'm asking dumb questions, I just don't really know anything about hardware.

What do you mean by "errors in the manufracturing"

[Shinnshompa]

45 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

GDDR5 instead of GDDR5X and 128 fewer CUDA cores (2432 for the 1070 ti, and 2560 for the 1080) they have the same GPU at their hear, it's just that their were some errors in the manufacturing of the 1070 ti's CUDA cores, (as there always is on these silicon platters, at best only 80% are usable at worst 40%), for this reason 128 of the cores either don't work, or were disabled to allow for the card to perform equally with similarly market cards.

@Mr.Mago This ^

[Wh0_Am_1]

27 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

Wait so are there errors in every 1070ti manufactured? Going off of that wouldn't I be better off getting a 1080? Sorry If I'm asking dumb questions, I just don't really know anything about hardware.

They do not affect the performance of the card, the errors have been nullified, this is a process called "binning" it occurs such errors occur in the manufacture of every chip  your 6600 is a prime example of this, basically it is a 6600k or a 6700k that had errors that reduced the performance of the chip whether in OCing or in transistor failures, so Intel locked it up, and sold it as a 6600. This does not effect the longevity of the card, it just slightly reduces it's performance over a 1080, and because of that it has better value.

[Mr.Mago]

1 minute ago, Shinnshompa said:

@Mr.Mago This ^

It just means the 1070ti is an underpowered 1080

[Shinnshompa]

So for me (gaming on 1080p) in the long run I'd be best off getting a 1070ti as it is really close to the 1080 but it costs less? 

[Mr.Mago]

1 minute ago, Shinnshompa said:

So for me (gaming on 1080p) in the long run I'd be best off getting a 1070ti as it is really close to the 1080 but it costs less? 

If you dont plan to upgrade your monitor resolution you'd be better with the 1070ti as you will save some money.

[Wh0_Am_1]

38 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

Wait so are there errors in every 1070ti manufactured? Going off of that wouldn't I be better off getting a 1080? Sorry If I'm asking dumb questions, I just don't really know anything about hardware.

Oh these errors occur in the manufacture of every silicon chip whether it's a memory module or a CPU or a 1080, this just happens. And often time the issues are minor, and the manufacturer is left with a perfectly good chip with some minor defects that does not affect the lifespan of the card, module or CPU, just the performance, so they disable some of the cores, and then sell it as a part of a lesser product, the same can be said for the Titan XP and the 1080ti or the Titan Xp and the 1080, so in reality a 1070 ti, is a Titan Xp with a poorly binned chip.

 

2 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

So for me (gaming on 1080p) in the long run I'd be best off getting a 1070ti as it is really close to the 1080 but it costs less? 

Yes a 1070ti is a better value, and if you OC it, it will perform much like a 1080.

[Jaggsta]

if want to push 144hz monitor get 1080Ti or 2080

[Shinnshompa]

@Wh0_Am_1 Would you be able to provide me with some help/information about overclocking? I am interested in it but very new to it. Is it dangerous to the card in any way?

Also, is there any difference between different brand 1070ti's? Like MSI, EVGA or Asus?
 

Thanks for you help so far!

[Wh0_Am_1]

54 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

@Wh0_Am_1 Would you be able to provide me with some help/information about overclocking? I am interested in it but very new to it. Is it dangerous to the card in any way?

Also, is there any difference between different brand 1070ti's? Like MSI, EVGA or Asus?
 

Thanks for you help so far!

When it comes to GPUs, as long as you don't touch the voltage they have nannies that will prevent you from frying the cards, though I would recommend  buying from EVGA because they even warranty unintentional damage from overclocking, also one thing to note temp loops put fatigue on the card, due to the fact that different components of the card expand and contract differently, small fractures will form in the card over time leading to eventual failure, the more extreme these loops are, and the more often they occur, the more wear will be rendered to the card, also extreme temps put additional wear on the capacitors, just a thing to note, the aftermarket cards are usually designed to take this kind of wear and tear (esp. units like the FTW) and will often outlive their usefulness even when overclocked, but it's a thing to keep in mind. 

 

When it come to OC'ing usually you will want to find a benchmark of the games that you want to play, and then use either the tools supplied by the company that you purchased your card from, or MSI Afterburner and slowly move the clock speed of the memory and the core to the right, now factory overclocked cards like the superclocked card will often already be pushed near the limits of the card, but not quite there, because they want things to work out of the box, and most people are not willing to touch their clock speeds, so it costs to much for them to push it to the very limit of stability, and sometime push just a step to far, only to have people RMA the card. (Also I recommend avoiding cards with stock boards like the superclocked cards, because they use Nvidia's boards, and Nvidia is a bit infamous for cheaping out on there boards esp. the memory controller.) If you run into issues most enthusiast cards have backup BIOSes and there are ton of videos on YouTube to help you, of course their will also be a people here on the LTT forums who will be willing to help you. 

 

[Shinnshompa]

Seeing as you recommend getting an EVGA card, this bundle looks very interesting. Especially the third one with the FTW2.

https://eu.evga.com/products/featured-bundles.aspx

Also when it comes to overclocking, does it really make that much difference? Is it worth the risk for a couple more fps?
 

[Wh0_Am_1]

15 minutes ago, Shinnshompa said:

Seeing as you recommend getting an EVGA card, this bundle looks very interesting. Especially the third one with the FTW2.

https://eu.evga.com/products/featured-bundles.aspx

Also when it comes to overclocking, does it really make that much difference? Is it worth the risk for a couple more fps?
 

I would say it is, due to all the nannies already built in to the card, you are likely have it last long after you have any use for it, also aftermarket cards come with super beefy coolers, also you can mess with the fan curve, and fans ramp up earlier, thereby reducing the wear and tear on the card, and instead shifting it to the much cheaper fans, as long as you aren't afraid of a little noise that is , anyways I would recommend what you can push it to now, and then run it at stock clocks, until you find that those 5 to 15 fps are worth your time and then turn on the OC, but another thing to note modern electronics OC themselves automatically, when you are OCing these days you are just pushing the automatic OC just a little bit farther.

 

Also I recommend the FTW 2 with the ICX cooler because EVGA had a little fiasco with the FTW ACX 3.0 cooler a year or 2 back... To clarify they did send out thermal pads, and the like but still they had to revise it, and the ICX cooler is better.

 

[Shinnshompa]

So just to clarify; with me picking the third bundle, the FTW2 with ICX Cooler, my CPU wouldn't be a bottleneck and my FPS would get a significant upgrade providing that I am also going to add 8gb more ram to my computer. And I can still update my CPU to a newer one whenever.

[Wh0_Am_1]

23 hours ago, Shinnshompa said:

So just to clarify; with me picking the third bundle, the FTW2 with ICX Cooler, my CPU wouldn't be a bottleneck and my FPS would get a significant upgrade providing that I am also going to add 8gb more ram to my computer. And I can still update my CPU to a newer one whenever.

Yes, your CPU is plenty fast for most games, their will always be the exception that could use a faster CPU like Crysis, that additional 8GB of RAM will be great, and the this card will significantly improve your FPS in most games.

[Shinnshompa]

I've already ordered the RAM and I'm going to order the EVGA FTW2 1080 GTX tomorrow. Thanks so much for you help I really appreciate it!