What's the best upgrade GPU card for my build with an i7 4790K without bottleneck problems?

[Supernova]

I have the same CPU OP... with my 1080Ti I can play anything at 1440p.

If I was you get a 3070 or 3060Ti, the DLS feature will do wonders for future proofing

Don't bother upgrading your cpu and ram unless you want to game at higher resolutions, they are fine for 1440p.

Huh? Higher resolution (say 4k) pushes the bottleneck towards the GPU, not the CPU. That’s where an older CPU is actually OK. The lower resolutions are where it’s important to have a current-ish CPU to match the GPU. I reckon CPU bottlenecks is the most misunderstood part of PC building.

A 4790k will bottleneck a 3060 Ti in current CPU intensive games, if desiring 60+ fps. Look at the difference in games at lower resolutions here vs 4k (same gpu):
https://youtu.be/wbTYSwQKr34

 

[elrasho]

Huh? Higher resolution (say 4k) pushes the bottleneck towards the GPU, not the CPU. That’s where an older CPU is actually OK. The lower resolutions are where it’s important to have a current-ish CPU to match the GPU. I reckon CPU bottlenecks is the most misunderstood part of PC building.

A 4790k will bottleneck a 3060 Ti in current CPU intensive games, if desiring 60+ fps. Look at the difference in games at lower resolutions here vs 4k (same gpu):
https://youtu.be/wbTYSwQKr34

I went from 1440p to wide screen 1440p and my CPU usage is the same... But by GPU has gone up to high 90s. however reading some reviews I can get some more FPS if I upgrade my CPU for certain games like COD : Cold War

 

[Supernova]

I went from 1440p to wide screen 1440p and my CPU usage is the same... But by GPU has gone up to high 90s.

Exactly Higher res puts little or no additional load on the CPU, but more on the GPU. If you lower the resolution and unlock the frame rate, then the CPU has to work harder than it would at the higher resolutions.

 

[nwgilbert]

Thanks for all your replies. It's really helpful.

So after further thought I am considering getting an older card second hand that is going to better match my current build as I don't think I need any more than that with the games I play.

If I'm not buying a new card now such as 3060ti then it means in 2-3 years (when I have the money) I'll buy the latest card at the time such as a 3080ti (or equivalent in 2-3 years time) when maybe the market for graphics cards is in a better place!?

Realistically this current build will still be used once I get my new build in 2-3 years as I'll pass it on to my partner and she'll use it for general office and design work(Adobe etc.). Possibly the occasional game such as The Sims or rocket league haha.

So based on that I'm looking at my options for second hand graphics card upgrades. The cards that have been mentioned across the posts above are -

GTX 970 4gb
RX 590 - maybe cost bit more
RX 480
R9 390X

What do you think I would get the best performance out of with my current build?
Based on little research you can pickup any of these cards for around £150-£200

Will they run in my build okay in 1440p? Bearing in mind I used to run 1440p on the games mentioned with my R9 390 (before it broke) and the games I play run just fine. However I would like to future proof for the next 2-3 years until I do a new build, so that I can play any similar new forthcoming games on this current build(not bothered about graphics intensive games such as cod) but would like to play Escape From Tarkov on good consistent FPS, and I think my old R9 390 would have struggled with that anyway, which makes me think a fair upgrade from the R9 390 would be necessary.

As suggested by one poster, I also looked into selling i7 4790k and replacing with a Ryzen 3600 but based on benchmark reports it doesn't seem worth it - not much difference in performance. Plus the i7 4790k does me so well for general office work and design work (Adobe) right now. Worried the Ryzen 3600 may be worse performance for general pc use with many apps in use at any given time. Noting that the pc is used more for work than gaming.

 

[g67575]

if you can buy a graphics card with 8gb VRAM cheaply, I'd do so. But they are hard to find right now.

 

[Joxeon]

Second hand prices are inflated right now and realistically you're not going to get anything much better than your old 390 without spending atleast £200+ So your best off picking up one of the new cards OCUK has on offer as not only you'll get a decent and lasting upgrade but you will also have the warranty cover which you won't have with an old second hand card.

 

[g67575]

4GB 480 is the only affordable one from CEX and has a warranty, id buy one then replace in a year or so, as it never pays to hold onto PC parts for too long.

New RTX 3060 8gb pre-order was a good deal from Overclockers also, you could just wait for that.

 

[nwgilbert]

Second hand prices are inflated right now and realistically you're not going to get anything much better than your old 390 without spending atleast £200+ So your best off picking up one of the new cards OCUK has on offer as not only you'll get a decent and lasting upgrade but you will also have the warranty cover which you won't have with an old second hand card.

What card would you suggest in my build from OCUK?

Looks like those pre-order linked above from Gibbo's post have already sold out.

 

[g67575]

Having DLSS would be a nice thing to have if you want future proofing.

 

[five8five]

Looks like those pre-order linked above from Gibbo's post have already sold out.

Gibbo has ordered 5000. He doesn't want to oversell if he doesn't get the full amount delivered. I think more will be for sale next week. Keep an eye on the thread.

Personally, I'd say go for a 3060 Ti in a deal or the FE.

 

[g67575]

you can get a used GTX 980 4gb from CEX for £205, should be faster than a r9 390. I wouldn't spend more than that for an older used card, personally.

6GB GTX Titan Black is £195, probably a better choice. Roughly 9% ahead of a R9 390, according to this spec page:
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-titan-black.c2549

Launch price was $999 dollars

 

[elrasho]

Don't get a 970 for 1440p gaming unless you have a gsync monitor

 

[g67575]

It's interesting that companies don't want to mass produce 1080p cards (so now the option is to buy used), they've become so accustomed to maximizing profit by selling 1440p and 4k capable GPUs.

But, AMD / TSMC apparently do have sufficient production capacity and materials required to mass produce the Series S RDNA 2 based GPU (great 1080p performance), with 8GB of VRAM - I bet they got a good deal from Microsoft.

Microsoft also needs lots of Series X GPUs to power their xCloud server hardware, so again, Microsoft probably gave AMD a good deal.

If you thought this was the year for PC gaming to take priority over consoles, you'd be wrong...

 

[ASMB]

I understand that some say that AMD was nearly bankrupt not long ago and the contract for the consoles probably kept them afloat, they will have signed contracts requiring them to produce a number of consoles. I don't think that either Nvidia or AMD saw the mining boom and how many GPUs they would be able to sell

 

[nwgilbert]

Thanks for the further comments. Looks like GTX 980 would be the best option if I can pick one up for around £200 second hand 24 month warranty. Does everyone agree or is there another card I should consider in this dated build?

 

[Joxeon]

Thanks for the further comments. Looks like GTX 980 would be the best option if I can pick one up for around £200 second hand 24 month warranty. Does everyone agree or is there another card I should consider in this dated build?

Personally I wouldn't spend that on a 5/6 year old GPU.

 

[CuriousTomCat]

Huh? Higher resolution (say 4k) pushes the bottleneck towards the GPU, not the CPU. That’s where an older CPU is actually OK. The lower resolutions are where it’s important to have a current-ish CPU to match the GPU. I reckon CPU bottlenecks is the most misunderstood part of PC building.

A 4790k will bottleneck a 3060 Ti in current CPU intensive games, if desiring 60+ fps. Look at the difference in games at lower resolutions here vs 4k (same gpu):
https://youtu.be/wbTYSwQKr34

60 FPS at 4k needs a faster CPU than 60 FPS at 1080p. This is a silly myth that a CPU doesn't matter at 4k.

Not all 1080p gamers play at ultra high framerates. People just assume.

 

[g67575]

Indeed, some games are very CPU intensive regardless of the selected resolution. This requirement doesn't magically disappear at 1440p or 4K resolutions. But, my increasing the res, you will shift the bottleneck more towards the GPU, while still relying on the same powerful CPU and RAM as before.

4k DLSS performance mode is at least as cpu intensive as 1080p, if not more so.

 

[drakulton]

.

 

[g67575]

there's some used r9 390 8GB cards on auction sites now for £190-£200.

I do wonder if gfx card prices will come down a bit in the next 3 months, especially for the used market.

I noticed that the (now out of stock) price is £120 for R9 390 on CEX, maybe a sign of what future prices will be like?

R9 390 is fairly consistent in performance, whereas the gtx 980 can lose out in some games due to less VRAM. No doubt, that the extra vram can be useful in workloads aside from gaming too.

Long term though, I think you would be better off with a rtx 3060 for ~£370 pre-ordered from here, and just buy another GPU later (when prices should be much lower) at the spec required, if needed. It's the best value card of the series (or any new cards) you can buy right now, and has plenty of VRAM for high resolutions and DLSS capability.