Advice Needed: New Motherboard/cpu Or Processor ?

Greetings Geeks -

I currently own an i5 4670K (humming along at 4.2 ghz nicely) running on an ASROCK H81M-VG4 motherboard with 8 gigs of DDR3 memory. My current video card is an EVGA GTX 960 6GB SSC. My 21" display maxes out runs at 1650 x 1080 resolution (not super high fidelity, but I don't mind it). This setup runs just about everything I can throw at it pretty good. However, some of the newer titles are beginning to tax it a bit, most notably Total War: Warhammer and from what I hear Dishonored 2 could run a bit wonky. With all of this in mind . . .

My upgrade cycle usually alternates between video card and CPU/Motherboard. My current CPU/mobo has lasted me since 2014 it has done that well and I purchased my 960 last Spring. In response to how well this setup was running things, I skipped a year. I have decided to upgrade one or the other so . . .

At first I was going to purchase a GTX 1060 with 6 gigs. And then I was thinking of getting a new CPU/mobo. My research says that a 106o could potentially perform up to 50% better than my current 960. I assume my overclocked i5 could push the card enough to make it worth the investment. As for a CPU, I would be looking at an overclockable i7. My current ASROCK board will support 4th gen processors (heck, I don't even have an idea of what the current generation is I have been out of the loop for so long!). I am not opposed to purchasing a new board and RAM along with the CPU, I usually do that anyway. My preference is to stay just behind cutting edge, My price point is maybe high-end middle of the pack.

I have done some research of course, but asking directly is a great way to gather information and opinions first hand. So, any advice? All is appreciate.

 

A new motherboard will (should to be most current) support DDR4 so you would be looking at new RAM along with a new motherboard and new CPU anyway.

You need to be specific.

I note you said at first you were going to get a new graphics card, "and then" were thinking of a new CPU and board. Does that mean one or the other? Or are you willing to go new board, CPU, RAM, and graphics card too?

What about a PSU to support all this? It is most likely your new board and CPU will be more power thrifty. And DDR4 is more efficient. But a bigger graphics card may require a new PSU.

I'm thinking another 8GB of RAM and new graphics card now will make you happy with what you got now. Note too a SSD can provide some over all improvement too. While you seem satisfied with your 21" display, I think a 24" monitor with a nice card to push it will serve you will. And of course, you can carry the card and monitor over to a new board/CPU/RAM next year.

 

Thank you for the reply -

Yes, you are correct, I was not clear, I was looking to upgrade one or the other. The PSU I have is plenty beefy, I can't remember the specs specifically but I bought a new one in 2014 that was way overspec'd for what I was running. I of course will validate that when I upgrade.

From what I understand, another 8 meg's for RAM would not be a beneficial upgrade for me. It is my understanding there is not much of a difference between 8 and 16 gigs of RAM for gaming. Of course there a few newer titles that suggest 16 gigs, but in my situation I don't think I would get as much mileage out of that particular upgrade (I do graphics work on occasion but not at home). I am not interested in an SSD drive at this point. That may come in the near future separate from my other upgrades. I also feel the same way about the monitor, I am fine with the performance I have now display-wise.

So, it seems you would recommend a card upgrade - even sans RAM\memory upgrade? The 1060 seems like a great card.

 

It is true that 8GB is generally considered the sweet spot (less and performance degrades, more and gains will be marginal). But you should see some improvement. Windows loves lots of RAM and while all games are coded to provide good game play on lessor systems, they are also coded to take advantage or more resources when available. And increasing RAM typically gives the most bang for the money - which is why I think 16GB would be worth it.

I have heard that so many times over that last few years. At the same time, when those same people finally migrated to SSD, they inevitably say they wish they switched earlier and they will never go back to hard drives (except for mass storage for things like photos, tunes, videos, and backups).

You need to be interested in SSDs. Hard drives are slow, use 60 year old technologies, they are slow, noisy, big, clunky, electromechanical, slow devices. Did I mention they are slow?

So if you don't want to migrate to SSDs now, okay. But for sure, when you build your new full system, go SSD for at least your OS and all your installed programs. You can still get a HD if you want for mass storage (though for me, I will never go back to HDs).

Based on your comments, "humming along at 4.2 ghz nicely" and "this setup runs just about everything I can throw at it pretty good", I think a card is a good start if you plan on "upgrading" this computer. Otherwise, a new motherboard and CPU is building a "new" computer. Either is fine, but since you bought wisely a couple years ago, IMO, you can still get a couple more years out of what you have with a new card.

While certainly the CPU plays a major role in gaming, today's games are very graphics oriented (obviously) so the more capable the graphics solution, the better the gaming for many of the most popular games. And it takes very little CPU horsepower to hand off tasks to the graphics solution. And if you just upgrade the graphics (and perhaps RAM) those extra couple years you get out of this system will give you time to get back up to speed with what is out there and what is coming around the corner for when you are ready to build all new.

 

Once you go SSD, you won't go back. For example, I have a macbook I'm giving away, so I swapped out the SSD I had in it for the original HDD. I expected a difference but the drop in performance was startlingly noticeable, especially boot time. Fortunately, it will still be fine enough for Facebook, email and Youtube.

 

I also have to say the best performance decision I ever made was an SSD.

 

I'm curious, are you using The SSD for everything, eg games, or just putting the OS and program files on it and using HDD for Data?

 

I use SSDs for everything on my systems (except my old notebook). I have a 256 Samsung 850 Pro as my primary drive for my OS (64-bit Windows 10 Pro) and all my applications (including security apps, Office and other apps), and all my data files too with plenty of space left. Unless you have a bunch of modern games, all your apps should easily fit.

If you have a bunch of modern games (some games can be 30 - 40GB or bigger), they would still benefit being on a SSD.

If you have a bunch of tunes and videos, they can go on a HD if a big enough SSD is out of the budget.

Note I have a 70 page Microsoft Word document that has nearly 24,000 words with several tables and images. I use this document for all my canned texts and links I use for my forum "work". Word and this document are on my SSD. I also have a shortcut to this link in my Quicklaunch toolbar on my desktop. When I click that shortcut's icon, that huge document "pops" open so fast, it is waiting for me before I can move my mouse from the icon to the opened document. That is, it starts Word then opens that huge document in way less than one second. I open this document several times a day yet it still amazes me how fast it opens and I've been using SSDs exclusively on my systems for more than 3 years now.

SSDs are not just to speed up boot and wake times (which are awesome). But all disk access tasks.

Something to consider if you are still weighing the costs factor. It is very true that hard drive costs are still considerably less per gigabyte. There's no getting around that.

But, SSDs consume less power and generate less heat and (with no moving parts) can be expected to last years longer than a HD. So over the years, you save money on energy costs using the SSD (also significant for notebook run times). And if your room is air conditioned, you even save on those costs as SSDs pump less heat into the room. Is that significant? It depends on how much you use the computer every day but note we are talking about years of use. Pennies do add up.

So if you spread the extra costs for purchasing a SSD over the life of the computer, those extra costs become negligible.

Note that boot times can go from 2 - 3 minutes (or longer) with a hard drive to less than 30 seconds - often 10 - 15 seconds. If you factor in your productivity increases, you save even more. Waking from sleep times is totally awesome - especially with newer motherboards and DDR4 RAM.

Finally, when you factor in the satisfaction and enjoyment you get watching these boot and wake times and app load times, it becomes a no brainer - at least for me.

 

The SSD is 512 GB and is the primary drive for the system including the OS, apps and Steam games. The HDD stores all my emulators, ROM dumps, .iso files, and any movies I've imaged to my drive as digital backups.

It's A LOT easier than pulling old consoles, cartridges, and discs out of storage in the garage, and the graphics are better. I must say the VisualBoy Advance emulator is much better than the GameBoy's 4" screen as it's in color for many games, and you can play the classics on a big screen. With filters, the image is not pixelated.

P.S. My first SSD was an OCZ Vertex 3. That drive is still going strong today. It is now in my neighbor's computer which I built for him using my old hardware when his HP went to the great silicon graveyard in the sky. HD Sentinel still rates it at 99% and it's got more than 800 days of power on time as well as over 6 TB of writes. A well built drive is a solid investment...

 

Thanks for your replies. I have a Samsung EVO 256 on my machine which I use for OS system and program files. I use 1tb HDD or music, photo and video files plus backup to 2 external HDDs. I am building a PC and have the same setup but now I am considering ditching the HDD and getting another 512GB SSD instead. With a bit of discipline I can keep it clean and mean. I had an OCZ disc when they first appeared but it packed up very quickly. I replaced it with the Intel SSDand had no more problems.

I am keeping the old computer for my grandson to use and we will see how long it lasts. It is still a great machine, i7 etc but I am sick of wrestling with him so I will get a new one and lock it down. Should be interesting!