Is upgrading GPU a good thing on a 9 year old machine, or can I better get a new gaming rig?


Recommended Posts

The PC I bought - see sig - is almost 9 years old (that is: CPU, mobo, RAM etc).

I have upgraded my GPU 3 years ago to the current GTX 760 Gaming.

 

Is a new GPU a good thing? I'm think about the RTX 2060 or better or some 10xx nvidia GPU? Or will my hardware (PCI-versions, busspeeds) be holding this GPU-powerbeast back?

Or can I better get myself a new PC with all latest hardware (CPU, either Intel/AMD and all latest technologies, (bus)speeds, SATA ports and -speeds etc).

 

A new PC will cost me more, but will this in the end be the better option?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just upgraded to an RTX 2060 with a 4790K, not nearly as old as the 920 so I'd guess depending on the game, you may get some pretty good bottle-necking.  I'd probably still try it. You could probably tweak the settings a bit to manage it and if you eventually upgrade the rest, you'll already have a capable GPU.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would rather you get a new system. Board/CPU/RAM/GPU.

 

If you have the money for a new system, I would do that. BUT, if you are low on cash, I'd buy the new GFX card now and update your system later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

I would rather you get a new system. Board/CPU/RAM/GPU.

 

If you have the money for a new system, I would do that. BUT, if you are low on cash, I'd buy the new GFX card now and update your system later.

i'll agree w/ this. That CPU is going to be a huge bottleneck, but you'll still see performance improvements. If you can only afford the GPU at this point, buy that, then save for your new system upgrade. If you can afford all at once, you should definitely just build a new system.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

REALLY depends on the processor that you have. If you have a i5 2400/i7 2600 then you getting a high end card will be a very good upgrade even with the age of the machine. If you are speaking of a core2dou machine, then maybe not. If you want to see the most relevant hands on tests, go to youtube and type in your processor, the card you want to get, and the games you play and see what others are getting for FPS. Example: "i7 2600 gtx 1080 fortnite"

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It will mostly boil down to what kind of CPU you currently have. if it's something fairly good, say a decent i5 range CPU, then upgrading the GPU will probably give you some solid benefit. but if it's fairly ancient, then your probably best off getting a new motherboard/RAM/CPU along with a GPU, or just build a whole new PC etc.

 

I have a i3-2120 CPU, which I got when a also bought a motherboard/RAM, in May 2012. but at that time I had a Radeon 5670 512MB GPU and had that til July 2017 when I upgraded it to a 1050 Ti 4GB and it clearly made a difference even though my CPU is holding things back a bit on some level. but taking a quick look online it appears your 760 is similar to my 1050 Ti except my 1050 Ti is a bit more power efficient etc. so I imagine given your situation you would have to get a GPU noticeably faster than that for it to even be worth considering and unless you got a decent CPU, your best off just getting newer computer.

 

that should get give you the gist of it ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

@Ripplemanand @ThaCrip, s/he (not sure) has a Intel Core i7 920....

Oh damn, just noticed his tag lol

 

Like others have said, I also hold the opinion, the op should upgrade the graphics first if that is all he can afford and then when the time comes, upgrade the system to match the card. The i7 920 is a very nice chip, even for its age. here is an amazing test with a i7 920 with the gtx 1080 and fornite.  Epic quality and still 130 fps. @kiddingguy, if you don't have a 144Mhz monitor, anything over 60 fps is wasted. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

@Ripplemanand @ThaCrip, s/he (not sure) has a Intel Core i7 920....

It’s a “he” 😁

 

Thanks for all responses. I think I better get a new PC with all latest hardware features on all parts (mobo, CPU, GPU, RAM and all other nice thingies).

Next month or so I might be here asking for help for this system. I’m thinking of pre-build (non-branded) systems...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keep in mind as well with such OLD machine - what kind of GPU could you get.. The interfaces have changed over the years.. pci, pci-x, agp, pci express

 

New boards would allow for multiple GPU as well, SLI...

 

Even top of the line MB 9 years ago - I doubt its going to support all the new features for graphics or even have the current drive connections for say NVM, M.2, Sata.. Did 9 year old rig even support Sata 3?  Sure couldn't be 3.1 or 3.2 or 3.3 etc..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

His board supports SATA3, USB 3.0 and PCIe 2.0

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P6X58D_Premium/

 

With respect to CPU bottleneck ... there will be some depending on titles.  Obviously games which lean heavily on the CPU will be hurt more than GPU bound games.  The PCIe 2.0 is a little bottleneck ... but probably not noticeable.  A new PC would be the best option ... but depending on budget a 2060/1660 would be a massive upgrade over the current 760 ... especially if you just want to chug along for the next couple of years while saving up for a new build.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, BudMan said:

Keep in mind as well with such OLD machine - what kind of GPU could you get.. The interfaces have changed over the years.. pci, pci-x, agp, pci express

 

New boards would allow for multiple GPU as well, SLI...

 

His mobo supports 3-way SLI & Quad-GPU CrossFireX on PCI Express 2.0.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just read that CrossFireX is being phased out.

 

Ah well, my good ol' computer has given me almost 9-10 years of joy. All good things come to an end...

 

Time for a new build in the near future 😁

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/9/2019 at 10:07 AM, kiddingguy said:

I just read that CrossFireX is being phased out.

 

Ah well, my good ol' computer has given me almost 9-10 years of joy. All good things come to an end...

 

Time for a new build in the near future 😁

If you want to be a good consumer and keep the economy ticking then that's how capitalism works.

 

Nothing wrong with your computer. If your CPU is always pegged at 100%, then you need an upgrade,

 

The whole "bottlenecking" thing with GPUs is one of the worst tech social memes to come along in a long time. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I vote for starting with a new GPU.  Throw it in there, run all the games and apps you use, and then make a determination if you think something is a bottleneck.  The CPU is typically the fastest part in your PC, so it's not too often that it becomes the bottleneck.  You could undo your overclock and see if it's actually having a sizable impact on FPS and performance.  If it is, then yeah maybe a new CPU would be beneficial.  If not, then I think you're just fine as is.

 

Not sure if you feel your PC is loud, but you could also get a new PSU with high efficiency.  And you could get a CPU cooler that's quiet and higher performance.  You could also put a watercooler on your GPU.  I did all 3 of those things recently and it made a huge difference in noise.

Or you could buy a higher capacity SSD and eliminate the rest of your HDDs.  There's certainly some big performance gains to be had there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.