Some advice on upgrading my PC by the end of this year

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

I am budgeting out my money. Last year I did well, my W2s were better than I expected and I want to reward myself, but only if the money is right. Because I am going to be paying for a new school loan. I was accepted into my new university and this will sound counter intuitive since school is around the corner.

 

I want to upgrade my PC to something more powerful. Now crossfired twin 4GB 790 Titans are out of the question. But I want to strive for either two crossfired GTX 780s or wait until the GTX 880 comes out. Also need to get an SSD and might switch to windows 8(it performs better than windows 7, if wrong please correct me)

 

Here are my specs 

 

EVGA GTX 660 SLI 2GB GDDR5

i5 Ivy Bridge 3570k clocked at 3.40Ghz

16 GB RAM Corsair DDR3

600 W PSU

1 TB HDD 7200 rpm 

Blu Ray optical 

Haff 922 case 

Asus M5A 78L-M LX Plus Mother Board 

Corsair Vengeance Keyboard 

Sensei Mouse 

Edited February 16, 2014 by TheMarkz0ne

[Nuke87654 1,849]

I'd suggest getting the crossfired 780's because having those two monsters will likely outperform what the 880 will give anyway, though you'll definitely need a new psu to power those two as Nvidia recommends a minimum of 800 psu wattage if what a brief search of Tom's hardware is to be believed so go for sli if you're willing to spend plenty of money now.

Edited February 16, 2014 by Nuke87654

[long gone 8,929]

I'd suggest getting the crossfired 780's because having those two monsters will likely outperform what the 880 will give anyway, though you'll definitely need a new psu to power those two as Nvidia recommends a minimum of 800 psu wattage if what a brief search of Tom's hardware is to be believed so go for sli if you're willing to spend plenty of money now.

But then there's the problem of not every game being optimized for SLI, which in turn makes single cards better for some games.

[The Mane-iac 1,648]

I just, wow. You're wanting to upgrade from that setup? What games are you playing?! I can max everything I have thrown at mine and I only have a single MSI GTX 670, everything else I have is basically the same as your setup.

 

Anyways, I don't know how the 700 or 800 series 80 cards perform as I've had no need to look at them yet, but I do know for the 600 series the 70 and 80 cards were on par with each other. In fact the 70 out performed the 80 in enough cases that I saw no point in the 80, especially with the dumb price difference. Might be something you'd want to look into more to compare. If the 600 series is any indication, SLI will net almost the same as the 90 card. 670 SLI were only 2% slower then the 690 if you didn't OC anything and it was a much cheaper alternative.

 

And I wouldn't bother with Windows 8. It is very much meant for a touch screen interface in the testing that I've done. Windows 8 isn't going to get that much better for desktop users. I'd wait for 9 next year or just stick with 64-bit 7. I really didn't notice a performance difference in-game between 7 and 8. So I am waiting to see how 9 goes.

[Nuke87654 1,849]

But then there's the problem of not every game being optimized for SLI, which in turn makes single cards better for some games.

True, but for many high end graphics games that are going to demand such power will likely incorporate sli use and the 780 is a powerful graphics card on it's own incase he doesn't have the ability to use sli in the game he's playing. The only game that's expected to give the 780 trouble in the near future is Star Citizen if what the graphics and statements are of how insanely demanding it is going to be.

Edited February 16, 2014 by Nuke87654

[long gone 8,929]

True, but for many high end graphics games that are going to demand such power will likely incorporate sli use and the 780 is a powerful graphics card on it's own incase he doesn't have the ability to use sli in the game he's playing. The only game that's expected to give the 780 trouble in the near future is Star Citizen if what the graphics and statements are of how insanely demanding it is going to be.

Star Citizen, that one game I am sure I cannot run on my MSI laptop...

 

SLI would probably do good, provided the profiles work well and the games are optimized for it. It'd probably be expensive, though, because the 780 ain't exactly cheap.

[Nuke87654 1,849]

Star Citizen, that one game I am sure I cannot run on my MSI laptop...

 

SLI would probably do good, provided the profiles work well and the games are optimized for it. It'd probably be expensive, though, because the 780 ain't exactly cheap.

Indeed it will be expensive, which I might also add to look into it if he wants the sli 780's now. Though I recommend looking at a single 780 ti if he's willing to spend that cash as a 780 ti is the fastest single card out now, even outperforming the Titan. Edited February 16, 2014 by Nuke87654

[Deesinn 393]

Well, I think you're wasting your money, because SLI scaling isn't perfect, and in the end you're not getting the actual power of the two or four GPUs, some of that is going to waste, so you end up wasting money. .  If you're looking into SLI as an option, go with at the most two 770's.  This way you're not spending boat loads of cash, and you're still getting ridiculous amounts of performance.  Even the AMD option and crossfire may suite you if you're on a lower budget.

[long gone 8,929]

Indeed it will be expensive, which I might also add that if he wants the sli 780's now. Though I recommend looking at a single 780 ti if he's willing to spend that cash as a 780 ti is the fastest single card out now, even outperforming the Titan.

Yeah, the 780 Ti looks really good. Right now it's my dream GPU, one that I'd be using if I built a custom PC instead of going for a laptop (I'm a student, I need mobility.) Might be better to just buy one of those instead of going for a SLI'd GTX 780 setup.

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

Well my 660 does support SLI and I know I sound spoiled for wanting to upgrade. but since graphics are getting better. I want to make a substantial upgrade. Also thank you for telling that cross firing will not affect anything. The 780ti is 700USD and not on sale yet. I think if I am able to get a deal I will just get a 750 w PSU. Does my motherboard need to be replaced? Also what about going to an i7 to level out the video card?

Edited February 16, 2014 by TheMarkz0ne

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

i7's are actually worse for gaming. Stick with the i5.

 

Also, you may want to consider an SSD. Unless you really need a better GPU, you'll see more of a benefit from eliminating the largest bottleneck your computer has. SSD's won't improve gaming performance, but it will make your PC snappier and cut loading times into oblivion.

Edited February 16, 2014 by Regulus

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

i7's are actually worse for gaming. Stick with the i5.

I fail to see how and why? Aren't they clocked higher anyways? Many people on youtube I know have high level i5s and most have i7s

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

The only difference between the i5's and the i7's is that i7's have hyperthreading. For gaming, hyperthreading kills performance. Most games don't even use four cores, but almost all (if not all) games run worse when you have four cores pretending to be eight cores.

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

The only difference between the i5's and the i7's is that i7's have hyperthreading. For gaming, hyperthreading kills performance. Most games don't even use four cores, but almost all (if not all) games run worse when you have four cores pretending to be eight cores.

interesting. Also considering how popular games still run off Source, Unreal and Cryware. I fail to see people worrying about going full retard with performance.

[A Blithering Div 247]

I fail to see how and why? Aren't they clocked higher anyways? Many people on youtube I know have high level i5s and most have i7s

 

Hyperthreading can decrease performance because of thread thrashing. It's when 2 tasks compete for cache and other cpu resources. This is a rather trivial issue now adays with large cache sizes and some games such as battlefield benefit from hyperthreading.

 

Edit: I would wait for the 8xx series on the gpu side to see what maxwell brings. In terms of CPU, you won't see a decent gain unless you either wait for Skylake or do enough multithread stuff to make the E series worth it.

Edited February 16, 2014 by A Blithering Div

[Nuke87654 1,849]

Well my 660 does support SLI and I know I sound spoiled for wanting to upgrade. but since graphics are getting better. I want to make a substantial upgrade. Also thank you for telling that cross firing will not affect anything. The 780ti is 700USD and not on sale yet. I think if I am able to get a deal I will just get a 750 w PSU. Does my motherboard need to be replaced? Also what about going to an i7 to level out the video card?

Upgrading your motherboard to incorporate the sli graphics card is also a good idea as well. May want to try to get one that has at least one pci-e x16 3.0 slot so that you can maximize whatever graphics card you pick when not using sli. Unless you plan to go for the lga 1150, I don't see a reason to replace a top I5 product like the 3570k as that will last you years if the lga 1155 doesn't go out soon.

 

Also now knowing you want a 780 to go with your 660, yea i change my vote to waiting out till the 800 series comes out as it's going to improve over the 700 series which will be better for your future prospects in your computer.

 

Also you may be able to get a glimpse with windows 9 that is stated for release in the near future.

Edited February 16, 2014 by Nuke87654