CPU Upgrade vs 1080ti?

[BlackAzrael]

I am thinking of upgrading once again, and right now not entirely sure on what I should choose between a cpu upgrade or a 1080ti.

First of all, here are my specs:
CPU: i5-3570k
GPU: 2 x Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce 970
RAM: 2 x 8GB Ballistix DDR3 1600Mhz
PSU: Thermaltake 850 Watts (can't quite remember the exact model)
MOBO: Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H
CPU Fan: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO

I game using a 1080p 144Hz monitor, and if I can, I also use Dynamic Super Resolution when framerate allows depending on the game. I play a lot of Witcher 3 still to this day (modded mind you), which I know is a more CPU demanding game and one of the reasons for this dilemma.

So I am either thinking of getting a 6th or 7th gen CPU (most likely 6700k or 7700k) if I am to go this route but If I was to get a 1080ti I would wait for the manufacturer custom cards.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: Forgot to put motherboard model and cpu cooler!

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

I would advise you to do both, wait for Ryzen 5 to come out as I can see you don't do OC . If the price is good and the performance is good as well get one of those and a gtx1080 this together will be a good buy and just a bit over the 1080Ti budget I think. If you prefer Intel instead go for the 7600K and get it OC around 4.6ghz and get also the GTX1080 this should be more than enough for 1080p gaming.

You'll have to buy the platform all together for Ryzen or Intel 7600K so that is MB+CPU+RAM

 

[BlackAzrael]

Hmm well I was thinking of upgrading this summer actually, because then I assume most of the 1080ti's will have been released at that point. I would like to do both but money is an issue. I'm thinking of doing one or the other, at least for now.

As for Ryzen 5, I can definitely wait and see the benchmarks and all that, but I have always went with Intel so I suppose I do prefer them though I don't have any experience with AMD.

I had compared 1080 vs 970 SLI and it just wasn't worth the upgrade, so I'd rather go with 1080ti. Honestly, even with what I have right now, some games like AC Syndicate I can't even max out @1080p 60fps. Though something tells me it might be the CPU sometimes, especially with Witcher 3, I usually have 80-90fps but in some situations it goes under 60fps.

Also, not much benefit to 7700k as opposed to 7600k? i7 still not that much better than i5 then I guess?

 

[eidairaman1]

Hmm well I was thinking of upgrading this summer actually, because then I assume most of the 1080ti's will have been released at that point. I would like to do both but money is an issue. I'm thinking of doing one or the other, at least for now.

As for Ryzen 5, I can definitely wait and see the benchmarks and all that, but I have always went with Intel so I suppose I do prefer them though I don't have any experience with AMD.

I had compared 1080 vs 970 SLI and it just wasn't worth the upgrade, so I'd rather go with 1080ti. Honestly, even with what I have right now, some games like AC Syndicate I can't even max out @1080p 60fps. Though something tells me it might be the CPU sometimes, especially with Witcher 3, I usually have 80-90fps but in some situations it goes under 60fps.

Also, not much benefit to 7700k as opposed to 7600k? i7 still not that much better than i5 then I guess?

The only difference between intel and amd is how they overclock, that is it.

If you intend on a total upgrade I'd grab a Ryzen r5. If not you can always drop a 3770K in that board and A GPU upgrade too, however with 1155 I would ensure you have a motherboard bios from 2013 even if that means a beta bios. Otherwise stay put and oc the cpu and grab a 1080ti. Then upgrade the rest later if the prices pitch in everyones favor.

 

[Tatty_Two]

CPU, it is more behind in performance terms that 970sli IMO.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Both, but CPU first. I also think you're better off waiting to see what the Ryzen hex core performance and pricing will be. Plus your 2x 970 GPU arrangement is plenty to game at 1080p for now, even with a 144Hz display. I would stick with Nvidia on the GPU though. I simply don't trust AMD for GPU driver support anymore, and I'm currently on an AMD.

It's not so obvious now, but in a couple years we could see a lot of games running smoother on CPUs with more than 4 cores. To be honest, I'm kinda leaning toward an 8 core CPU myself, especially now that Ryzen benches are looking so much better with AMD and W10 updates. It will likely be even better when the high speed RAM compatibility issue is fixed.

 

[Vya Domus]

Both , not necessarily now , you can take the 1080ti and upgrade the platform say a year from now.

I would stick with Nvidia on the GPU though. I simply don't trust AMD for GPU driver support anymore, and I'm currently on an AMD.

Hardly a good advice , or rather just not relevant , I have already said this a number of times : both Nvidia and AMD can screw up their drivers. I used both for an extended period of time and they both gave me headaches. Also , lets face it , if the GPU that you currently use is the 7970 , well that's reaching it's 5th birthday this year , you can't expect it to receive the same support as it did form day 1. Kepler is also dead to Nvidia too which is from the same time period as GCN 1.0.

 

[Jetster]

F it get the 1080 ti

 

[peche]

i'll uprade video cards & proceesor, how? sell your sli, get a GTX 1080 and 1151 i5,

Regards,

 

[RealNeil]

Replace your CPU and you may be pleasantly surprised at the ~real~ performance of the SLI 970s

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Not really understanding the recommendations for upgrading the CPU over the GPU, especially with a SLI set-up. I mean really? The 2500k/2600k are still considered capable CPUs. But SLI support is not what it used to be from everything I've read here on TPU.

So I'm going against the grain, and recommending keeping your current CPU/MB/RAM for the time being, and going for the 1080ti upgrade. And learn to OC that 3570k to around the 5GHz mark.

 

[Kanan]

Do you run the CPU overclocked? If not, you should. That said, 1080 Ti will be bottlenecked by this CPU by a fair amount because it's simply too fast for this CPU to cope, whether overclocked or not. If you plan to upgrade to 1080 Ti, do it and buy CPU after, or upgrade CPU + GPU both at the same time. For the 1080 Ti I'd go with a Ryzen 7 1700 (but only if you overclock) or i7 6800K.

The bottleneck with 1080 Ti will only occur in games that are CPU heavy, a few games that are GPU heavy like Crysis 3 and not CPU heavy would run fine with that CPU + 1080 Ti.

 

[BlackAzrael]

I must say all those different answers got me more conflicted about which one I should go for first. Though, if I go the 1080ti route, I was thinking of selling my 2 970s to compensate for the price which would definitely help.

As for new CPU, I'm fairly certain I would go with LGA 1151 socket for Intel. On the AMD side, if I was to go for a Ryzen, I have seen some benchmarks and it seems like those are more workstation oriented than gaming.

As for OCing, anybody got a simple tutorial or video that I could check out?

 

[yotano211]

If you are only using a 1080 monitor, I wouldn't upgrade to the 1080ti.
How overclock is your processor, you didnt mentioned if the cpu was overclocked or not.

 

[Outback Bronze]

I'm recommending OC the 3570K and 1080 Ti.

I doubt your processor overclocked will bottleneck a 1080 Ti.

 

[Kanan]

I doubt your processor overclocked will bottleneck a 1080 Ti.

It will 100%, even a 4670K @ 4.2 GHz bottlenecks a 980 Ti in certain games, and we're talking about almost double that GPU power. That 3570K has no chance.

@OP: you can simply sell the GTX 970's, buy 1080 Ti and upgrade CPU later. Overclock is easy, it's just buying a "K" CPU (and Z mainboard ofc), going into bios and rising multiplier, it's fairly simple. It just gets interesting when you want to finetune voltage, but it's not a must do.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Even at 1080p 144Hz I struggle to recommend a 1080Ti to anyone unless they actually have a large spare wad of cash lying around doing nothing, the Op clearly has not so my CPU upgrade recommendation was based on what I consider to be the weakest link (I am not saying weak, just weakest), I agree that SLi can be iffy, but he has them and is using them, I can only presume if he was having huge issues with them he wouldn't have needed to ask this question in the first place he would have just replaced the 2 cards.

 

[Kanan]

If the main problem is a CPU bottleneck than this has to be upgraded first ofc. The OP seems kinda in a hurry to replace those GTX 970 though. Fact is, a i5 3570K without! overclock isn't really enough to drive 2x 970 in SLI, as I said even a 4670K @ 4.2 GHz can bottleneck a 980 Ti (OC), those GTX 970 in SLI are essentially the same, just his CPU is much weaker. At this point, I'd now recommend upgrading the CPU first. 6700K/7700K, nothing else if you want to stay Intel, 5820K and 6800K are a nice and even better alternative, but the platform is more expensive (in my books easily worth it though). For the latter ones you have to definitely overclock for decent gaming, for the 6700K/7700K not, because they are already pretty nice clocked out of the box.

Here you go.

 

[Upgrayedd]

OP, send me a pm if you decide to sell the 970s. I could use another 970, my 4790K needs to stretch out for once.

Edit: I would say a cpu upgrade as others have said that the i5 is a little slow for a 1080Ti. Though it is a great cpu, just not for a 1080Ti, just my uninformed opinion.

 

[basco]

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/908740/the-witcher-3-custom-sli-bits-fix-test/

and i would try to use the gigabyte auto overclock for cpu if you are not sure how to do it.

after that i would see what to get and what not

 

[qubit]

Even at 1080p 144Hz I struggle to recommend a 1080Ti to anyone unless they actually have a large spare wad of cash lying around doing nothing, the Op clearly has not so my CPU upgrade recommendation was based on what I consider to be the weakest link (I am not saying weak, just weakest), I agree that SLi can be iffy, but he has them and is using them, I can only presume if he was having huge issues with them he wouldn't have needed to ask this question in the first place he would have just replaced the 2 cards.

Agreed, £700+ is an obscene amount of money to spend on a graphics card. While I could afford it, I wouldn't be comfortable doing so unless I had a very solid need for a 1080 Ti, which I don't. Selling the 970s will help a fair bit, though.

@BlackAzrael I recommend a 1080 Ti if you wanna hit that high 144Hz framerate more reliably and get away from the issues of SLI. While your CPU will hold it back to some extent, especially in The Witcher, even the latest 7700K overclocked to over 4GHz will do so - check TPU's review, so don't let that put you off too much. What it will do, is help the lowest framerates. As soon as you can, I think you should upgrade that CPU to a 7700K and overclock it.

Personally, I think you'll be fine with a 1080 which will save you a wad of cash that you could spend towards a CPU upgrade.

 

[basco]

i only could find that witcher does not scale much above 4 cores:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/The-W...fikkarten-Benchmarks-1159196/galerie/2376257/
http://www.techspot.com/review/1006-the-witcher-3-benchmarks/page5.html

do ya have nv hairworks on?
from wizzard review:
NVIDIA Hairworks is turned off because it comes at a huge performance hit with very little benefit.

 

[hat]

Eh, just overclock the 3570. You can probably get another 1000MHz out of it. If you can't reach 4.4, 4.2 or even 4.0 will still be a nice boost.

 

[siluro818]

Upgrading your current video card setup on a 1080p display is pointless unless you're trying to play something that completely fails to utilize the SLI and that pisses you off ^^
I'd also recommend waiting a bit till some good motherboards drop and get a Ryzen 5 + some fast memory.

 

[wurschti]

I am thinking of upgrading once again, and right now not entirely sure on what I should choose between a cpu upgrade or a 1080ti.

First of all, here are my specs:
CPU: i5-3570k
GPU: 2 x Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce 970
RAM: 2 x 8GB Ballistix DDR3 1600Mhz
PSU: Thermaltake 850 Watts (can't quite remember the exact model)
MOBO: Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H
CPU Fan: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO

I game using a 1080p 144Hz monitor, and if I can, I also use Dynamic Super Resolution when framerate allows depending on the game. I play a lot of Witcher 3 still to this day (modded mind you), which I know is a more CPU demanding game and one of the reasons for this dilemma.

So I am either thinking of getting a 6th or 7th gen CPU (most likely 6700k or 7700k) if I am to go this route but If I was to get a 1080ti I would wait for the manufacturer custom cards.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: Forgot to put motherboard model and cpu cooler!

Honestly when going for the 1080Ti you have to have a pretty badass system. If you really wanna do it, you will need to OC at least to 5GHz and still have some (but very minute) bottlenecking. The best solution would be to go i7. I know this makes no sense and I am no fan of i7s for gaming but that card was made for 4K, which makes it hard for me not to think of i7 to run it without bottlenecking anything. The Ryzens will do a great job too, but atm, they are not so well optimized and may lead to slowdowns, especially on 1080p.

Given what I said above, I would advice going with the 1080Ti. Try to OC the CPU as much as you can, and if possible the RAM too. You will minimize any bottlenecking this way. Keep in mind that you will have no SLI issues and the 1080Ti will play much much better than the 2x970s you have rn.